RELOAD!

FEBRUARY 2004 NEWSLETTER
© Bruce Buck, editor


MID-WINTER MARTYRDOM
January 18, 2004
East Mountain Preserve
By Lans Christensen

With snowflakes and targets a-flyin, the Travelers began their eighteenth year
as a club of friends and shooters. It was a modest size bunch to start the new
year, but we did it with a bang…or rather, 5000 bangs to be more accurate. There
were some considerations which kept the numbers down: bitter cold, steady
snowfall, poor roads, football, winter league shoots, more football, and
finally, two football playoff games. Despite all, about 50 Travelers braved the
weather and joined up to blast into 2004. Clearly, the sporting clay community
is a few bales short of a barnful.

East Mountain still shows off the new look with the course resembling the Club
Championship and Koehler shoots, but with some nice additions and subtractions (
no gravity rabbit ). Several of the two trap stations had a great mix of two
shot singles, report pairs, and simos giving a “European” flair to the game.

Some of the noticeable tweaks showed at #4 which now throws a 90 with the 110 .
The pair is thrown from some distance L to R as a simo, and used to be a
smoothly hittable pair. Changing one to a 90 now means two different speeds and
trajectories, and a lot more technique.

#6 is always an enjoyable challenge. No matter what they throw you here, there
is the risk/reward of going for them early and aggressively. Now it’s a simo
pair of chandelles, and Big Fun if you look and hold back to the trap and get
them both before the tree. Lots of good shooters can still get the second bird
after the tree, but by then it’s all edgy and dropping fast. You have to
challenge yourself in this game sometimes…so go after em early. Great target !

The driven pair at #8 has become a sort of signature station and I hope it
doesn’t change. Everyone still smiles when they make a dust-ball out of a target
here. The tower was used to advantage throwing a nice following pair for #10,
and a ripping pair of overheads for #11.

As always, many thanks to George H. and his crew who not only worked traps in
the snow, but who followed some tricky menus and did so flawlessly. One other
note of interest about the course and the shooters was the large number of small
gauge guns used and the success that they enjoyed. The two highest scores of the
day were shot with twenty gauge, and there were lots of 28s in the results as
well. Says a lot about the course design.

After Chef Mark’s fine roast pork lunch, and the awards, Al led the way in
wishing Michael Soltes a Happy Birthday. Mike’s dad, Fran, is one of those
untiring heroes who makes this sport possible, and Mike is an exceptionally
talented and gifted baseball player. Ed Moritt led the way in singing “Happy
Birthday”, albeit in an atonal mode, and the cake (created by Mark as an
enormous baseball) was presented. Congratulations to all, nice shooting, and
let’s make it a great year !

HOA PAUL ELIA 92
I-1 Lavert Cypher 91
I-2 Dean Anglace 86
I-3 Henry Nachaj 84
II-1 John Hyrncewich 89
II-2 Joe Lachick 79
II-3 John Lawlor 77
III-1 Mike Steiner 85
III-2 Dave Dunn 69
III-3 Chris Edge 67
IV-1 Kevin Coon 77
IV-2 Bob Doolittle 71
IV-3 Jim Henion 69
V-1 Gil Kenrick 76
V-2 Don Brenton 66
V-3 Joe Puglielli 56
VI-1 Ben Sloane 57
VI-2 Alan Costa 39
VI-3 Gwyn Grant 36
Ldy-1 Cyndi Dalena 76
Ldy-2 Debbe Christensen 53
Ldy-3 Olive Lawlor 48
Vet-1 John Mohler 91
Vet-2 Ed Moritt 83
Vet-3 George Parsons 72
Sr Vet Al Anglace 85
Jr-1 Paul Hughes 57
Jr-2 Kendall Coon 52
Jr-3 Jason Costa 47
Guest Greg Pulver 65

EIGHTEEN YEARS…

As Lans points out in his excellent shoot report, the Connecticut Travelers are
entering their eighteenth year of operation. That’s a pretty good run and the
end isn’t in sight. Time flies when you are having fun.

