In Sarasota in the spring the polo season begins, the tarpon start to run and the sun allows you play through the mid-day heat. Ms. Deborah and I took a diversion from the beach, golf and stomping divots to break some clays this past spring at the
Sarasota Trap Skeet and Clays. This facility has every type of clay shooting you could want: trap, skeet, 5-stand and sporting clays. We had started out with intention of a quick round of clays and then lunch on the beach. I was anxious to break in a new over and under 20 gauge. Well a lot did break, not so many clays though. Here’s what happened. As we rented a golf cart, the proprietress explained that the sporting clay stations wrapped around the trap and skeet fields between the fields and a canal. Maybe you’ll get to see the resident gator, she offered. Where I come from we measure reptiles in inches not feet. I made sure Ms. Deborah was well acquainted with the cart’s controls. The first station was a report pair, simulating crossing quail. As Ms. Deborah manned the trap control the first pair went off without a hitch.
Pull! Boom. Boom. The second pair is where the breaking started to begin.
Pull! Boom. Click. Click? Yes click. I broken open the over and under and tried again but the trigger was frozen and safety was musher than a rotten apple. Anyone care to guess the manufacturer of the ill-fated over-and-under? Here’s a clue:
Il fucile da caccia è inceppato. Riding back to the clubhouse, we rented a 20 gauge since I had boxes of 20 gauge shells. I opted for a
Beretta Urika. Driving back to the stations, Ms. Deborah’s gave me her impression of
Mister Toad’s Wild Ride. The spiny palmetto scratching as we whizzed to station 2.
Pull! Boom--ouch. Pull! Boom-ouch. The semi-automatic worked like a dream but the stock was short and the recoil jammed my thumb into my nose on each shot. I needed to figure out a way to stop rapping my nose with my thumb. On to station 3 the cart died like a cell phone when you really need it. We had to go back to the clubhouse again. Fortunately two gents who had caught up to our movable feast offered their ride to return to the clubhouse. The two wore dungarees held up with suspenders. Pith helmets topped their heads. With their beards they looked like protégés of the
Duck Commander or two members of a ZZ Top cover band. One’s beard tapered to a point and tickled his belt buckle while the other’s was cut off straight so that every time he turned his head from side to side he brushed off his belly. I can only imagine what Ms. Deborah and I looked like to them. I thanked them and warned them about the canal and gator. They smiled. They could tell we were out-of-towners. Back yet again to the clubhouse, where the proprietress eyed me like a troublemaker. She was quick to find another cart and get us on our way. So back to the Duck Commander crews with a thank you and handshake. On to station 4 with me hanging on to the cart’s handgrip, dodging the palmetto and wondering when the gator would appear. So I would like to end this post by saying the gator bite the golf cart tire. Or I broke a clean 100. But the Urika coughed out the last empty and Ms. Deborah remarked: Now didn’t you make that look easy.
The NWTF will host the World Wild Turkey Still Target Championships from October 2 to 3. It is a completion consisting of one shooter, one shotgun and one shotshell. The winner will be determined by the most shotgun pellets within a three-inch circle on a paper target from a distance of 40 yards. Back in the day we used square card board cards with a fine line “x” drawn from corner to corner. The winner was the shooter with a pellet closest to the intersection of the “x.” Winners had a choice of a turkey or a canned ham. Somehow a “canned ham shoot” doesn’t have the same ring as a turkey shoot. There was one participant with an old Mossberg goose gun—you know the old bolt actions with a 34-inch barrel—who won more turkey and ham than you could shake a 12-gauge shell at. That old Mossberg was banned from completion to level the playing field. That was some canned ham gun if you ask me.
A few months back Ms. Deborah and I played snowbirds and flew down to FL to beat the cold in CT and start on our summer tan. While Ms. Deborah started on her tan, I used the trip to decompress. I was also in the mood to exercise the 
Last month at the 30th World F.I.T.A.S.C. Sporting Championship in Limassol, Cyprus, Beretta Team members Richard Faulds captured gold using a 
It was a sudden-death duel in Bejing in Men's Skeet--Norway's 
What really rubs my fur the wrong way are home buyers who purchase a house near a shooting range and after they move in they complain about noise, toxic lead and whatever else their lawyers dream up. You read here recently about a 
The International Shooting Federation (ISSF), in Munich, Germany, governs Olympic shooting sports. They recently ranked the top three skeet shooters in the world. American Haley Dunn ranked the number one in the world, followed by Ning Wei of China ranked 2nd, and Christine Brinker of Germany 3rd. Smells like Olympic gold is in store for one of these shooters.
Here are a few names to watch this summer in Bejing: Erickson, Cogdell, Hancock and Rhode. Vincent Hancock earned a trip to his first Olympic on the Men’s Skeet team by finishing with a total score of 511 targets. Hancock was the 2007 World Cup Italy Champion/world record holder and 2007 Pan American Games gold medalist. Kim Rhode bested the field to earn her berth on the Women’s Skeet team. Rhode is a three-time Olympic medalist (1996 and 2004 gold medalist, 2000 bronze medalist) and this is her fourth consecutive time on the team. She finished with a total score of 497. Bret Erickson won his slot on the Men’s Trap team. Corey Cogdell was selected for Women’s Trap. And Glenn Eller (a two-time Olympian) and Jeff Holguin are representing the US in Double Trap. These are only our top shooters, there are many others on the 
This year’s Vintage Cup or the 11th Annual Side-by-Side Championships and Exhibition will be held September 27 thru 30 at 
Ironic little gem I picked up while looking at past Olympic shooting medal winners. This past 2004 Olymics in Athens saw Andrea Benelli win gold in skeet for team Italy. Want to know what type of shotgun he was using? Benelli used a Beretta. Sounds like an Abbott and Costello routine to me.
A few weeks ago in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, at the 
Sports are sports and it is nice to see that