Reload!

OCTOBER 2003 NEWSLETTER
© Bruce Buck, editor

CTSCA SUBGAUGE CHAMPIONSHIP
FAIRFIELD COUNTY FISH & GAME
Sunday, September 14, 2003

This year’s Travelers’ Subgauge Championship was a combination of the
Johnstown Flood, Gulliver’s Travels and a World Wrestling Federation
SmackDown. With oncoming hurricane Isabel still a few days away, it
chose to rain anyway. Sometimes it was light. Sometimes it was hard.
But the spigot was always on. Big men and little guns got equally
soaked. Still, 143 Travelers came to play, up a dozen from last year.
These people like their little gun fun.

Al Anglace had tweaked the Fairfield woods course to make it just the
right blend of humiliation, sadism and despair. All of which we
overcame by lunchtime. The course was definitely not a dumbed down
standard course. It was very demanding, but eminently possible. The
two stations which I felt were grossly unfair and unrealistic, as
evinced by my pitiful scores thereon, were in both cases very well
shot by other shooters immediately after me. How humiliating.

The character of the course was “First chance, last chance”. On many
of the shots, you got one good stab at the bird and its successor. If
your first move was perfect, the second bird was eminently possible.
If you fudged a bit on the first, the second bird was often very, very
hard to hit. Many of the shots required an aggressive first move and
often an equally powerful second move. Others gave you plenty of rope
to hang yourself by. In spite of the fact that the course is located
in the woods, it most definitely wasn’t a “skeet in the woods” course.
Travelers’ courses are much more sophisticated than that.

With the true sign of a clever course designer, several of the
stations had birds that seemed impossible at first glance, but were
actually not all that hideously hard. It’s easy to set a bird that
brings a shooter down, but it takes real skill to bring him back up
without appearing obvious.

Since everyone goes out at the same time and finishes the same too,
all of us got equally wet. Because it was warm, many shooters used
umbrellas as they waited, while others donned rainwear under their
vests. Rain is a fact of shooting life. Deal with it. Since we all
have to wear shooting glasses, some anti-fog spray is a good idea.
I’ve been using “Parker’s Perfect” (www.parkersperfect.com) anti-fog
spray and find that it does an excellent job. No matter how much
humidity, I can always see what I am missing.

We used the standard Travelers subgauge handicap which we employ at
every shoot: 12=0, 16=3, 20=5, 28=20, 410=20, pump or SxS gets an
additional 5. We have been using this handicap system for many years
now and it seems to be pretty even. No one gauge or configuration has
a noticeable edge. This time four of the top five scores were with
410s, but that wasn’t the case last year when there was only one 410
in the top 8. There were only about a dozen 410s in use this year, but
they were in the hands of some of the better shooters. 20s were
slightly more popular than 28s, but not much. More 20s were used by
the newer shooters than any other gauge. I’ve listed the gauge and gun
configuration of the winners where that information was available.

No one gun configuration was clearly superior. HOA Jean duLau used a
borrowed 28 ga 32” Perazzi O/U which he had shot only once before.
Others did almost as well with nose-heavy tube sets or whippy 410
pumps. The 30” Browning 425, 525 and XS in 20 and 28 were very
popular. There was clearly no one gun arrangement with an advantage.

Luncheon after the shoot was delicious broasted chicken from Chez
Costco. Trophies were inscribed silver plate as befits the grandeur of
this event. Nothing small gauge about it.

HOA Jean duLau 99 (28 o/u)
16 Ch Al Anglace 79 (16 pump)
20 Ch Kevin Kruleski 90 (20)
28 Ch Kevin Goodspeed 90 (28 pump)
410 ChTed Knapp 97 (410pump)
I-1 Lavert Cypher 95 (410)
I-2 Phil Steinkraus 93 (410 tubes)
I-3 Brian Flanagan 92 (410)
II-1 Ed Moritt 88 (28)
II-2 Dom Uliano 88*(20)
II-3 Steve Dalena 80 (410pump)
III-1 Paul Ragusa 84 (28)
III-2 Joe Massey 80 (20)
IV-1 Dave Moehrke 84 (28)
IV-2 Kevin Coon 83 (410)
IV-3 Joe Sproviero 82 (20)
V-1 Dick Mann 82 (20)
V-2 Kendall Coon 71 (28)
V-3 Olive Lawlor 68 (20)
VI-1 Anthony Battaglia 45 (28)
VI-2 Debbe Cornwell 42 (20)
VI-3 Jonathan Karosy 42*(20)
Ldy-1 Stephanie Stauffer 80 (20)
Ldy-2 Ginny Tennison 71 (28)
Ldy-3 Olive Lawlor 68 (20)
Vet-1 Gary Landis 93 (410)
Vet-2 Joe Maresca 88 (20)
Vet-3 John Hryncewich 84 (28)
Jr-1 Geoff Cornwell 61
Jr-2 Jason Lenhart 60
Jr-3 Luke Sproviero 51
Guest Ed Shine 86
* ties decided by tie-breaker stations