This will also start the twelfth year I’ve been editing Reload! Now that does
seem like along time for you good people to put up with such mindless drivel
from the Editor, the Judge, Miss Manners, the Technoid and his hulking assistant
Forza Bruta. Everyone from the massive Reload! complex, which towers over this
little Connecticut seaport town like a benevolent Colossus, wishes you well for
the new year. May all your battues actually open within range and all your
rabbits hug the ground.

MISS MANNERS BAGS IT...

Just about all the courses have one big one- hill that is. Pawling's is a real
stress test, but Tamarack's is not far behind. There you are, laden like a
beast of burden. Six boxes of shells, a coffee can full of screw chokes, extra
glasses, Windex, water, matches, toilet paper and everything else that you could
possible need on a sporting course. You are ready for anything except that hill
in front of you. Upwards you trudge. Head down, foot in front of aching foot.
Grunting, gasping. Finally, finally you reach the station at the top. All that
you want to do is to sit down and catch your breath before it is your turn to
shoot.

The club has thoughtfully provided benches at each shooting stand. You stagger
towards the bench like a parched Arab towards an oasis. But like the shimmering
mirage, your hopes are dashed. Sure the bench is there, but it is covered with
shooting bags. Heaped with shooting bags. Inundated with shooting bags. "It
must be a bag bench, not a people bench", you moan as you toss your shoot bag on
the bench and your body sinks prostrate to the cold, hard earth.

Well now, listen up! Those benches are for people bottoms, not bag bottoms.
Some shooters put their bags on the bench so that they do not have to bend over
an extra foot when they want to root through their gear. These are probably the
very people to whom bending over that extra foot would do a bit of good! Bags
belong on the ground, humans belong on the benches. Miss Manners says "It is
perfectly correct to move shoot bags from the bench to the ground so that you
may use the bench as your shoot host intended." Our diminutive majorette of
morals suggests that you place the offending bag on the ground right side up.
That, of course, is up to you and may well depend on how steep the hill was.

THE TECHNOID STRINGS YOU ALONG

Shot string that is. We have all heard the phrase, but most shooters do not
know what the term really means regarding pattern performance. Is a long shot
string good in that a bird can "fly into" it? Does a short shot string put more
pellets onto the target? Does it matter? Do you care?

Well, of course you care! Shot string is of vital importance if you are worthy
of earning your genuine hand-painted Junior Technoid plastic pocket protector.
Shot string is a great subject for a Technoid article because no one really
understands it, so no one will know when the Technoid trips up on the odd little
fact or two. E=M/C², E=M+C² or whatever.

Shot string is the flight formation your pellets adopt whilst wending their way
to the target. When you shoot a pattern on a piece of paper, you are only
getting a two dimensional view of what happened. All those pellets did not hit
that paper like an air-borne pancake. They hit it about like a swarm of bees.
Some hit first, some came a little later. The length of this swarm is the shot
string.

Why do pellets string out and not travel together? All the pellets leave the
muzzle at the same velocity, but some of the pellets are a bit less round due to
being damaged at shell ignition or during the trip down the barrel. The pellets
at the back of the shot column and along the sides of the cup tend to lead the
hardest lives. The damaged pellets are less aerodynamic and tend to fall back a
bit when flying to the target. The perfect pellets go through the air more
easily and surge ahead. Some pellets move forward and backwards in the cloud
due to "drafting" (like stock cars). The end result is that at 40 yards, your
shot cloud can be from 6 to 12 feet in length.

Long is not good. Sometimes. On a distant crosser, a very long shot string
will deprive you of a great deal of your effective pattern. Take the example of
a 40 yard crossing target. The bird is traveling at 30 mph at the point you are
going to shoot it. You are using the Technoid's recommended 1 1/8 oz 3 dram
(1200 fps) load of #7.5s through your maximo .035" full choke.

Here are the numbers: Your load of #7.5s has slowed down to 675 fps (feet per
second) by the time it reaches the target. The target is crossing at 30 mph,
which is 44 fps. Your effective pattern width (80% chance of a two pellet hit
defining the fringe) at 40 yards with maximum choke and 1 1/8 oz of #7.5s is only
about 12". That 30" effective pattern hype at long yardage is just dreaming.
Let's assume that you used high quality shot (like Lawrence Magnum with 6%
antimony), so your shot string at 40 yards is about 6 feet. Hard shot has a
shorter shot string than soft shot because hard pellets stay round and retain
better aerodynamics.

