DECEMBER 1999 NEWSLETTER
© Bruce Buck, editor

TRAVELERS MEMBERSHIP RENEWAL… This newsletter contains your second,
and last, chance to renew. The Travelers will accept, even joyously
welcome, year 2000 membership renewals until the witching date of
January 31, 2000. If we have not received your renewal by that time,
we must give your place to someone on our long waiting list. There is
a cleverly hidden renewal form somewhere in this newsletter. If you
can find it and send it in with your check, you will win a 2000
membership to the Travelers. Suchadeal!

On a much lesser scale, this is also the last issue of RELOAD! members
will receive unless they renew. Ah, life without RELOAD! What will you
put on the floor of the parrot’s cage? In what will you wrap your
liverwurst sandwich? Don’t dare miss an issue. Hup! Hup! Re-up!

CLUB CHAMPIONSHIP AT FRIAR TUCK… ‘Tis said that sooner or later the
sun shines on every dog’s backside. Well, your Connecticut Travelers
got a suntan last month. For the second year in a row positively
tropical weather favored the November club championships. Of course,
we deserve it.

135 contented clay killers descended on Ross and Regina Caridi’s most
excellent Friar Tuck Catskill resort to find out who will rank as the
Be(a)st of the East, the Clay Commander, the Shotgun Shogun into the
next millennium. Chuck Fraser’s traveling road show set the course and
struck a very nice compromise between challenge and satisfaction. In
the past, the Travelers courses have been a bit heavier on the
challenge part of things on the assumption that satisfaction will come
somewhere in the hereafter. Fraser delivered the goods here on earth.
After a crushing 48 average score last month on a superlative, but
unforgiving, Millbrook course, this month we rose to a scintillating
average score of 67. Clearly, everyone practiced like crazy between
shoots.

Good courses make good shooters, to quote our maestro of ceremonies
Bruce Galotto. Friar Tuck’s course was certainly challenging, but not
overwhelming. The course was balanced with most of the stations being
of roughly equal difficulty. The flavor of the course was definitely
the quartering target. If you could hit those, you prospered. If not,
not.

Winter shoots always cause problems due to the sun being so low on the
horizon. Apollo did not alter the course of his daily chariot ride for
the sake of the Travelers, but Chuck did keep the shots that faced
southwest low to the ground to limit glare as much as possible. Shots
into the sun are a fact of life with sporting. A baseball cap with a
bill pulled down as far as practical can really help. Polarized
glasses also help. Bud Decot and others offer polarizing as an option
on their high quality shooting glasses. It can be worth it.

The flavor of the course was that of the quartering target. Quartering
birds are the hardest shot in sporting clays because they change from
offering an almost crossing shot with a lot of gun speed and lead to
an almost straight away shot with virtually no lead. Swing through
works fine when the quartering bird is close, but kills you when it is
far. The standard miss when the quartering bird is long is to shoot in
front. So little gun movement equates to so much lead at distance on a
quarterer. Many people shoot at the back edge of a long quarterer and
rely on the slightest amount of gun momentum to get the job done. This
can be particularly confusing because a crosser at the same long
distance can require large amounts of lead.

The course showed us many report pairs, often with the second bird
delayed a bit due to coming from a long distance. It is often helpful
to dismount and remount between shots in these situations. This allows
you to re-establish tempo.

On the other hand, many of the quick quartering away pairs were best
addressed with a mounted gun. The last two stations where this type.
Both had going away birds which were best dealt with rapidly as they
only got worse, not easier. You have to know all the techniques to do
well in this sport.

There were two rabbits. On station six it was a 25 yard crosser
preceded by a high quartering away bird. The rabbit was deceptive.
Rabbits always are. One of the big problems with rabbits is that they
don’t give you the right feedback when you miss. Most rabbits are
actually missed in front and only seem to be missed behind. The
telltale dust cloud from the shot is always behind because it takes a
moment for the dust to churn up. During this time, the rabbit
continues to move forward making it appear that the shot was behind.
Also, rabbits slow down faster than airborne birds off the same
machine due to friction with the ground. Wascully wabbits. That said,
this particular rabbit was a touch faster than it looked so the misses
really were behind. Go figure. There’s no justice.

The other rabbit station was a slow ten footer. These gimmick shots
are more amusing for the spectators than the shooters. The trick is to
just rifle shoot the bird and try not to stop the gun. Easy to
understand, hard to do. Very few people got them all.

