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CONNECTICUT TRAVELERS SPORTING CLAYS ASSOCIATION

MARCH 2001 NEWSLETTER
© Bruce Buck, editor

ANNUAL MEETING NOTES…

East Mountain hosted the Connecticut Travelers Annual meeting on
Sunday, February 18. About fifty Connecticut Travelers were on hand
to direct the future course of sporting clays in the civilized world.
This is your Connecticut Traveler’s fifteenth year, if you are
counting.

If the following report seems similar to the reports from ’98, ’99
and ’00, it is. There’s a reason. Ain’t nuthin broke and it don’t
need no fixin’.

We received a letter from Al Heym’s daughter, Linda, saying that Al
passed away after a long illness. He enjoyed the Travelers and we
enjoyed the time he spent with us.

Membership: We will admit all 45 people on our waiting list. This
will put our membership at just over 400, the same as last year. The
Travelers are very, very healthy.

Treasurer’s Report: We all miss Rudy Passero. In lieu of his usual
report, we kept it short just as he would have. We took in a bunch of
money. We spent a bunch of money. There was tiny little bit left
over, so that was applied to our annual Children’s Charity.

Due to increasingly poor vision, Bob McCullough asked to be removed
from our active roles and his place given to someone else. Not a
chance Bob. By unanimous vote, Bob McCullough has been made a Life
Member of the Travelers. Bob is one of the good guys. We’re not
letting go.

Guide Book: Danni Jesudowich said that the 2001 books would be mailed
out in April. New members get the whole package with the glitzy
binder. Old members get the inserts. To change your information,
contact Danni at <jesudowich@earthlink.net> or 203-783-3932.

Bruce Galotto was awarded "Emcee of the Year" honors and a gorgeous
trophy to go with it. Bruce has added so much to our award
ceremonies. He’s also the only one who can keep Eddie in line. He
should get two awards.

Paul Elia (tel: 201-681-3817) is now bringing in Victory shells by
the container load. He has very reasonable prices for the Travelers.
He is also donating four boxes to each Junior (under 18) who enters a
Travelers shoot. The Travelers donate the entry fee too. Junior
Travelers shoot for free!

Thanks were also given to Dick Mann of Custom Printing in Westport,
CT (tel: 203-226-7292). Dick prints Reload! and has pulled your
editor’s chestnuts out of the fire on more than one occasion.

Congratulations to Bert Schmitz of the Georgia Social Shooting Club.
Bert was named Clay Pigeon’s "Sportsman of the Year". The GSSC is a
traveling shooting group just like ours and they have prospered just
as much as we have. It’s pretty clear that recreational and social
sporting clays are where it’s at.

Thanks to the Travelers librarian Craig Johnson, our library of
videotapes now has twenty-two different titles. They range from "How
to Shoot" to "How to Shoot Really Well" to "How to Shoot Even Better
Than That" to videos on dog training and hunting. Rent one at a shoot
for $6 and just mail it back. Craig is also thinking of adding
shooting books to the library. If you have some to donate, bring them
to a shoot and ask for Craig.

The Fall Trip will not be to Canada this year. Instead we’ll go to
Pennsylvania to a new range with great facilities. Donna Galotto is
the tour leader and she will give us all the information when the
time arrives. There’s no need to hold your breath. You may now
exhale.

The March 30~April 1 Southern Spring Trip is filling up nicely. Danni
Jesudowich reminded the group that the cut-off date is March 23, but
that it would be taken very kindly if you could firm up your plans
before that. Just as with the Guide Book, you can reach Danni
Jesudowich at jesudowich@earthlink.net or 203-783-3932.

This year we will be adding a new club to our roster for the April
shoot. It’s the Olde Newgate Coon Club. They have a challenging woods
course and really good food. Stay tuned.

The membership voted to continue their support of the NSCA by
maintaining a club membership for the Travelers. We do this in our
effort to support the sport. We do not require that our members have
NSCA membership or register their targets.

We continue to support the Harold Kohler Society Scholarship Fund.
This year they hope to give out two, possibly three, scholarships to
a deserving young person starting out in conservation or the trades.
Don’t miss the shoot this summer.

The meeting had a great deal of discussion on just how much
"assistance" a referee should have when calling birds. Some members
felt that the call should be strictly up to the referee. Others felt
that input from the onlookers might help in spotting a small piece of
target. There are good arguments for and against on both sides. The
Judge, Miss Manners and the Technoid were asked to look into it and
report back to the board. Stay tuned.

Finally, in a hail of pregnant and dimpled chads, the entire
Travelers’ Board of Directors was re-elected and large contributions
were promised to their retirement registries for new furniture and
silverware.

We broke for delicious lunch from Chef Mark. The chef has traded his
toque for a Travelers cap and promises to shoot with us one day. Do
anything to keep that man happy. It’s great food.

Refueled, and with all political vapors vented for the year, the
membership trotted out on East Mountain’s course to whack dem
birdies.

The Annual Meeting is actually one of the best get-togethers of the
year. It’s always so reassuring to hear that our little ship of state
is cruising in the right direction.

THE GIFT THAT KEEPS ON GIVING
By Bruce Galotto

I am writing this little dissertation to prevent other well-meaning
males from committing the unspeakable act that I have been found
guilty of.

