RELOAD!

FEBRUARY 2003 NEWSLETTER © Bruce Buck, editor

MID-WINTER MARTYRDOM East Mountain, Dover Plains, NY January 19, 2003

How loooow can you go? Well, in much of Travelers Turf it was zero
degrees or lower the day of the aptly named Mid-Winter Martyrdom
shoot. When we arrived in the arctic parking lot of East Mountain
Preserve in the morning it was ­1ºF. Additionally, day of the shoot
featured the last two games of the NFL playoffs before the Super Bowl.
Cold weather and warm TV. This shoot was a true test of Travelers
loyalty and lunacy. Clearly more of the latter. Still, 63 hopelessly
addicted Travelers showed up, froze their fannies and shot. We only
had two no-shows who probably had forgotten to feed the sled dogs the
night before.

Cold weather causes problems for shooter comfort, gun and shell
functioning and also for clay target machines. George Holomakoff,
whose guests we are at East Mountain, just bought four new auto
machines to augment the course. Our shoot was their inaugural day and
two refused to cooperate. That necessitated scrambling about for
manual replacements and a bit of last minute course redesign.
Designing any course for cold weather shooting is always difficult due
to machinery problems, target breakage, low horizon sun, slippery
footing and winter wind. Think of this the next time you shoot a
winter course. Many thanks also to John Lawlor and Fran Soltes for
their assistance in course design. This is strictly a volunteer
effort. If you’d like to forego your fireside for a day preceding the
shoot, I’m sure they’d love your help. The Travelers succeed because
of volunteers like these. No volunteers equal no Travelers.

During the mandatory Dunken Dreadnoughts and caffeine pre-shoot fix,
all the conversation was on what to wear. There are two schools of
winter wear thought.

School One prefers to dress the upper body normally, as for a cool
spring day. Something along the lines of a turtleneck, wool sweater
and vest. Over that they wear some big mutha of a coat that can be
removed just before shooting shoot and immediately put back on.

School Two, lacking valets to hold the coats, these just wear
everything they think that they will need layered under their vest and
shoot normally. This approach may be convenient, but it’s bulky. Take
your pick of the approaches. It’s up to you.

A good pair of heavy trousers is a sane idea, but you can greatly
increase the warmth of any trousers by wearing your rain gear pants
over them to stop the wind. Boots are often those felt-lined pacs that
will keep feet warm in any conditions. I also saw a number of people
with hand muffs strapped around their waists to keep their hands
toasty while they waited around. That’s an excellent idea as the muff
can be turned around to the back before shooting so it doesn’t get in
the way. Notice how many professional football backs and ends use
them.

For the life of me I can’t understand why more shooters don’t use
metal cleats in icy conditions. I’ve often mentioned “Stabilicers”
metal spiked strap on overboot sandals from LL Beans as one solution.
But there are many other products that do the same thing. “Yaktrax” is
another one of simple twisted wire over and elastic mesh. Just do
something. Entertaining as it is, the two and one half tuck into a
swan dive with a twist pratfall is not one of the required events at
our shoots.

What is required is shooting targets. 100 of the little darlins. Most
courses have a “theme”. This time our course’s was “transitional
targets”. A transitional target is most often seen as an arcing target
thrown like an upside-down “U”. It’s usually set up so that it is hard
to get to the bird on the way up and only becomes shootable as it
peaks or is falling. This type of target just kills swing through
shooters as there is no “line” to swing through. It greatly favors the
sustained lead or the “pick a spot somewhere in front and below and
pull hard” approach. It requires a lot of left hand and penalizes
those who track their birds as it is sooo easy to stop the gun. These
birds are typified, but not limited to, chandelles and battues. We got
plenty of shallow, looping 110s that caused untold misery and uttering
of bad words.

