RELOAD!

JANUARY 2002 NEWSLETTER
© Bruce Buck, editor

DICK LOSEE MEMORIAL CHRISTMAS SHOOT,

Mid-County Gun Club, December 16, 2001

Last year our Christmas shoot was held in a rainstorm of
biblical proportions. Or more correctly, was not held. That didn’t
stop everyone from driving around the fallen trees and showing up
but, lacking a Moses to part the seas, we concentrated on the party
aspect of the day and left the swimming for the summer months. This
year, the normal Paradise that accompanies Travelers’ shoots
returned. Warm winter sun, clear skies and light breezes were Mother
N’s way of saying "Sorry about last year." 136 shooters happily
accepted the apology.

With a few exceptions, Mid-County’s course was fairly straightforward
with an emphasis on quartering birds. Of course, you know what
"straight forward" means in Travelers-speak. Our scores were about
average for Travelers shoot with about half a dozen managing 80 or
better. It was good to remember that you don’t improve by shooting
junk and that the bar was open after the shooting closed.

Rather than do the usual station by station dissection, we’re going
to do a general review of shooting techniques that might prove
helpful in the future.

Pay attention to what’s happening before you shoot. While you are
waiting your turn, watch what the birds are doing and plan you
attack.

Also watch how the other shooters are dealing with the birds. If you
see that everyone is shooting behind a certain bird remember to
increase your lead/follow through on that target. This would have
been particularly profitable on #9’s incoming downhill crosser.
Everyone was behind.

When you view the birds, get as close to the station as is polite.
Standing back or just a few feet to the side can often give you a
very different picture from the one you will get when in the stand.
It can also be very helpful to watch a few birds from directly behind
the machine if that is possible in order to pick up any curl or curve
not visible from the stand.

Chandelles: (Note correct spelling of this French word meaning
"candle". The curling target refers to the twisting smoke. It is not
the idiotic "chondel" you often see published in magazines for the
functionally illiterate. Miss Manners is not entirely convinced that
freedom of speech should apply to everyone.)

Station #15 had a pair of left to right chandelles that just killed
people. Station #2 had a pair of chandelles that weren’t nearly as
hard, though they were further out. What was the difference?

The difference was lateral speed. #15’s chandelles were medium height
with a lot of horizontal speed and distance. They went more "across"
than "up". Like the Golden Arches, #2s chandelles were quite vertical
without too much lateral movement. People seem to fixate on the
height change of a chandelle and often completely ignore its lateral
speed. That’s where the fatalities occur. When a looping chandelle
covers more ground sideways than it does vertically, treat it pretty
much as a crosser if you are taking it in the midst of its flight.
Don’t worry too much about the change in altitude unless you are
taking it near the end of its flight when it has lost its speed.

Full Choke: #8 had a pair of long shots, at least 35 yards if you
shot fast and more if you paced yourself. The birds were broken with
everything from IC to Full. All chokes seemed to work and give heavy
breaks, so why on earth does the feckless Technoid recommend Full
choke for most birds on edge over 35 yards? Cause that’s what’s best,
that’s why.

You read about the great UK sporting shots using a lot of choke.
There’s a reason. Also, just ask any trap shooter. Trap shooters have
long known that at around the 20 yard line when you take the bird
35~36 yards away, it pays to go to Full choke. They have shot a
million billion identical targets, so they have a pretty good
database.

Due to the variety of sporting clays presentations, there is no good
database where a choke that was 1% or 2% better than another would
show up. Proper gun pointing is so much more important than choke
selection that it almost doesn’t matter. Almost is operative word.
Proper choke may only be worth a bird or so every couple of hundred.
If that doesn’t matter to you, then the heck with it. But if you find
yourself losing your class by only one bird, then perhaps the correct
choke would occasionally buy you an invitation to walk to the front
of the room.

Don’t be fooled by the good breaks that a too-open choke often gives
at distance. A spinning target has a lot of centrifugal force that
helps it break no matter what hits it. Reading breaks isn’t always
reliable.

After the shoot we had the usual delicious Christmas feast served up
by the Mid-County club volunteers. Remember that they gave up their
Sunday so that we could enjoy ours. Thanks guys.

Our "Toys For Tots" program brought forth a mountain of gifts for the
underprivileged kids of Duchess County. The Travelers organization
also added a $300 check in case we missed something. After hearing
the thank-you speech from the lady who distributes the gifts, any one
who doesn’t believe that it is better to give than to receive has a
rock for a heart.

The Connecticut Travelers Sporting Sportsman of the Year award was
presented to John Lawlor for his tireless work behind the scenes for
the Travelers and sporting clays in general. Without his help and
constant work, the courses at East Mountain and Fairfield would not
be what they are today. He’s one of sporting’s unsung heroes and long
overdue for well-deserved recognition. Past recipients include Ken
Gagnon, Dick Losee, Geoff Gaebe, Jack Robertson, Neil Chadwick,
Richie Frisella and Bruce Buck. With the exception of Dick Losee who
has passed on and Geoff Gaebe who had another commitment, all were
there to congratulate John and thank him for selflessly promoting our
sport.

