I have now shot skeet twice in my life. 🙂

The first time I shot skeet was also the first time I shot a real firearm (i.e. something powered by gunpowder, not CO2 or spring-air). It was a family vacation and my Dad took me skeet shooting. I forget how old I was, maybe 10? 13? Shot a 20 gauge shotgun. I don’t even remember how well I did, but I just remember that yeah… I got to shoot a real gun, and it was fun!

This past weekend was one of Wife’s side of the family’s reunions. One of Wife’s aunt’s shoots skeet competitively. I don’t recall how it all works, but she was showing us a pin she earned because she’s in the top 20 in the US in her class. She’s good. Since I’m not a shotgun guy at all, I asked if while we were out there for the reunion if she could take me and anyone else interested and go shoot some skeet. Have her teach me how to do it, since I just don’t know. She agreed, and off we went.

Aunt-in-law, shooting skeet and showing me how it's done.

At the range was her trainer and shooting buddy. A couple other family members came along as well. We shot 3 games, and I received good instruction on every shot: where to hold, where to look, how this clay is going to fly. For a true first time shooting skeet? I did better than I thought. Of course, the goal I set for myself was 1. have fun, 2. break one clay. So, I didn’t set the bar too high. 😉  But I actually broke a decent number of clays (truly, more than I expected I would), and certainly had a blast. And getting to see Wife’s aunt shoot? Yeah, she’s good and so is her trainer/shooting buddy.

A few things I learned:

• I cannot shoot that Mossberg 500 bantam. I mean, I can shoot it, but it’s not ideal for me. It’s a youth-sized gun. I brought it because I thought Daughter might want to come out and shoot too, but she was more interested in the swimming pool at the hotel. 🙂  The stock is shorter, the curvature of the grip is more acute, it’s just meant for a smaller person. Then with my big shooting glasses on, I succeeded in slamming my right thumb knuckle into the glasses a few times and now I have a nice shiner under my right eye. 🙂  I’ve shot this shotgun in the past without problem, but didn’t have those big glasses on. After the first round, I was able to borrow an adult-sized 12 gauge (a gorgeous Beretta over-under), and now I just have a sore shoulder.
• When you shoot skeet, of course you must lead the clay. A lot of it is just shooting more, learning the timing, the rhythm, and how much lead each clay out of each house at each position. Well, when I thought about leading, I would lead and I would break the clay. When I tried to just have a “zen mind” and not think about anything, I would revert to all my handgun and rifle shooting, where you generally want to shoot at the target, no leading. So, that’s something to work on.
• I did get the hang of the basics, so really it’d just be a matter of shooting more to ingrain it all. I’m certainly open to more! I also wouldn’t mind trying out trap.
• It’s a lot more pleasant to pick up a couple big plastic shotgun shell hulls off the ground than hundreds of little brass 9mm cases. 🙂

Had a blast. In fact, I liked it a lot more than I thought I would. I knew I’d have fun, but gosh… it makes me want to do more shotgun shooting. In fact, I have recently had some changing thoughts on shotguns, but I’ll write on that later.

The next day I returned the favor to aunt-in-law. She’s a shotgun person, I’m a handgun person. She’s been looking at getting a handgun (personal protection and all that), so I let her shoot my carry gun and gave her some basic instruction.

It was a good weekend.