Another problem with the transitional bird is the shooters commonly
concentrate more on the vertical variation of the target and forget
about the horizontal. We are very used to dealing with targets that go
left to right quickly, but when we see one that also has a vertical
change we tend to fixate on that to the exclusion of the horizontal
movement. Other than a true teal, these transitional targets are
almost always traveling horizontally much more and much faster than
the relatively smaller vertical variation they show. That doesn’t mean
that you can’t miss over the top of these birds, but the tendency is
to concentrate so much on the up and down of the bird that the swing
is stopped and the bird is missed behind in the horizontal plane. Just
because a bird is changing altitude doesn’t mean you can stop your
swing. Noooo you can’t. Don’t ask me how I know. Transitional targets
absolutely demand that you maintain good gun speed simply because
anything else will mean a stopped gun.

Another little bit of winter advice. Consider using #7 1/2 s for a higher
percentage of your shots. Those clay targets have been left out in the
cold and are rock hard. If you shoot an auto, use a high pressure load
that will work that gun. A 3 dram 1-1/8 oz load would be most
appropriate. Besides, it’s so cold that you will be too numb to feel
the recoil.

And when shooting in cold weather, the redoubtable Miss Manners also
reminds us to “Get a move on!” It is impolite to dawdle on the stand
while those behind you are turning blue. Out of 63 valiant attempts we
had exactly four shooters who succeeded in breaking 80 or better.
Kudos to George Ostrander for an amazing 86.

By the time the shoot had ended, the sun had come up a bit and what
had started as a cold day was now merely a cold day. Still, luncheon
around the potbellied stove was most welcome. Chef Mark served us a
classic cream of broccoli soup, roast loin of pork with applejack pan
gravy, new potatoes, cream corn, salad, dessert pies and coffee. Warm
brown food and plenty of it! To Mark’s credit, he’d made plenty and
actually asked use if we wanted seconds. That’s like Pharaoh asking
the Biblical locusts if everything was to their taste or Willy Sutton
if he wanted change. I’m sure we needed the extra calories to ward
off the chill. Mark D’Andrea offers personal chef and catering
services. He’s good. You can contact him at 203-921-7334 or email
chefcall@optonline.net

In an effort to do something different for the new year, before the
shoot our scorers put together four man teams by seeding all the
shooters to create equal teams. Well, they failed. They weren’t equal
because someone won.

The awards were the most excellent Victory Viper shells provided by
Paul Elia and company. Thanks Paul. You can order Victory shells at
very reasonable price by calling 201-262-3737. Support the companies
that support the Travelers.


HOA George Ostrander 86
I-1 Paul Elia 83
I-2 Todd Murphy 75
I-3 Godfrey Shelton 68
II-1 John Mohler 80*
II-2 Joe Maresca 80
II-3 Ed Moritt 75
III-1 Mike Steiner 74
III-2 George Parsons 71
III-3 Paul Steiniger 68
IV-1 Dave Dunn 64
IV-2 Howard Weiss 63
IV-3 Chris Edge 59
V-1 Joe Paglielli 51
V-2 Jane Murphy 49*
V-3 Hal Lang 49
VI-1 Simone Renzuella 41
VI-2 Sue Haddad 40*
VI-3 Ed Ahern 40
Ldy-1 AnnaMaria Collins 67
Ldy-2 Cyndi Dalena 63
Ldy-3 Olive Lawlor 44
Vet-1 Paul Cahan 76
Vet-2 John Hryncewich 73
Vet-3 John Lawlor 72
SVet Bob Barlow 78
Jr-1 Jason Lenhart 55
Jr-2 Kendall Coon 35
Jr-3 Chris Holomakoff 31
Guest Ken Lion 61
* All ties decided by tie-breaker stations



EXTREME GAUGE CHALLENGE

This year's Annual Ten Gauge Shoot will have a new twist. It is now
the Extreme Gauge Challenge! The date is set for February 25th at East
Mountain Preserve. The day will start with 50 targets with the 10
gauge, followed by a hot game luncheon followed by 50 targets with the
.410 bore.