So ends the Connecticut Travelers fourteenth season. See you next
year.

HOA Mike Horodyski 85
I-1 Vinny LaScalza 84
I-2 Gabe D’Arco 81*
I-3 Jim Muller 81
II-1 Peter Harand 81
II-2 Mike DeJohn 75
II-3 Jim Kichline 74
III-1 Bruce Buck 77
III-2 Craig Hovey 71
III-3 Jim Collins 70
IV-1 Bruce Hernsdorf 67
IV-2 Mike Boffalo 66*
IV-3 Frank Bareis 66
V-1 Estella Vaden 70
V-2 Gary Stock 67
V-3 Olive Lawlor 58
VI-1 Chris Edge 47
VI-2 Rose Kichline 40
VI-3 Kathy Tracey 36
Mdm Jan Trolan 44
Ldy-1 Anna Maria Collins 64*
Ldy-2 Cyndi Dalena 64
Ldy-3 Fran Gallogly 62
SVet John Trolan 75
Vet-1 John Lawlor 80
Vet-2 John Mohler 78
Vet-3 Joe Maresca 74
Jr-1 Mike Soltes 49
Jr-2 George Kaiser, Jr 43
Jr-3 Luke Sproviero 37
Jr-4 Anthony Battaglia 31
* Ties decided by tiebreaker station

THE HISTORY OF "TRAVELERS TOUGH" TARGETS

by Al Anglace, President CTSCA

In our infancy I intended to develop target presentations that most
emulated game shots. As a wing shooter, this is what attracted me to
the Sporting Clays game. As I visited many clubs and experienced more
and more target presentations, I collected a good idea of what the
shooters wanted to see. When I was introduced to FITASC I put
together a plan that I felt would present the best variety of targets
and shots, be the most fun and at the same time be challenging.

"International Sporting" was introduced in 1988 as the Travelers’
presentation of targets that would demand the most concentration and
differentiate from the "skeet in the woods" that some American clubs
were presenting for their corporate member’s satisfaction. We took
and mixed the best of English Sporting and FITASC to develop our
"target presentations were mixed sizes, International Sporting"
presentations.

A usual presentation per stand consisted of: two, two shot singles, a
report pair and two simultaneous pairs. Where ten shots were needed
we threw two report pairs. The menu varied depending on the traps,
number of shots, etc., but the basic varying speeds and different
looks. Within every stand you could shoot many interesting targets
instead of the monotonous presentations that were taking over
Sporting Clays.

Yes, they were more challenging targets and the shooters were not
scoring as high as they would at some of the clubs. But they didn’t
seem to care. They kept coming back for more. And our ranks began to
swell even more.

After a few years the Travelers began to get a reputation that we
shot hard targets. This resonated throughout the Country and we were
about to fall victim to our own success.

As we grew in numbers, it became harder to throw our "International
Sporting" presentations due to the time it took to present them.
Ranges were experiencing more overhead expense because they had
trappers sitting out in the field an additional half-hour or so, and
that is money when you have about 15 trappers to pay. First the
singles went by the wayside, then the mixed pairs followed. "Too many
shooters" said the range owners.

We continued to grow and we grew out of our original plan. Pure
numbers dictated our future. The addition of automatic traps did help
in some areas but took much of the versatility out of the game.
Versatility was the fun we built into the game that everyone was
talking about, and our members were enjoying, with smiles from ear to
ear.

That brings us to the present. We are still having fun. Our
membership is still in a growth mode. Is there anything wrong with
that?

I believe that there is a big problem. I feel our target
presentations are a problem and feel that we need to review what we
have been shooting over the last three years or so. Difficult has
expanded to ridiculous. We have set the wrong kind of records. Record
low average scores into the 50’s does not in any way represent the
real "Travelers Tough" targets that we gained our good reputation on.

Target setters sought to challenge the Travelers in recognition of
our reputation and aligned their thinking towards throwing targets
that would be of the same difficulty as any major competition. This
does not take anything away from their good intentions at all. They
did what they thought we wanted.

After all, every one of us seemed to be happy after we gobbled down a
nice lunch and received a pickle dish and a door prize or two. We
never complained. "It’s a learning thing," were the inner thoughts of
our battered members as they drove off for home and to quickly down a
couple of Motrins or look for a shoulder to cry on.

