AUGUST 2001 NEWSLETTER
© Bruce Buck, editor
SUMMERTIME, SUMMERTIME
by Lans Christensen
(Sandanona, NY, July 22, 2001)This time every year Brian and Peggy
Long throw the best lawn party of the summer, and get this- guests
can bring guns and shoot at stuff while lunch is being prepared!
And
shoot we did. 185 Travelers and friends came to this popular summer
event under cloudless sunny skies and banana republic temperatures.
The "Le Mans" style start got the squads, all 30 of them, organized
with their trappers, and Bruce Galotto amped up to 10 and gave
us the
pre-shoot routine.
Thankfully, almost all of the course was in shaded woodland and
there
was palpable relief out of the sun’s direct blaze. There were
twenty
stations; ten stations threw three pairs and ten stations threw
two
pairs. While this configuration succeeded (in large measure) in
keeping the shoot moving along, it also defined the challenge
of the
event.
Another defining feature was the large number of true pair
presentations thrown from two traps. This meant that the shooter
absotively/possilutely had to be prepared before stepping in the
box.
You can not "work into" the targets…drop one, make a change, drop
the
other, figure it out, and kill the last two. You have to figure
it
all out before hand and step in the box feeling like you’ve already
shot two pair…. cause you’re only getting two more. The added
difficulty of two -trap presentations and knowing exactly where
both
birds were coming from, where to take each etc. etc. made
concentration and focus critical.
I found on several stations that my smooth move and follow through
killed the first bird but left no time to get to the second properly.
#7, the "settling woodies" was a good example: a long R to L
quartering away bird over the pond thrown simo with a battue.
If you
took time and made the nice long maintained-lead picture on the
crosser, you needed a shovel to find the battue. I watched one
of the
day’s best shooters go with the percentage and take both shots
at the
battue. He got them all, and left happy. A big size ten hats-off
to
our diminutive data keeper who ran the station…taking the crosser
early and going to a perfect spot shoot on the dropper.
Another characteristic of the day was the target variety. Sure,
we
say that about every shoot, but when you have twenty stations
it gets
hard to keep everything fresh. Well, it was a new look at every
stand. 60’s, 90’s, flying rabbits etc. we got it all. The "gulch"
for
instance threw a simo pair of 60’s….and you thought that 110’s
looked
small down there in the valley? The course with many stations
is a
double-edged sword. You’re not going to get beat up to badly on
a
very tough station, but you’re not going to be able to rack up
a lot
of x’s when you get to the beach balls either.
18,500 targets later we emerged bruised and bleeding from the
course.
There had been a couple of back-ups when the tower insisted on
throwing the pre-shot targets. (They changed back to the hard
rubber
ones when I shot). All the chatter I heard was unanimously positive
about the course, though there were comments that a few of the
simos
might have made better report pairs. Tue enough but with the large
field to push through and time considerations, I think they did
a
superb job of providing us a challenging, fair, and fun course.
One more treat after the great lunch: A shoot off for HOA! This
is
always a little extra bonus for the wannabees. We get to see the
day’s two best shooters tackle ten obscenely tough targets. Mike
Horodyski and Bruce Buck gave us a terrific display of their
championship shooting…Bruce shooting his beloved Belgian O/U….and
Mike prevailing. Both deserve raucous cheers. The day’s winners
convened in Sandanona’s lovely new retail space to cash in the
generous gift certificates…and so what if what you bought was
a
little more than you won…you deserve it! Thanks to Brian and
Peggy
and the whole crew, see you next year.
HOA Mike Horodyski 82
I-1 Al Anglace 81
I-2 Vin La Scalza 74
I-3 Doug Robare 74
II-1 Peter Wicker 80
II-2 Jeff Ledgard 74
II-3 Preston Moore 73
III-1 Mike Steiner 66
III-2 Paul Cahan 62
III-3 Lans Christensen 60
IV-1 Rich Russo 64
IV-2 Cyndi Dalena 63
IV-3 Bruce Hernsdorf 62
V-1 Estella Vaden 62
V-2 Barry Corwin 57
V-3 Brett Munro 52
VI-1 Tristan Pennell 46
VI-2 Donna Galotto 37
VI-3 Carol Roesslein 32
Ldy-1 Patti Mastroianni 69
Ldy-2 Paula Moore 64
Ldy-3 Susie Clarke 59
Vet-1 Bruce Buck 82
Vet-2 John Lawlor 78
Vet-3 Zaid Siddig 71
Jr-1 Ryan Engels 80
Jr-2 Wade Engels 63
Jr-3 James Nicoletti 61
Jr-4 Paul Lockyer 45
Jr-5 Justin Bates 34
Jr-6 John Poloroso 27
Guest Ed Finnigan 80
TAMARACK COMBO-RESULTS
Our May and June back-to-back shoots at Tamarack produced a finishers
list with a lot of holes in it. Well, we don’t want any more than
the
usual amount of confusion, so here are the official results of
the
"combined" 250 bird shoot as far as the Travelers members go.