Now this is a fun shoot so there won't be any awards, just bragging
rights. Prepaid entries of $40.00 are limited to the first 25 shooters
registered by February 20th. Mail entries to Ted Knapp Carpentry, P.O.
Box 492, Southbury, CT 06488 and make checks payable to East Mountain.

Oh, by the way, 3 1/2" 12 gauge will be permitted, as will 3" .410
gauge shells. After all, they will be 10 gauge targets. For more
information call Ted Knapp at 203-592-6893 or 203-264-4430. See you
there!!!


THANK YOU, TRAVELERS

Dear Connecticut Travelers,

On behalf of the Mid County Rod & Gun Club members and their families,
I sincerely thank you for your support and continued interest in our
club. Your gift of $150 went a long way in helping us put together a
wonderful Christmas celebration for the children of the club members.
Everyone enjoyed the popcorn!

Mary Schulz (Mrs. Claus)


TRAVELERS SCORING GOES BIG TIME

You are, of course, all familiar with the Connecticut Travelers method
of writing the score on the scorecards. We don’t use “X” and “0”. We
write the first hit on a station as a “1”, the second as a “2”, a miss
as a “-“, the third hit as a “3”, etc. In the right hand columns we
sum up the total hits on the station and to the right of that put the
running score. A typical Travelers station scoring might look like
this: 1, 2, -, 3, -, 4 followed by 4 // 43, with the 4 for the station
total and a 43 or what ever for the cumulative score to that point.
Its all laid out in the Travelers Guide Book and Membership
Directory that you get each year.


It’s a great system because it’s pretty much idiot-proof. No, of
course you don’t need it for that reason, but it does help the other
guy. It’s easy for the people who have to read the cards to catch
errors and makes scoring go just that much faster at the end of the
shoot.

The Travelers Jefe Supremo, Al Anglace, shared it with the NSCA and
wrote Reload! reload concerning their response as follows:

“I recently introduced our Travelers scoring system to NSCA through
Ann Myers, for the purpose of assisting the sport in improving the
task of scoring rounds of sporting clays. Also, to establish this
system as an elective process for range owners to use while sponsoring
NSCA tournaments. Currently the "X" and "O" scoring is spelled out in
the official rules of an NSCA Tournement.”

“Ann Myers replied: ‘Your scoring system is a real jewel and I hope
someday it will be recognized as the way to score.’ She goes on to ask
permission to introduce it to all NSCA clubs, referees and members, in
one of her "Headlines from Headquarters" columns. She also asked for
permission to give it to the Southeastern Illinois College. This is
the group that referees many of the largest shoots across the country.
She pointed out the value of accuracy and speed as the outstanding
assets of our system.”

“I also sent her a Club Directory. She was delighted to see that we
created such great tool for our members. She especially liked the
handicap system. In our small way we may have broken new ground in our
great sport.- AAA”

We should take pride in the fact that we can make this small
contribution to the good of our sport. We should also give the NSCA
and Ann Myers credit for recognizing and acting on a good idea.

Wouldn’t it be great if our Connecticut Travelers subgauge handicap
system were to become a national standard? Now that would be something
else to make sporting clays very interesting. Imagine how much ink the
gun writers could get out of that one. Yummy! Just in case you forgot,
the Connecticut Travelers handicaps are as follows:

12 gauge = 0
16 gauge = 3
20 gauge = 5
28 gauge = 10
410 bore = 20
SxS or Pump = an additional 5

Thus a 28 gauge pump gets 10+5=15 birds added to the raw score.


SHOOTING MAGAZINES

Since you are reading this now, we feel safe in making the assumption
that you are functionally literate as well as magnificently
discerning. Here are some magazines you may enjoy.

Reload! The newsletter of the Connecticut Travelers. Free with
membership. Well, OK, I snuck that one in.

The Clay Pigeon, www.TheClayPigeon.com, tel: 570-296-5768, 12 issues
per year, $18. Devoted to sporting clays. Newspaper format. The most
current shoot coverage available as well as interesting technical and
reportage columns.