It will take 675/6 or .0089 seconds for the entire length of the 6 foot shot
string to pass through that 40 yard target. During that time the 30 mph target
itself will have moved across through the pattern for .0089*44 = .3911 feet or
4.7 inches. If the part of the pattern that you can count on to kill the bird
at 40 yards is only 12" wide to begin with, you have just given away over 1/3 of
that to shot string! The target will literally move out of the way before the
back third of your shot string catches up to it. The two dimensional stationery
pattern paper does not show this aspect of shell performance.

If you had used a poor quality shell, with easily deformed soft shot driven at a
pellet distorting high velocity, your shot string could be as much as 12 feet at
40 yards. This would deprive you of more than 2/3 of your effective pattern on
the above target! This is bad stuff. The further away the target is, the more
shot string elongates and the worse things get.

A long shot string is not always bad. In the sixties the Russian Olympic skeet
team went to great lengths to produce a shell/choke combination that produced a
long shot string at 20 yard skeet distances. They reasoned that a long shot
string would help them. They would simply shoot slightly in front of the target
and if the front pellets did not get the bird, the target would surely run into
the following ones. They were correct. Why does a long shot string help on
short skeet shots and hurt on long sporting shots? Long shot string helps in
skeet because of the very high pellet count of those little #9s. They can
afford to lose some pattern density due to stringing. They have pellets and
pattern density to burn.

Sporting's long distance crossers are very different. Instead of dealing with
651 #9 skeet pellets, you have at most 389 #7.5s on your side in a 1 1/8 oz load.
At 40 yards a #7.5 has about the same energy per pellet as a #9 at 20 yards, so
the numbers equate. 389 is not a high enough pellet count to give up anything
to shot string. Sure, when you shoot in front of the bird, the target could
still fly into the trailing shot string just like the Russian skeet shells. The
difference is that the skimpy shot string of the #7.5s is not dense enough to
insure the required two pellet hit because there are not enough #7.5s to begin
with. Aye, there's the rub. It all comes down to pattern density. Long shot
strings rob you of density and that means that a bird can sneak through your
pattern if you do not have a high initial pellet count.

What to do and how to test? Unless you glue a 16 foot piece of pattern paper to
a boat trailer and tow it behind the family car through a cow pasture as Bob
Brister did, you cannot do much actual testing. You can do some sharp surmising
though. It is a pretty good guess that the shotshells that offer the tightest
patterns on your standard stationary pattern paper, also usually have the
shortest shot strings. Bad or badly treated shot not only lags behind and
strings out, but it also flies out laterally to the sides. This will show up as
erratic fringe on your pattern paper.

You want the roundest hardest shot possible and you want to launch it as gently
as possible and still get the job done. Lower velocity shells pattern tighter
and have shorter shot strings than high velocity cartridges if all other things
are kept equal. That is because more pellets are deformed under the ignition and
setback forces required to obtain that high velocity. It stands to reason.
Plated shot is better than unplated shot, not because the plating adds hardness
(it does not), but because the plating allows the shot to slip around in the
shot mass as it moves up the barrel and avoid being crushed as much. It is a
lubricity thing. John Brindle felt that slower burning powders (such as Green
Dot, one of Don Zutz's favorite powders for tight patterning shells) also
distort shot a little less by providing a somewhat smoother initial launch.

Choke does not really seem to affect shot string at long distance. Full choke
does not "string 'em out" any more than cylinder bore shoots a pancake. Some
semi-wise pundits disagree, basing their opinions on old shot string photography
taken at the muzzle or a few feet beyond. At those close distances, full choke
does indeed string out more than cylinder bore. More modern photographic
techniques capable of showing the string at 30 yards, prove that the pellets
resort themselves based on aerodynamics, not choke. With the same shell, full
and cylinder produce about the same string length at distance. Full choke may
distort pellets a tiny bit more due to squeezing in the choke, but it mostly
really depends on initial pellet quality and launch setback.