A SIGN OF FRIENDSHIP…

As an FYI, your Connecticut Travelers donated the station signs for
the Fairfield subgauge shoot as a gift of appreciation to the club.
The members made the cedar posts. The attractive signs look great on
the course and will help you remember exactly which particular
stations so cruelly devastated you.

KOEHLER SCHOLARSHIPS…

Each year your Travelers help sponsor the Koehler Society Scholarship
Fundraiser shoot. These are grants in aid to local kids to help them
further their education in ecology, forestry or in the trades.
Recipients this year are: Lou Anrico of Ridgefield, Oregon State
University, sponsored by Traveler Ted Fedun. Justin Perreault of
Durham. Unity College of Maine. Sponsored by Traveler Ted Knapp. David
Santucci of New Fairfield. University of Vermont. Each of these young
men is enlisted in environmental studies at their respected schools.
They each received a $1000.00 scholarship. This year the Koehler
Society Fundraiser will be held at East Mountain on November 30. We’ll
tell you more next issue.

TRAVELERS SCORING SYSTEM…

We Travelers are justly proud of the method we use to score our
scorecards. We use the 1, - , - , 2 , 3 , - ,4 ,5 system, rather than
the must more error-prone X and O method. The system is so good that
the only place that you can screw up is when you enter the totals at
the end of the line. There is the first space for “Station Total” and
then the next space to the right is for “Accumulated Total”. In the
example above, the Station Total would obviously be 5. The Accumulated
Total is simply the total of this an all the previous stations that
you shot.

It sounds simple, but it appears that some of us are better shots than
mathematicians. We’ve had some problems with people not knowing how to
run a cumulative score. If you aren’t absolutely sure how to do it,
please ask at the desk when you sign up at the next shoot. They will
be happy to bring you up to speed.

REGISTRATION CHANGE…

Now hear this! Now hear this! We have been getting so many late
registrations that we must move up the last day on which we will
accept shoot registrations to the WEDNESDAY BEFORE THE SHOOT. Example,
we must have your registration in our hands by Wednesday, October 15
for our Sunday, October 19 Oktoberfest shoot at Millbrook

CONNECTICUT TRAVELERS FALL TRIP
OCTOBER 10 ~ 12, 2003
by Don Brenton

Listen up boys and girls here is the skinny on 2003 fall trip to
Pennsylvania. Headquarters is the same as last year: The Gateway,
Holiday Inn at intersection of US Routes 22 and 512 in Bethlehem, PA
18017. Telephone: 610-866-5800. A block of rooms has been set aside
for the Travelers, but you must call and make your own reservations.

Both Fri and Sat nights cocktail parties and dinners are in the
Holiday Inn, private dinning room both nights. Fri night 6:00
cocktails, 7:30 buffet dinner. Sat night 6:00 cocktails 7:00 sit down
dinner. Pay in advance, selections are on sheet enclosed with this
Reload, send filled out sheet back with your check by Oct 6 to get to
me by 8th, no check, no dinner!!!!

SHOOTING: Friday, Oct 10 between 1:30 and 3:00 at The Rod and Gun
Club at Pocono Manor near the intersection of I 80 and I 380 in town
of Pocono Manor, Pa. This is a new Neil Chadwick designed course, 21
stations on 120 acres and untried or tested by any of us. They were
at the Lobster shoot and talked the talk so we will see. By the way we
are also shooting this course Sun 9:30 AM on way home. Ralph
Megliola, Manager has promised new presentations for our second visit.
Ralph was previously manager of Skytop. More info and directions at
www.poconomanor.com . Here are directions from their website. FROM NEW
YORK CITY AND POINTS EAST: Interstate 80 West from the GW Bridge to
I-380 North. At first exit (Pocono Exit 3), turn right and follow
signs to the Manor. FROM POINTS NORTHEAST: Rte 84 West to Route 380
South to Pocono Exit 3. East on Route 940 and follow signs to Manor.