Station Seven had the long birds. The rule of thumb is that if you can
notice a delay between the sound of the gun and the break of the
target, the bird is over 40 yards away. Seven presented two incoming
shots, each of which first became visible at about 60 yards and
dropped in front at about 35 yards. Like any well-designed very long
shot, the birds showed plenty of belly coming in, so they were really
easier to break than they looked. The best approach was to shoot the
bird as quickly as possible, even though it was a long way off. When
the birds got closer they also started to drop. It was easier to shoot
the bird as an open-faced loooong incomer than as a slightly closer
edge-on dropper.

This was the only station where we had two shot singles preceding the
pairs. That’s a shame. With under the magic ten guns per station and
full auto traps (meaning no problems with voice communication), we had
plenty of time for the luxury of more two shot singles. Everyone loves
to shot their gun twice at a target and a couple of singles before
going into the pairs gives the shooter a chance to learn something.

Station Eight was a "braided pair". It was a straight-away true pair
with a twist. A real twist. By tilting the machines, the birds crossed
each other and then crossed back. The trick here was to fix on one
bird first and try to ignore the other. The second shot was longish
and confusing unless you watched it for a moment. You could wait it
out if you took your time and used plenty of choke.

Twelve had a long, looping quartering incomer dropping in at about 30
yards followed by hot crosser. A bird that is looping in and about to
hit the ground has lost most of its initial speed and spin. This makes
it much harder to break because it has no centrifugal force left to
aid in the shattering. Go up in choke and pellet size on these
targets. They may not be hard to hit but, like a rocket or airborne
rabbit, they can be hard to break. Don’t believe that a bird without
spin is harder to break? Place a target on top of a marker stake 40
yards out and try to break it. You’ll see.

In addition to Neil Chadwick’s admirable club championship-winning 92,
special mention goes to our top guest shooter Mike Matarese for his
marvelous 94. Mike’s family runs the M&M Hunting Preserve in
Pennsville, NJ. Their sporting course has 50 shooting stations and
Mike has mastered them all in a pretty short time. He’s thirteen.

For the rest of us, the best comment of the day was "It isn’t that
our scores are bad. It’s just that we run out of stations a bit
early."

HOA NEIL CHADWICK 92
I-1 John DeVito 88*
I-2 Bruce Galotto 88*
I-3 Mike Horodyski 87
II-1 Peter McCree 84
II-2 Fred Wolf 83
II-3 Mike DeJohn 81*
III-1 Jeremy Willinger 82
III-2 Robert Markarian 75
III-3 George Kaiser 74
IV-1 John Levy 78
IV-2 Lans Christensen 75
IV-3 Randy Sandner 74
V-1 Emile Dorizzi 62
V-2 Ed Ahern 60
V-3 Terry Granger 56
VI-1 John Borchers 51
VI-2 Ellie Levy 50
VI-3 Bill Fucini 40
Lady-1 Susie Clarke 79
Lady-2 Denise Losty 76
Lady-3 Cyndi Dalena 70
Vet-1 Joe Maresca 88
Vet-2 Al Anglace 83
Vet-3 Bruce Buck 81
Jr-1 Rocky Cotoia 56
Jr-2 Luke Sproviero 43
Jr-3 Jordan Zeyher 27
Guest Mike Matarese 94
* tie decided by shoot-off



GUIDE BOOK… A copy of the 2000 Connecticut Travelers Guide Book is
included in your membership. Members who already have the 1999 Guide
Book with the deluxe super-fancy snap-ring binder, will receive
plebeian paper inserts to update their book. New members will get the
whole eye-catching book in 2000 and thereafter will receive the
mundane-looking inserts.

We think that it is important to the Travelers that every member has a
Guide Book. It will facilitate calling around for rides to shoots,
doing business with Traveler-owned companies and will ease the social
intercourse that is part and parcel of our association. The Guide
Book is part of the glue which holds us together.

PLEASE READ THIS: We would like to place every member’s name and
information in our guide book, but we understand that some members may
not want this. If you do NOT wish to be included in the Guide Book,
please check the appropriate box on the membership renewal form above.
If you do not check the box, you WILL be in the Guide Book.






A TRAVELERS' CHRISTMAS…

'Twas the night before Christmas, when through the club house
Trap machines were all humming, and so was my spouse;
The stockings were hung in the gunroom with care,
In hopes Shotgun Santa soon would be there;

The battues were nestled all snug in their box
And the minis were cuddled right near the Blue Rocks;
Mamma in her vest, I with my shell pouch
Had just settled in with some beers on the couch,
When out on the course there arose such a clatter,
I sprang up to see just what was the matter.