Trap shooters have known all this for years. A 27 yard handicap shooter is
hitting his birds at well over 40 yards. True, they are not crossers and thus
less susceptible to shotstring loss, but shell performance is still paramount at
that distance. For long range sporting clays shots, you never go wrong buying a
premium handicap trap shell. Anything less is just cutting down your percentage
chances of a hit. Most Travelers' courses usually have a station or two of long
ones. Make sure that you have a box of super premium #7.5s lurking in your shoot
kit. It will be worth your trouble.

So there it is. The long and the short of shot string. Another dose of salts
from your nearly dearly beloved Mephisto of Myriad Mystical Mechanical Marvels.
Sheath that slide rule!

ELECTIONS…

At the annual meeting, we will elect our Travelers officers for the coming year.
Fortunately, the Travelers have governed themselves wisely for the past
seventeen years and, with your participation, will most certainly do so in the
future.

Nationally, we are also entering the pre-presidential silly season. Here are a
few quotes from The Book of Insults concerning politics which you might employ
the next time some political solicitor tries to dun you out of your shooting
money. Unfortunately, the art of pure vitriol has declined in these modern times
of sound bites and talking heads. It makes one long for the old days.

Put not your trust in princes. Psalm 146:3.

There is not a man in the United States so perfectly hated by the people of my
district as yourself. You must therefore excuse me. I must abuse you, or I shall
never get re-elected. Member of Continental Congress to Josiah Quincy.


Never was ability so much below mediocrity so well regarded; no, not even when
Caligula’s horse was made a consul. John Randolph on Richard Rush.

…We did not conceive it possible that even Mr. Lincoln would produce a paper so
slipshod, so loose-joined, so puerile, not alone in literary construction, but
in its ideas, its sentiments, its grasp. He has outdone himself. He has
literally come out of the little end of his own horn. By the side of it,
mediocrity is superb. The Chicago Times commenting on the Gettysburg Address.

How can they tell? Dorothy Parker on being informed that Calvin Coolidge was
dead.

Democracy is a form of religion. It is the worship of jackals by jackasses.
Mencken

The British have their political vindictive too. …a systematic liar and beggarly
cheat; a swindler and a poltroon. …He has committed every crime that does not
require courage. Disraeli on O’Connell

He is a self-made man and worships his creator. Disraeli on Bright.

Of course Churchill was the best. A sheep in sheep’s clothing. Churchill on
Atlee.

There but for the grace of God goes God. Churchill on Cripps.

I’ve left some extra space here so that you can write in your own opinions of
the current crop of politicians….










*** 2004 CTSCA SHOOTING CALENDAR ***

FEB 15 ANNUAL MEETING- EAST MOUNTAIN PRESERVE, NY
MAR 21 MARCH MADNESS - MID HUDSON SHOOTING GROUNDS, NY
APR 2~4 NORTH SOUTH SKIRMISH-SPRING TRIP TO MARYLAND
APR 18 TAX TIME REVOLT- OLD NEWGATE COON CLUB, CT
MAY 2 COURTING CLAYS- EAST MOUNTAIN PRESERVE, NY
MAY 16 MAY MINUET- TAMARACK PRESERVE, NY
JUN 13 NAT’L. WILD TURKEY FED. SHOOT- TAMARACK PRESERVE, NY
JUL 18 SUMMERTIME, SUMMERTIME- ORVIS/SANDANONA, NY
AUG 13~15 GREAT EASTERN LOBSTER CLASSIC- ADDIEVILLE EAST FARM, RI
SEP 19 SMALL GAUGE CTSCA CLUB CHAMPIONSHIPS-FAIRFIELD CTY. F&G, CT
OCT 8~10 ANNUAL FALL TRIP- PA & NY WEEKEND TOUR
OCT 17 OCTOBERSHUTZENFEST- MILLBROOK ROD & GUN CLUB, NY
NOV 14 DR. RUDY PASSERO MEMORIAL CTSCA CLUB CH.- EAST MTN, NY
NOV 28 KOEHLER SOCIETY FUNDRAISER-EAST MOUNTAIN PRESERVE, NY
DEC 19 DICK LOSEE MEMORIAL SHOOT /CHRISTMAS PARTY- MID COUNTY, NY
* Shoot schedules are subject to last minute change. Always consult the current edition of “Reload!” Therein lies the truth. At least as we see it at this particular time…