Of
course, those who shot but weren’t Travelers aren’t listed because
they don’t count.
HOA Godfrey Shelton 208
I-1 Vin La Scalza 206
I-2 Peter Wicker 195
I-3 Bruce Galotto 193
II-1 Ted Knapp 205
II-2 Bill Schlichtmann 189
II-3 Doug Moore 186
III-1 Luis Cabassa 182
III-2 Todd Feil 177
III-3 Bruce Hernsdorf 172
IV-1 Bill Bretschager 169
IV-2 Denny Iker 162
IV-3 Lans Christensen 159
V-1 P. Hoffman 124
V-2 M. Johnson 123
V-3 Liz Lockyer 122
VI-1 Brett Munro 141
VI-2 Donna Galotto 89
Ldy-1 Susie Clarke 177
Ldy-2 Anna Marie Collins 165
Vet-1 Al Anglace 204
Vet-2 Martin Schroeder 191
Vet-3 Ed Moritt 182
* No juniors competed in both events
THE JUDGE RULES
Oyez! Oyez! All rise for hizzoner Mucho Pomposo. Your court of
sport
is now in session.
Myron Sepsis, in the dark glasses, tugged on the coat sleeve of
Palmade Pete, his high profile defense attorney. "Pete, dis gonna
be
piece of cake, right?" "Yeah, sure Myron. These rubes won’t know
what
hit them when I’m done. I’m going to habeas their corpus."
While the judge looked down, the clerk intoned, "The case today
involves the State of Sporting vs one Myron Sepsis. The charge
is
gross violation of the spirit of sportsmanship, gross ignorance
of
the rules and grossness in general. How do you plead?" "We’re
innocent!", Pete boomed out as he swatted an unfortunate fly on
the
desk for emphasis.
And the prosecutor started in. "Mr. Sepsis, on or about July 22nd
did
you and your party arrive late to the shoot and keep roughly 180
shooters and 20 trappers standing around in the heat?" "Yeah,
so
what. I had things to do. Besides, my time is more important than
other peoples. I’m a Mr. Big. The Little People should wait and
be
happy with it."
"Mr. Sepsis, did you fail to add up and double check your scorecard
so that it made extra work for the scorers? Did you also fail
to turn
it in on time so as to hold up the entire scoring process?" "I
paid
good money for this shoot," Myron shot back. "Someone else should
do
the adding. If they want my card, they can come and get it."
The jury fidgeted in their seats. Miss Manners sat bolt upright,
third from the left in the front row. The Technoid slumped down
in
the second row of the jury box trying to hide the Twinkies and
Jolt
Cola he had smuggled in. The Judge poured another glass of "water",
suspiciously the color of vintage Port. Palmade Pete massaged
a bit
more Brylcream into his pompadour.
"Mr. Sepsis, at the shoot you are accused of failing to fire at
a
pair because you didn’t take your safety off. You then claimed
a
malfunction and shot the pair again. That’s cheating! Don’t you
know
that failing to disengage the safety is a shooter’s error and
the
birds are lost?"
"Your Honor," cooed Palmade to the Judge, "my client wasn’t supplied
with a rule book. He couldn’t thus be responsible for knowing
what
the rules are. He wasn’t cheating. His mistake was inadvertent
and
based on innocent ignorance."
The Judge peered down over his glasses and intoned, "Ignorantia
lex
non excusavit." Myron intoned back, "Huh?"
Miss Manners whispered in the Technoid’s ear, "That means ignorance
of the law is no excuse. If you are going to play the game, it’s
your
duty to know the rules. If you don’t have an NSCA rulebook, you
can
look the rules up at http://www.nssa-nsca.com. You can print the
whole rule book from there if you want to." Well, actually the
Latin
phrase didn’t go quite that far, but Miss Manners was always
thorough.
Myron started to fidget. He didn’t like being called stuff in
Latin.
He’d offed homies for less. Things weren’t going well the way
Palmade
said they would. That little grey haired lady juror with the steel
blue eyes and starched lace collar was looking right through him.
She
gave him the willies. He should give her a shot.