Sat is the same as last year. Lehigh Valley, which is under new
management, at 9:30 with sandwich lunch before proceeding to Water and
Wings at 1:30. For those who did not shoot last year Lehigh Valley is
a very interesting course over an old quarry and between some old
buildings. Remember the pair that you took one before chimney and the
second either between chimneys or after second, an interesting shot.
Water and Wings is a fully automated, pull your own, nice course, long
shots, close shots and all the tricks with towers, fields, woods. They
got it all.

Deadline to return forms, loot etc. to me is Oct 8, Wednesday in mail
by Monday Oct 6 as I have to call clubs and hotel with numbers on
Thursday. As Bruce would say boots off, beer open,. After you fill out
form. Questions? Need more directions? Contact Don Brenton at
captdonnie@yahoo.com or 203-888-5869.



THE TECHNOID CHOKES UP FOR EDGE-ON…

(This is a re-run from a 1995 Reload! No one, including the author,
understood it then, much less paid attention to it. See how you feel
about it eight years later.)

An old sporting clays canard has it that improved cylinder choke is
all you ever need. Smoker Smith used to claim that he used only "no
choke in one barrel and a little bit more in the other". Yea, right.
How do you think he originally got the name "Smoker"? Not with those
open chokes, you can be sure. He would have been called
"Chip","Chipper" or "Bitsy". Smith definitely did not share all his
secrets.

Traveler Andy Duffy said he shot the whole NSCA championship course
one year with a pair of his Eyster Light mod .015"s and never changed.
While we certainly believe Andy, it is even more of a tribute to
Andy's remarkable shooting ability because, as you will see, he was
handicapping himself on some of the longer shots. Naturally, we are
not going to argue with the National Champion's result, but the rest
of us need all the help we can get. In many cases, all the help we can
get means more choke, not less, especially when we are dealing with
edge- on targets.

The Technoid's personal deity, Canadian gun writer John Brindle, wades
into the deep waters of this "more choke is often better" thing in his
usual convoluted manner. (Brindle appears to write in English, but
that is only at first glance. Delving deeper requires- well, deeper
delving.)

To demonstrate why he thinks that the optimal clay breaking pattern
often requires more choke than is commonly thought, Brindle breaks the
standard 30" patterning circle into three concentric circles of 10",
20" and 30". He then shows how the percentage of shot in each of the
three circles changes as the percentage of shot in the total 30"
circle changes. Remember throughout all of this that the percentage of
pellets you can put into a 30" circle is a function of shell, choke
and distance from target. A 70% pattern from a full choke at 40 yards
will look the same as a 70% pattern from an I.C. at about at 20-25
yards.

Note that Brindle is using a high quality shell. Lower quality shells
will produce slightly different numbers. A 50% pattern from a high
quality shell will have less center weighting than a 50% pattern from
a low quality shell. Here is how Brindle lays it out. Where "T" is the
total percentage of shot in the 30" circle, "10" is the 10" center
bullseye of the pattern, "20" is the 10" to 20" ring and "30" is the
20" to 30" ring:

T=40%(Cyl): 10"=5%, 20"=15%, 30"=20%
T=50%(I.C.): 10"=8%, 20"=18%, 30"=24%
T=60%(Mod):10"=10%,20"=22%,30"=28%
T=70%(I.M):10"=13%,20"=27%, 30"=30%
T=80%(Full):10"=17%, 20"=33%, 30"=30%
T=90%(XF):10"=25%,20"=47%, 30"=18%

Brindle starts by saying that a normal shotgun pattern is always
denser in the middle than at the edges. There is no such thing as a
perfectly evenly distributed pattern. Very open patterns (40% and
less) approach -but do not achieve- even distribution in the 30"
circle, but that is just because the circle is not large enough to
show the full distribution. As the numbers show, the higher percentage
of shot in the 30" circle, the more marked the central thickening.
Look at the figures- note how the 10" percentages increase faster than
the "T" total 30" percentages. Do this as a percentage of the whole
and you will see. Where "T" increases from 50% to 80% (a 60%
increase), 10" increases from 8% to 17% (a 112% increase).

"Plotted on a graph, the density of any diameter drawn across the
pattern is rather like the bell-shaped "normal" curve beloved of
mathematicians, the higher the percentage of pellets within the 30"
circle, the higher the peak of the curve." says Brindle. (As to
patterning and the bell curve, see "The Technoid takes Gauss"- RELOAD!
February 1995).