I think it’s time to come back to reality. Considering the many
different levels of ability of our members, and that the members with
lesser abilities need to have a go at target presentation that will
afford them the opportunity to better learn and score. We will not
eliminate the good shooters either. We never did. A target mix that
features a percentage of hard vs soft targets that will keep everyone
enjoying this great game that Sporting is. I am convinced that the
comradery is now the glue, which keeps the Travelers successful;
where once it was the targets.

I have called a meeting of the Board of Directors for January 5, 2002
so that we can talk about a realignment of what I feel has become a
major problem: unfair targets.

THE JUDGE HAS CLASS…

Oyez, oyez. All rise for Hizzoner. Your court of sport is now in
session.

The judge entered and glanced at the usual suspects crowding the
benches in his courtroom. He always played a little game of trying to
guess which people were involved in which cases. After all these
years he was continually surprised at how wrong he could be. The
innocent looked guilty and the guilty looked innocent. Well,
everyone’s guilty of something, he thought.

He often wished for the British tort system where the loser had to
pay the legal expenses of the winner. That would cut back on spurious
lawsuits. It would also cut back on spurious lawyers and spurious
judges. That unfortunate result would mean switching from the
fragrant ruby red Cockburn’s Deluxe Reserve Vintage Port he enjoyed
to some loathsome faux-port mixed in steel vats by a pony-tailed
chemist in California. Sometimes it’s best to let the law take it own
course.

Which, he mused, is exactly how the Travelers classification system
works. On July 1 and January 1, all the Travelers are ranked by
average high to low. The top 10% is Class I, Classes II~V each get
20% and Class VI is 10%. Class VI is kept small to encourage the
newer shooters and Class I is also small to create a place of honor.

The Travelers’ Official Scorer, Cyndi Dalena
(shotguncyndi@prodigy.net) explains movement in class as follows:
Each time someone wins 1st, 2nd or 3rd place at a shoot, they earn
punches 3,2 and 1 respectively. When someone has earned three
punches, they automatically move up in class. Therefore someone who
wins two 2nd places within a six month period would move up. Also the
points stay with you for six months regardless of when the
semi-annual reclassification happens. If you have just earned 2
points in December, they will stay with you even if you move down in
class for the January 1st reclassification. This way, everyone holds
points for six months."

This, thought the Judge, is certainly as clear as the law ever is. If
it were clearer, people wouldn’t need lawyers.

"Court adjourned", cried the Bailiff as Hizzoner benignly smiled out
over his supplicants.

HAROLD KOEHLER SOCIETY SHOOT

East Mountain, Nov. 25, 2001

by Al Anglace

Of the many worthwhile endeavors undertaken by the Connecticut
Travelers, we can take the most pride in our contribution to the
Harold Koehler Society. Since its’ inception, four years ago, the
Travelers have raised and contributed nearly $10,000 in scholarship
funding. Awarded annually, the scholarship goes to a young man or
woman pursuing their education in the trades or environmental related
fields.

This year the scholarships were awarded to five outstanding students.
One of the recipients, Sean Lawlor, who is studying environmental
protection at the University of Massachusetts, was on hand with his
family to meet his supporters. The ever-growing importance and
complexity of this profession demands the highest caliber of
education. Sean will be up to the challenge and, with our support,
able to further that education.

Preceding the ceremonies, we had a great round of sporting clays at
East Mountain. The newly groomed course was similar to the club
championship, held the week before, but softened just enough and in
the right places. Once again, the staff at East Mountain made it
possible to hold a wonderful event. Travelers are thankful for having
such a cooperative partner.

Results were determined by Lewis class with the master of the Lewis
Class system, Jack Robertson, officiating. It was a relaxed and
low-pressure affair. John Robertson was high gun for the day with an
85.

The weather stayed dry, and 72 happy shooters gathered in the
clubhouse for a fine lunch, prepared by chef Mark D’Andrea,
extravagant prize giving, and the aforementioned ceremonies. Mrs. Ann
Koehler was presented with a beautiful bouquet of roses. Additional
monies were raised thanks to a lavish silent auction. The generosity
of donations was matched by the generosity of bidding. Between door
prizes, raffle prizes, and whimsical trophies, no one left
empty-handed. Arms full were more the case.

The Travelers pledged its annual donation of $500.00 to the Society.
It is a heart-warming day to take part in, and to take pride in, and
Harold (from a distance) did both.

As always, the hospitality of the East Mountain staff made it
possible to hold such a wonderful event and the Travelers are
thankful for having such a cooperative partner.