The prosecutor went on. "Mr. Sepsis, we’d also like to discuss
gun
dangling. Several witnesses at the scene swear that they saw you
dangling your gun over your shoulder in callous disregard for
the
safety and convenience of others. Also, reliable sources state
that
you frequently asked for a "view pair" when you had clearly been
able
to observe the pairs of the previous shooters, thus wasting time
and
money. You also continuously failed to call out ‘New Shooter’
when
you entered the stand so that the trapper could prepare. You are
accused of being obstinate, obstructive and anti-social!"
Myron was aghast. First they talked to him in Latin and then they
used big words. This was no respect! So what if he stretched the
rules. He’d show these ants. He’d just ignore them and walk out.
And
that’s just what he started to do.
Myron stood up, tipping over the desk. Palmade Pete got up too.
In
choreographed unison they awarded the Judge the universal one
finger
salute of appreciation. Then they added a classic Anglo Saxon
word of
opprobrium ending with the second person singular and a reference
to
the Judge’s horse.
The Judge’s face slowly turned the dark purple of his favorite
Port.
"Bailiff! Seize those men!" Full blown riot erupted. Myron’s henchmen
in the gallery attacked the bailiff, the Judge, the jury and anyone
else who resisted. Palmade bludgeoned the court stenographer with
his
briefcase. Myron kicked ankles when peoples’ backs were turned.
Myron
knew he had it won as he put his hand on the exit door.
"Halt!" The voice was so commanding that everyone stopped a moment
to
look up. There was Miss Manners standing up on the jury box rail.
Her
long grey skirt was hiked up a bit and her stockings were rolled
down
to her ankles. One wisp of iron grey hair had escaped from her
knotted bun and hung down on her forehead like Bill Haley’s spit
curl. This was Miss Manners enraged. This was the Valkyrie of
Vengeance!
"Hey.Yo! Why should I stop for you, old lady," said Myron with
a
smirk. "You can’t keep me in here any more than you can make me
mind
some stupid rules." Myron started to open the door to freedom.
He’d
won. The bad guys had won.
Instantly Miss Manners tugged off her starched lace color. It
was
disc shaped and surprisingly rigid, like Odd Job’s buzz saw hat
brim
in the James Bond movie. She scaled it backhand at the gaping
Myron.
It whistled through the air, making an ominous scything sound.
"Kachung!" It pierced the courtroom doors just above Myron’s hand
and
jammed them shut. Myron tugged frantically, but to no avail. Escape
cut off, Myron and his thugs were subdued.
"Wow, Miss Manners" enthused the Technoid. "That was great." "Yes,
indeed", said the Judge pouring himself a stiff one from the
suspicious water carafe. "You saved the day."
Miss Manners acknowledged the compliments. Evil defeated, she
was
going home to a nice cup of chamomile tea. As she rode her bicycle
off into the sunset, she was heard to say, "Sic semper tyrannis."
"What does that mean?" the Technoid asked the Judge. Hizzoner
smiled
and pontificated, "Oh, it’s Latin for ‘Thus always to dinosaurs.’
"
CLASSIFIED ADS
ENGLISH SPRINGER SPANIEL, FREE to good home, 2-1/2 years old,
with
papers showing field breeding and good lineage. Dog has never
hunted.
He is liver and white. Great with kids, but family has moved and
dog
as to go to a good home. Contact Al Anglace at 860-354-9351 or
email
<aaa738@aol.com> to make arrangements to see the dog.
*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.
CHOKE DESIGNATIONS
Every wonder what the choke designations in the subgauges are
that
correspond to the common 12 gauge numbers. Sure you have. I’ll
bet
you’ve lost sleep over it. The Technoid certainly did. So he made
up
this little spreadsheet to compare the chokes on the basis of
percentage reduction based on bore size.
In real life, the numbers actually work pretty well. Will wonders
never cease.
| Gauge |
12 ga
|
20 ga
|
28 ga
|
410
|
| Bore Dia. |
0.729
|
0.615
|
0.550
|
0.410
|
| equivalent percentage constrictions by gauge | ||||
|
12 Ga
|
20 Ga
|
28 Ga
|
410 Bore
|
|
| SK |
0.005
|
0.004
|
0.004
|
0.003
|
| IC |
0.010
|
0.008
|
0.008
|
0.006
|
| Lt. Mod |
0.015
|
0.013
|
0.011
|
0.008
|
| Mod |
0.020
|
0.017
|
0.015
|
0.011
|
| Imp Mod |
0.025
|
0.021
|
0.019
|
0.014
|
| Lt Full |
0.030
|
0.025
|
0.023
|
0.017
|
| Full |
0.035
|
0.030
|
0.026
|
0.020
|
| X-full |
0.040
|
0.034
|
0.030
|
0.022
|
| Super Full |
0.045
|
0.038
|
0.034
|
0.025
|