Burrard, in his classic The Gun, never figured this out and often
talked in terms of "evenly distributed" patterns. Burrard must have
been making it up. Effective shotgun patterns are always "hotter" in
the center. A pattern has to be well under 40% (and thus of
ineffective density) to even casually appear to be almost evenly
distributed over 30".

Anyone who tells you that his target crushing pattern is evenly
distributed across the 30" pattern circle needs better glasses or more
sodium pentothal.

Fine, so now you believe that ALL patterns are hotter in the center
than they are at the edges. Denser patterns are even hotter in the
center than looser ones, but they are all center biased. What does
that have to do with how you choke and why you should probably use
more choke for edge-on birds, rather than less? Simple (sort of).

As you have often read in this space, you want the pattern that will
put the most pellets into the effective fringe of the pattern. What we
will find out in the following is that for certain target angles this
may take more choke than you have been normally using.

Looking at the column of numbers above, you will see that as pattern
density increases (higher percentages of pellets in the 30" circle as
you would get from using tighter and tighter chokes), the center 10"
ALWAYS continues to get denser. The outermost 20"-30" fringe circle
does NOT ALWAYS do this! This fringe ring gets bigger for a while and
then it shrinks. As the percentage in the total 30" circle ("T")
increases, so does the percentage in the outer 20"-30" circle until it
plateaus when the pattern in the 30" circle hits the 70% and 80% mark.

Then the percentage in the outer 20"-30" ring starts to decline from
30% to 18% as patterns tighten over the 80% mark. The percentages in
the 10" central circle and the 10"-20" middle ring increase constantly
as the total 30" pattern increases and continue their increase even
after the total pattern reaches 80%.

The peaking curve of the 20"-30" ring crosses the ascending curve of
the 10"-20" ring at about 75% total pattern. This is the magic number
for most clay target patterns. This is also just about what full choke
is supposed to deliver at 40 yards, modified at 30 and improved
cylinder at 20. The barrel/cartridge combination that can consistently
produce 75% patterns at 40 yards is pretty good. An 80% pattern with
the less than totally efficient screw chokes we use today would be
exceptional. Bottom line: At forty yards and out use every bit of
choke you have if you want the maximum effective fringe for an edge-on
bird.

"Full at 40" is easy to remember, but what about the shorter
distances? For edge-on targets you will have to tighten down there too
if you want reliable patterns. The Technoid is certainly not going to
tell you that a legal shell can fully fill a 30" pattern. The biggest
circle that a 1 1/8 oz load of #8s can properly fill to insure a
reliable break on an edge-on bird is about a 24". Do the math. General
experience has shown that it takes 2-3 pellet hits to break a clay
target reliably. The profile of an edge-on 110mm target measures a bit
under 5 sq". You are going to need a pattern that can reliably produce
2-3 hits in every 5 sq". We will aim for a density of 3 pellets per 5
sq" as an average and hope that we get 2 pellets per 5 sq" at the edge
of the pattern, knowing that the fringe will be thinner than the
center, as shown above.

Here is how to figure it out. 1 1/8 oz of #8s contain about 460
pellets. From the table of numbers above you can see that an 80% Full
choke pattern puts 50% of its pellets into the center 20". That would
be 230 #8s into that center 20" circle containing 314 sq".

Assuming perfect distribution (which we had just shown does not
exist), that works out to one pellet every 1.34 sq". That is a little
denser than one pellet for each 1.67 sq". If we increase the circle to
24" diameter it will include 453 sq". The 4" ring from 20" to 24"
contains 139 sq", about 1/3 of the entire 20"-30" ring's 393 inches.
It would have 1/3 of 30% of the pellet load shown in the numbers above
(actually, perhaps a bit more due to central thickening of the
pattern, but let's not quibble).

That is 10% of the pellets for the 20" to 24" inch ring added to 50%
of the pellets for the 20" center. Thus the central 24" of an 80% full
choke pattern would have 60% of the 460 #8s, or 276 pellets in its 453
sq".

This comes out to one pellet per 1.64 sq"- just about exactly 3
pellets for the five square inches of the edge-on target. Yes, there
are tons of variables- different sized targets, targets showing some
skirt, targets with a lot or a little spin, targets retreating or
advancing. On the other side, lots of times you get a nice break with
just two pellets, but the important thing to note is that you cannot
count on it. Three is the number.