BIO TARGETS AND 7-1/2S …

The Technoid recently received the following communication from El
Jefe Supremo, "I have been wanting to ask you to do an article on bio
targets. Our members are scoring the white dust instead of a visible
chip. You might make a suggestion, if you agree, to use 7 1/2 shot
and no 9's on these targets. They just don't break like pitch
targets! I know the mfg. will disagree but I know that it is true.
Saturday and Wednesday I walked East Mountain and picked up a number
(30 to 40) of bio targets with from 4 to 8 holes in them that did not
break. Pitch will also take shot but not in the amount that the bio's
do. I think it would be a contemporary issue to discuss with the
members. Think about it. Signed -Al Anglace"

Well, there’s the truth if ever you heard it. In winter the Technoid
always goes up in pellet size, using mostly #7-1/2s to deal with rock
hard frozen targets and lower velocity chilled shells. Now there’s
another reason- the bios. The bio is basically a very good target and
a relatively painless way to do some good. But as with all
do-gooders, it pays to give them a lusty whack.


*** 2002 CONNECTICUT TRAVELERS SHOOT SCHEDULE ***
If there are changes to this schedule, we’ll list them as they occur.

JAN 20 EAST MOUNTAIN, NY ­MID-WINTER MARTYDOM
FEB 17 EAST MOUNTAIN, NY-ANNUAL MEETING
MAR 17 MID HUDSON TRAP & SKEET, NY-MARCH MADNESS
APR 5~7* SPRING TRIP TO MARYLAND, MD-NORTH SOUTH SKIRMISH
APR 21 OLD NEWGATE COON CLUB, CT-TAX TIME REVOLT
MAY 5* EAST MOUNTAIN, NY-COURTING CLAYS
MAY 19 TAMARACK PRESERVE, NY-MAY MINUET
MY 31~JU2 PEACE DALE PRESERVE, RI-TRAVELERS FITASC CHAMPIONSHIPS
JUN 23 TAMARACK, NY-NAT’L WILD TURKEY FED CONCURRENT SHOOT
JUL 21 SANDANONA/ORVIS, NY-SUMMERTIME, SUMMERTIME
AUG 9~11 ADDIEVILLE EAST, RI-GREAT EASTERN LOBSTER CLASSIC
SEP 15 FAIRFIELD COUNTY F&G, CT-SMALL GAUGE CHAMPIONSHIPS
OCT 5~7* SITE PENDING-FALL TRIP
OCT 20 MILLBROOK ROD & GUN, NY- OKTOBERSCHUTZENFEST
NOV 17 EAST MOUNTAIN, NY-CLUB CHAMPIONSHIPS
DEC 1 EAST MOUNTAIN, NY-KOEHLER SOC. FUNDRAISER THREE SHOT
DEC 15 MID-COUNTY, NY-DICK LOSEE MEMORIAL CHRISTMAS PARTY


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

Nothing listed just yet. If you have an outside shoot of interest to
Travelers, we would be pleased to list it for you. Contact Bruce Buck
at email: bcb23@columbia.edu


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.


*NOTE: There is no fee for placing an ad. Ads are run solely as a
service to our members. It is the responsibility of the buyer and
seller to see that all relevant laws are obeyed. Advertised items
must be related to sporting clays.




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

SUNDAY, JANUARY 20
MID-WINTER MARTYRDOM
EAST MOUNTAIN PRESERVE
DOVER PLAINS, NY

Start 2002 in the sensible way. Come shoot your gun up in the air and
freeze your fanny off! Yessiree, mid-winter is when the tough
shooters become flaky, snowflaky that is. No hunkering down on the
divan, petting the poodle and nibbling sugarplums for us. Besides,
football season is over and there is nothing left to do but watch
people in their underwear heave some stupid ball through a hoop. It
makes ever so much more sense to stand out in the freezing cold,
dressed like the Michelin man, whupping up on some defenseless piece
of clay.

As always, registration opens at 9:00 AM and we go out shortly
thereafter. Make sure to sign in at the scorer's table as soon as you
come in. Then you can have some high test Java, Dunkin’s fat pills
and schmooze a bit.

Winter Rules: Everyone will appreciate it if you shoot with all
deliberate speed. Fidgeting and dawdling around on the stand keeps
everyone out on the course a bit longer. Even though the days are
getting longer, they are also getting colder. You might consider
wearing boots with cleats, as the trails can be slippery.

After the shoot, there will be a nice warm fire and a delicious hot
meal. We promise that there will be brown food and plenty of it.

The entry fee for this shoot is $55 and GUESTS ARE WELCOME. Invite
everyone. More bodies equal more warmth!

DIRECTIONS to East Mountain Preserve, Dover Plains, NY:

At the junction of Interstate Rte 84 and NY Rte 22, take NY Rte 22
North for about 27 miles to the town of Dover Plains, NY. Turn Right
at the first traffic light in Dover Plains (a few hundred yards after
the McDonalds on the right) and go straight for one mile directly
into the East Mountain driveway. If lost, call East Mountain at
914-877-6274.

EYE AND EAR PROTECTION IS MANDATORY AT ALL TRAVELERS SHOOTS.

Internet readers: With the exception of our August "Lobster Classic",
Travelers shoots are not open to the public. However, you may attend
as the invited guest of a member.