I locked and I loaded my faithful twelve
Not believing at all in the Christmas elve.
And what to my shooting-glassed eyes should appear,
But a miniature trap so tiny and dear.
A gaily dressed trapper the seat was astride
With piles of presents stacked up by his side.

With a chuckle and chortle and gleam in his eye,
He’d load a gift up and then let her fly.
In rapid succession the sky became full
With brightly wrapped packages at every pull.
They showered about us like meteors bright
All glistening and twinkling like stars in the night.

When his job was done, he turned and he said,
"Good little Travelers, go back to bed."
Then he jumped on the trap and loaded himself,
Called "Pull!" and became a rocketing elf.
But I heard him exclaim, ere he soared out of sight,
"HAPPY CHRISTMAS TO ALL, AND TO ALL A GOOD-NIGHT."

(With sincere apologies to Clement Clarke Moore- BCB)





*** 1999 CONNECTICUT TRAVELERS SHOOT SCHEDULE ***

DEC 12 MID-COUNTY-CHRISTMAS PARTY SHOOT
JAN 16 EAST MOUNTAIN- MID-WINTER MARTYRDOM


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

What, nothing of interest anywhere else in the land? Come on. Gotta
be something out there where we can shoot stuff. Give us a call
(203-454-1080) or Email <bbuck@juno.com> if you know of any open
shoots in Travelers Turf which might interest our members.



GOING TO A SHOOT? WHY NOT ASK A FELLOW TRAVELER TO JOIN YOU? ALL THE
NAMES AND ADDRESSES ARE IN THE TRAVELERS GUIDE BOOK.



CONTACTING THE TRAVELERS... CTSCA Home Office: Email <AAA738@aol.com>
(by far the best way) or telephone (860) 354-9351 if it is urgent.

Membership and Shooting Class status: Contact Cyndi Dalena at (860)
584-1083 between 9:00 AM and 5:00 PM. Leave message. Or Email
shotguncyndi@prodigy.net

Reload! To place an ad or post a shoot date, contact Bruce Buck at
203-454-1080 or <bbuck@juno.com>.


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

SUNDAY, DECEMBER 12
CHRISTMAS PARTY SHOOT
MID-COUNTY GUN CLUB
LAGRANGEVILLE, NY

It’s Christmas Party time! Our most popular shoot of the year, this is
the time when the Travelers Club says "Thank you" back to the members.
There will be gifts aplenty with prizes and lots of lucky raffles. Of
course, the gifts won’t extend to the course, which will be the usual
tough love. Well, rumor has it that even course designers get the
Christmas spirit, so there is hope.

Due to its extreme popularity, THIS IS A MEMBERS ONLY SHOOT. We don’t
exclude guests very often, but this has to be one of those times in
order to be fair to all the members who want to attend. The shoot will
cost $75. This is a bit more expensive than usual, but those of you
who have been to previous Christmas shoots understand why. There are
usually just bags and bags of loot to be handed out to good little boy
and girl Travelers. Fasting for a few days before the shoot wouldn’t
be a bad idea either. The banquets which the Mid-County members cook
for us are always memorable. We must have your shoot reservations in
our hands no later than Thursday, December 9th. No-shows and
cancellations after that date cannot be refunded and will be donated
to our Traveler’s charity. Arrive by 9:00 AM and check your name off
at the registrar’s table. Then, and only then, can you begin your
assault on those mounds of Dunkin Donuts and gallons of Colombian dark
roast high test Java.

At this time of year, we are all mindful of the blessings showered
upon us. It is right and proper to give a little something back to say
"thank you". The Travelers participate in the well known "Toys for
Tots" program. We hope that every Traveler attending the Christmas
shoot can bring a NEW, UNWRAPPED child’s toy to donate. Even if you
can’t attend the shoot, perhaps you could give the toy to a shooting
friend to bring for you.

DIRECTIONS to Mid-County Gun Club, Lagrangeville, NY: From the Rte
84/Taconic intersection, take Taconic North for about 10 miles to Rte
55 East exit. Go East on Rte 55 for about 1 mile to Rte 55/Rte 82
intersection. Turn Left and follow Rte 82 for about 1 mile to County
Road 89 on Right. Turn Right onto County Road 89 and follow it for 3_
miles to club entrance on Right. If lost, strayed or stolen,
Mid-County’s telephone number is 904-677-5736.

REMEMBER, EYE PROTECTION IS MANDATORY AT ALL TRAVELERS SHOOTS.