So, the biggest reliable killing pattern you can count on from your
gun is 24", IF you use 1 1/8oz shells with #8s. Sorry one ounce fans,
but lighter loads mean smaller effective patterns. Gotta be. For
distances beyond 40 yards, assuming that 80% patterns are about as
full as you can actually get, effective pattern size starts to shrink
rapidly. It has been suggested that the 27 yard handicap trap shooter,
shooting a target at 45-47 yards, has an effective pattern of about
15".

Now here is the important part: What works at 40 yards also works at
20 and 30 yards. You want to deliver about 75-80% of your shot into a
30" circle at the target regardless of the distance. If you do this,
you know that you can count on having a good killing pattern in the
center 24". Less, or more, of a pattern spread means that you are not
maximizing your pattern and will not obtain this 24" killing circle. A
consistent 75% pattern at the target will almost certainly require
more choke than you are used to using. If the target is edge-on, you
will probably want to go up one degree of choke from what you are used
to.

Equally obviously, if the target is a driven showing the whole belly,
or a fully turned battue, it will not need one pellet in each 1.67 sq"
and you can afford to open up quite a bit.

Looks can be deceiving. An 80% pattern on the bird means that if you
center the target, you will often puff it. It is going to look too
tight, but it isn't. You are not worried about the center of the
pattern. You just want the biggest effective fringe possible. To be
continued next month.




*** 2003 CTSCA SHOOTING CALENDAR ***

OCT 10~12 PENNSYLVANIA -FALL TRIP Note new date!
OCT 19 MILLBROOK ROD & GUN, NY- OKTOBERSCHUTZENFEST
NOV 16 EAST MOUNTAIN, NY-CLUB CHAMPIONSHIPS
NOV 30 EAST MOUNTAIN, NY-KOEHLER SOC. FUNDRAISER THREE SHOT
DEC 14 MID-COUNTY, NY-DICK LOSEE MEMORIAL CHRISTMAS PARTY


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

OCT 11 ADDIEVILLE EAST, RI (401-568-3185) CLAYS FOR STRAYS SC CH
NOV 2 NEWGATE COON CLUB, CT (860-738-3619) THREE SHOT SHOOT OUT
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. Or Email
<shotguncyndi@prodigy.net> Guide Book questions, contact Dick
Orenstein <oren@umich.edu> or call 203-226-5251. 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, fax: 707-215-0668 or email:
<bcb23@columbia.edu>.




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

SUNDAY, OCTOBER 19, 2003
OKTOBERSCHUTZENFEST
MILLBROOK ROD AND GUN CLUB
MILLBROOK, NY

This year’s Connecticut Travelers’ Oktoberschutzenfest is going to
have even more Gemütlichkeit than ever. We’ll have barrels of fun.
While our Münchenbewohner German cousins enjoy their barrels of foamy
fun, we will derive equal pleasure from barrels of a different sort.

It’s all the usual drill(ing). Show up at 9:00 AM and check in at
regristration to see where you are squadded. Enjoy some high test
kaffe und strudel while you cinch up your lederhausen and get your
bockdoppelflinte ready to shoot. The tab for the day is US$55 and
your paid reservations must be in our hands no later than Wednesday,
October 15 or you will be kaput. Subgauge guns get the usual
handicaps. Remember, the popular German 16 gauge gets three birds.
Drillings get an extra handicap if you use the rifle barrel on the
longer shots.

Millbrook has a great course, somewhat in the style of Fairfield. A
“woodsy” course is absolutely appropriate for fall with its helles
Oktoberlaub (bright October foliage). Gäste sind willkommen. (Guests
are welcome.)

Directions to Millbrook Rod and Gun Club, Millbrook, NY: From Taconic
parkway, take the NY Rte 44 (Millbrook) exit. Take Rte 44 heading East
for about 1.6 miles to Rte 44-A. Bear Left onto Rte 44-A. Go 2.1 miles
(you will pass Sandanona’s driveway) to Stamford Road on the left
immediately after the bridge. Turn Left on Stamford Road and go 1.5
miles to Woodstock Road. Turn Left on Woodstock Road and go .8 miles
to Millbrook R&G Club sign on right. If lost, strayed or stolen, the
Millbrook R&G Club telephone number is 845-677-0029.

REMEMBER, EYE PROTECTION IS MANDATORY AT ALL TRAVELERS SHOOTS.