The idea of Touch-and-Go actually has its roots in aviation. New pilots use it to learn how to land and take off again. You come down for a landing, touch the runway with your wheels, and then push the throttle forward to take off again.
What does Touch-and-Go have to do with consistently breaking targets in sporting clays? It has to do with how you approach the target, touch it, and then pull ahead for the proper forward allowance — or lead as most people call it.
This is a new column dedicated to recreational shotgun pursuits in both the clay target disciplines and the feathered kind. From the first moment I ever pulled the trigger of a shotgun, I loved it. I had to really work at it but I enjoyed it so much I was willing to do so. The more I shot, the more I wanted to learn. I took lessons from a variety of instructors and, over time, my skills evolved as did my passion for just about everything involving shotguns.
Oooooh, I can feel it already: You read that headline and you wanted to punch me.
That or you’re still reading this story because you’re a terrible shot, desperate for anything that might make you better.
If it’s the latter, go get your gun fitted. Then practice, practice, practice.
If it’s the former … well, good instinct!
In Part I, we met Charlie Mincey, former Georgia moonshine runner who would be our host for evaluating the new Ruger Red Label on sporting clays courses that we visited in a restored 1939 Ford Sedan moonshine car. In Part II, we shot sporting clays with the Ruger Red Label at the Foxhall Resort and Sporting Club as well as Barnsley Gardens — delving deeper into Charlie’s incredible story. Now in our final installment, we stress test the Ruger Red Label at the ravine-intense Etowah Valley Sporting Clays followed by a visit to Dawsonville, which is the heartbeat of the state’s moonshine culture.
In Part I, we met Charlie Mincey, former Georgia moonshine runner who would be our host for evaluating the new Ruger Red Label on sporting clays courses that we visited in a restored 1939 Ford Sedan moonshine car.
Inside a canvas and leather gun slip, the new 12-gauge Ruger Red Label looked at home beside me leaning across the spacious back seat of the 1939 Ford Sedan moonshine runner.
I don’t think anyone could say that U.S. shotgunners suffer these days from a lack of factory shotshell loads. There are now no less than six major shotshell ammunition plants in the U.S. plus a specialty one. As recently as ten years ago there were only three, with no specialty load manufacturers. Additionally, there is at least one company involved full-time in importing and shipping direct to U.S. shooters an Italian-made line of shotshell ammunition. Lastly, there are currently at least three or four shooter groups – mainly in Texas – importing container loads of still more lines of Italian and Spanish-made shotshell ammunition which they then sell direct.
One by one, the turkeys flew toward me from their roost tree, a dusky old bull pine across the draw. They weren’t headed right at me, but close enough that I just might get a shot this morning.
In the James Bond movie “Skyfall,” Agent 007 (Daniel Craig) uses a .500 Nitro Express Double Rifle to kill dangerous game of the two-legged variety from the little-known London gunmaker, Anderson Wheeler.
Griffin & Howe clients recently had the chance to hear shooting pointers from one of the world’s top grouse shots, and then to shoot simulated driven grouse under his expert eye. Phil Burtt, who manages the shooting at England’s Belvoir Castle, was in the US with his boss—Her Grace, the Duchess of Rutland—and presented a tutorial at Hudson Farm, Griffin & Howe’s shooting preserve in Andover, New Jersey, on March 19, 2014.
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