Clay Shooting USA, www.ClayShootingUSA.com, tel: 210-691-5551, 6
issues per year, $29.95. Devoted to sporting clays. New magazine,
still sorting itself out after the first few issues, but looks
promising. Great color graphics and ads.

Sporting Clays, www.SportingClays.net, tel: 800-376-2237, 12 issues
per year, $23.95. Allied with NSCA and devoted to sporting clays. Good
ads, decent articles, though occasionally they don’t separate the two
enough.

Shotgun Sports, www.ShotgunSportsMagazine.com, tel: 800-676-8920, 12
issues per year, $28. Used to be called Shootin’ Trap, but now it’s
just mostly trap with a bit of sporting and a very, very occasional
skeet article.

Shooting Sportsman, www.ShootingSportsman.com, tel: 800-666-4955, 6
issues per year, $29.95. Classy magazine with excellent photos,
fiction and articles devoted to “wingshooting and fine guns”.

Double Gun Journal, www.Gunshop.com/dgj.htm, tel: 231-536-7439, 6
issues per year, $39.95. Excellent glossy magazine for double gun
(rifle and shotgun) collectors. Fabulous older gun photos.


**** THE UPCOMING TRAVELERS MONTHLY SHOOT ****

2003 SHOOTING CALENDAR

FEB 16 EAST MOUNTAIN, NY-ANNUAL MEETING
MAR 16 MID HUDSON TRAP & SKEET, NY-MARCH MADNESS
APR 11~13 SPRING TRIP TO MARYLAND, MD-NORTH SOUTH SKIRMISH
APR 27 OLD NEWGATE COON CLUB, CT-TAX TIME REVOLT
MAY 4 EAST MOUNTAIN, NY-COURTING CLAYS
MAY 18 TAMARACK PRESERVE, NY-MAY MINUET
JUN * TAMARACK, NY-NAT’L WILD TURKEY FED CONCURRENT SHOOT
JUL 20 SANDANONA/ORVIS, NY-SUMMERTIME, SUMMERTIME
AUG 8~10 ADDIEVILLE EAST, RI-GREAT EASTERN LOBSTER CLASSIC
SEP 14 FAIRFIELD COUNTY F&G, CT-SMALL GAUGE CHAMPIONSHIPS
OCT 3~5 PENNSYLVANIA -FALL TRIP
OCT 19 MILLBROOK ROD & GUN, NY- OKTOBERSCHUTZENFEST
NOV 16 EAST MOUNTAIN, NY-CLUB CHAMPIONSHIPS
NOV * EAST MOUNTAIN, NY-KOEHLER SOC. FUNDRAISER THREE SHOT
DEC 14 MID-COUNTY, NY-DICK LOSEE MEMORIAL CHRISTMAS PARTY
* An asterisk indicates a date still to be determined

*** OTHER SHOOTS OF INTEREST ***
ALWAYS, ALWAYS, CALL AHEAD TO CONFIRM

FEB 9 NEWGATE COON CLUB, CT (860-738-3619) FROSTY OPEN- STEAK/CLAY
FEB 25 EAST MOUNTAIN, CT (203-592-6893) EXTREME GAUGE CHALLENGE
MAR 22 PEACE DALE, RI (401-789-3730) NEW ENGLAND THREE SHOT CH
APR 11~13 PEACE DALE, RI (401-789-3730) SPRING FITASC CH
APR 18 NEWGATE COON CLUB, CT (860-738-3619) GOOD FRIDAY OPEN
APR 20 PEACE DALE, RI (401-789-3730) OPEN SC CHAMPIONSHIP
JUN 22 NEWGATE COON CLUB, CT (860-738-3619) THREE SHOT SHOOT OUT
JUL 9~13 CLAYTHORNE, KS (620-597-2568) FITASC WORLD CHAMPIONSHIPS
JUL 25-27 PEACE DALE, RI (401-789-3730) NEW ENGLAND FITASC CH
AUG 3 PEACE DALE, RI (401-789-3730) OPEN SC CHAMPIONSHIP
SEP 6 NEWGATE COON CLUB, CT (860-738-3619) SPORTING CLAYS CLASSIC
SEP 9~14 NATIONAL GUNCLUB, TX (800- 877-5338) NSCA NATIONALS
NOV 2 NEWGATE COON CLUB, CT (860-738-3619) THREE SHOT SHOOT OUT
NOV 7~9 PEACE DALE, RI (401-789-3730) FALL FITASC CH
DEC 7 NEWGATE COON CLUB, CT (860-738-3619) CHRISTMAS AT THE COON



CONTACTING THE TRAVELERS...