*** OTHER 2004 SHOOTS OF INTEREST ***
ALWAYS, ALWAYS, CALL AHEAD TO CONFIRM

FEB 8 NEWGATE COON CLUB, CT (860-738-3619) FROSTBITE OPEN
APR 9 NEWGATE COON CLUB, CT (860-738-3619) GOOD FRIDAY BLAST
MAY 23 MID-HUDSON, NY (845-497-5008/845-255-7460) SHOOTING FOR A CURE
SEP 4 NEWGATE COON CLUB, CT (860-738-3619) 5TH SPORTING CLASSIC
NOV 7 NEWGATE COON CLUB, CT (860-738-3619) THREE SHOT SHOOTOUT
DEC 5 NEWGATE COON CLUB, CT (860-738-3619) CHRISTMAS SHOOT



CONTACTING THE TRAVELERS...

CTSCA Home Office: Email <ctsca @email.com> (by far the best way) or telephone
860-354-9351 if you absolutely must. Membership, Address Changes and Shooting
Class status: Contact Cyndi Dalena at 860-582-3142 between 9:00 AM and 5:00 PM.
Or Email <shotguncyndi@prodigy.net>. Guide Book questions, contact Dick
Orenstein <oren@umich.edu> or call 203-226-5251. To place an ad, post a shoot
date in Reload! or simply heap abuse on the editor, contact Bruce Buck at tel:
203-454-1080, fax: 707-215-0668 or email: <bcb23@columbia.edu>.





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

SUNDAY, FEBRUARY 15, 2004
ANNUAL MEETING AND FUN SHOOT
EAST MOUNTAIN PRESERVE
DOVER PLAINS, NY

Our Annual Meeting, always held in February, is not really a shoot, but
naturally, being Travelers, when the meeting is over you’ll have the chance to
yank the trigger and watch 'em smoke. The Annual Meeting will start in the East
Mountain clubhouse at 9:00 AM sharp. Please be on time or come a little early to
lobby for your favorite projects and scarf up some of the delicious breakfast.
The meeting will last until about noon. We will hear from President Anglace
about how magnificently the Travelers did in 2003, elect the usual suspects into
office and then discuss where we will go in 2004. Member participation is highly
encouraged. If you don’t attend, don’t complain later. Well, actually, whiners
automatically become committee chairmen. It’s the rule of the jungle.

At mid-day we’ll have a catered luncheon. Thereafter we will break up into
squads, roll out onto the course and shoot a friendly round of casual sporting.
If you would like some coaching, we will squad you with other shooters of equal
ability and send along an experienced Travelers Mentor coach to help you out
with the usual bad advice. It is a nice chance to get in a little shooting and
perhaps improve your game.

The fee for luncheon and the shooting (formal course, informal scorekeeping) is
$40. If you just want to come to the meeting and skip the luncheon and shooting,
there is no charge. Please consider attending and send in your paid reservation
so that it arrives by Wednesday, February 11th. That’s just a few days before
Valentine’s Day guys. After you mail that reservation, go buy her some flowers
for putting up with you all these years.

As a member-run club the Travelers have been very, very successful. We want to
make sure that we continue to do what you want us to do. We can’t do that
unless you come and share your thoughts. THE ANNUAL MEETING AND SHOOTING IS FOR
MEMBERS ONLY. Please, no guests this month. NEW MEMBERS ARE ENCOURAGED TO
ATTEND.

Directions to East Mountain Preserve, Dover Plains, NY:

At the junction of Rte 84 and NY Rte 22, take Rte 22 North for about 27 miles to
the town of Dover Plains. Turn Right at the first traffic light in Dover Plains
and go straight for one mile directly into the East Mountain driveway. If lost
call East Mountain Preserve at 914-877-6274.

REMEMBER, EYE AND EAR PROTECTION IS MANDATORY AT ALL TRAVELERS’ SHOOTS!