Today was an excellent outdoors day! I went to Mallard Trap Club, and I assisted as one of the Instructors for a Girl Scout Trapshooting event. First they were given a safety presentation by Fortunato, then each one got to shoot one shot at the patterning board. Then they got to shoot in a real squad. We did 4 on the first squad and 5 on the second squad and 4 on the last squad being the leaders. My first girl shot a 4, my second shot a 7, and my last (one of the leaders) shot a 4. All the girls shot a full round of trap (25 rounds). They all did really good, and I was happy to be one of the shotgun instructors. I than shot handicap trap clay shooting from the 21 yard line, and I shot a 25/25 on my first round and a 23/25 on my second round. I shot 31 clays in a row, which is not a new record, 32 clays in a row is my record (32 clays on standard singles, not handicap, I suppose 31 would be my record for handicap). I am really happy with my scores today, and it was the first 25 I ever shot on handicap. It was also my first time at the 21 yard line, I am normally at the 18 or 19 yard line. Later in the day my friend Richard came over and we shot my bow a little and than went fishing. We both kind of stink at shooting and fishing, because we shot poor, and than didn’t catch any fish. After he left, I spent about 2 hours really honing in on my archery skills. The first big change I made is I now shoot 3 fingers under the arrow notch, versus two under, one over. Consequently, my arrows flew over my target and I almost lost them. However, I liked the feeling on my fingers so I stuck with it, and I moved my pin down a little, and now I am right on the money. Shooting with three fingers under definitely feels a lot better so I am glad I switched. I practiced like that for a while and I came up with the grouping seen in the featured image of this post. However, I wasn’t satisfied with this. As the marines say, aim small – shoot small. This grouping was at 15-20 yards btw. I later noticed I was getting wrist slapped a lot. Firstly, I am going to invest in a wrist guard, but secondly, I started holding my bow not by regularly gripping it but using the pad of flesh under my thumb. This feels a lot better and I am no longer getting wrist slapped but still need practice. I’ve got 2 more weeks until hunting season, so I’ll be practicing every day.
Trapshooting & Archery Day