CTSCA Home Office: Email <CTSCA@email.com> (by far the best way) or
telephone 860-354-9351 if you absolutely must.

Membership, Address Changes and Shooting Class status: Contact Cyndi
Dalena at 860-582-3142 between 9:00 AM and 5:00 PM. Leave message.
Or Email shotguncyndi@prodigy.net

Guide Book questions, contact Dick Orenstein at <rho@usa.com> or call
203-454-4724.

To place an ad, post a shoot date in Reload! or simply heap abuse on
the editor, contact Bruce Buck at tel: 203-454-1080 (worst way), fax
to 707-215-0668 (adequate way) or email <bcb23@columbia.edu>
(marvelous way, you clever Traveler you!).

The current and previous issues of Reload! are posted on the internet
at <www.ShotgunReport.com>. You will also find megs and megs of other
useless Technoidal drivel there. Great literature never dies. It just
sort of lurks around.




**** THE UPCOMING TRAVELERS MONTHLY SHOOT ****

SUNDAY, FEBRUARY 16, 2003
ANNUAL MEETING AND FUN SHOOT
EAST MOUNTAIN PRESERVE
DOVER PLAINS, NY

Our Annual Meeting, always held in February, is not really a shoot,
but naturally, being Travelers, when the meeting is over you’ll have
the chance to yank the trigger and watch 'em smoke. The Annual Meeting
will start in the East Mountain clubhouse at 9:00 AM sharp. Please be
on time or come a little early to lobby for your favorite projects and
scarf up some of Chef Mark’s delicious pancakes and sausage breakfast.
The meeting will last until about noon. We will hear from President
Anglace about how magnificently the Travelers did in 2002, elect
officers and then discuss where we will go in 2003. Member
participation is highly encouraged. If you don’t attend, don’t
complain later. Well, actually, whiners automatically become committee
chairmen. It’s the rule of the jungle.

At mid-day Chef Mark will serve us a catered luncheon. Thereafter we
will break up into squads, roll out onto the course and shoot a
friendly round of casual sporting. If you would like some coaching,
we will squad you with other shooters of equal ability and send along
an experienced Travelers Mentor coach to help you out with the usual
bad advice. It is a nice chance to get in a little shooting and
perhaps improve your game.

The fee for luncheon and the shooting (formal course, informal
scorekeeping) is $40. If you just want to come to the meeting and skip
the luncheon and shooting, there is no charge. Please consider
attending and send in your paid reservation so that it arrives by
Thursday, February 13. That’s the day before Valentine’s Day guys.
After you mail that reservation, go buy her some flowers for putting
up with you all these years.

As a member-run club the Travelers have been very, very successful.
We want to make sure that we continue to do what you want us to do.
We can’t do that unless you come and share your thoughts. THE ANNUAL
MEETING AND SHOOTING IS FOR MEMBERS ONLY. Please, no guests this
month. NEW MEMBERS ARE ENCOURAGED TO ATTEND.

Directions to East Mountain Preserve, Dover Plains, NY:

At the junction of Rte 84 and NY Rte 22, take Rte 22 North for about
27 miles to the town of Dover Plains. Turn Right at the first traffic
light in Dover Plains and go straight for one mile directly into the
East Mountain driveway. If lost call East Mountain Preserve at
914-877-6274.

REMEMBER, EYE AND EAR PROTECTION IS MANDATORY AT ALL TRAVELERS’
SHOOTS!