Here then is my story.

Dateline, October 2000, two months before the dreaded C day. I have
successfully completed one of the most difficult tasks that a husband
can undertake. I speak of the " I think if I could get a new shotgun
I probably would shoot better score. After all so and so has one and
he’s doing a lot better." (It doesn’t matter that old so and so never
shot a score above 51 at a Travelers shoot.) Here comes the number
one line of all husbands in this time of trying to look so humble and
sincere, "This would probably be the last shotgun I would need!" I
can see my entire fellow married males shaking their heads in
agreement, while the unmarried males amongst us just shake their
heads in disbelief. The only reply I give you unmarrieds is simple,
just wait. There is always a day of reckoning.

I convinced Donna that a new Beretta 391 with 30" barrels would be
the ultimate. She, as always, said go see Joe Cimino at North
Atlantic Sportsman (Joe is very knowledgeable in these affairs, Jean
his lovely wife is quite experienced with a husband that need just
one more gun). Thankfully North Atlantic Sportsman is just down from
my office on route 25 in Monroe CT. Joe said he’d have the gun in a
week and he did.

The Beretta was everything I wanted and the wood was surprisingly
good. Even though this was my "Christmas Gift" I convinced Donna to
allow me to take it to Mid Hudson Gun club, "just to test it out".

I couldn’t hit the ground with it. Anything that flew kept right on
going. Seems my Miroku 32" and my new Beretta 391 weren’t even
cousins. Now you would think someone who has been shooting clays for
about 30 years would know that there really is a lot of difference
between an over and under and a semi automatic. But that would be
logical and when it comes to new guns logic never comes into play.

Here was my dilemma:

1. The best I could do with the new gun was to use it as a tomato
stake

2. I couldn’t sell it because it was a gift (from my wife!)

3. If I admitted to my wife that my original glowing sales pitch was
nothing but hot air I would never live it down.

4. I needed something special, something that would leave my wife
thinking that I was kind and thinking of her all the while.

5. The light bulb finally went on. Clean up the auto. Put it back in
the original wrapper and (get ready for this one) give it to my wife
Donna as a Christmas gift. I couldn’t believe my intelligence. Not
only would I unload a gun that only let me hit the ground with my
empties, but I would also save the money and confusion of finding a
Christmas gift for my wife. I bet she will be thrilled to death.
Best of all I would look like I sacrificed my shooting happiness to
prevent that awful recoil (which she never has complied of) from
hurting her beautiful cheek.

What a plan. I out did myself this time. I had visions of her
showering me with affection, unable to contain her joy.

I was right about one thing, she was unable to contain herself from
her expressions, but they were not even remotely related to joy.

I will spare you from sharing how quickly the best laid plans of mice
(husbands) and men go astray. The look on her face when I presented
her the gift that she presented me was something I have never seen
before. Hopefully never will again. I convinced her to "at least
try it". I called Joe and ordered a new stock to fit her.

Donna walked right to the 5 stand at Mid Hudson, the harder one by
the way. Donna had shot 1100s for quite awhile so using an auto was
not entirely new. The first target from Donna’s stand was the #5
target, a crosser from right to left at 40 plus yards. Glaring at
me, she loaded a shell in the chamber and one in the magazine. I
tried not to let her see me watching in case she had trouble loading
and closing the auto. She called for the target tracked it, pulled
the trigger and blew it all to bits. For added emphasis she broke
the largest bit left with her second shot. I let go of the Rosary
Beads I had hidden in my shooting jacket. Silently thanked God and
tried very hard not to smile with that " I told you so smile". She
finished the round with one of her highest scores. There truly is a
God.

She said she would shoot "her" auto loader in the spring. Meantime
she wished to stay with her 20 bore 425. What ever she wants, it’s
OK with me. I will never do this again.

Oh, by the way, Joe Cimino has this new Perazzi sporting clays gun.
You know this might just be…..

[Well, thanks a bunch Galotto. I was going to try out that "last gun"
ploy myself. Now you’ve blown it for everyone.- Ed.]

WELCOME NEW TRAVELERS… At the annual meeting we voted to admit all 45
applicants on our membership waiting list. A new waiting list for
2002 has begun. We cannot take any new members during this year. We
are full up. It’s nice to be popular, but we also have to be very
careful not to let the Travelers outgrow our shooting venues. Our
popular shoots exceed 200 guns. Using the tried and true formula of a
station for every ten shooters, that’s about the limit. We are now at
maximum capacity.


And now, for the benefit or our new members, here’s how we do things:

MISS MANNERS SCORES... "Did you score? Heh, heh." No, no! Shame on
you, you loathsome beast! This is Miss Manners, after all, and this
is not a pandering prurient puerile pre-pubescent publication. We
are talking about keeping the score cards at sporting clays, not
about fogging windows at the drive-in.

Every now and then Miss Manners revisits our Travelers' scoring
procedure as a refresher course. Consider it to be something akin to
re-reading your Shakespeare. It becomes even better the second time
around and a little reiteration brings the new students up to speed.

Your CTSCA is a 100% volunteer organization and that includes the
poor rushed and harried souls who have to tally up the scorecards at
the end of the shoot. If you have ever donated some of your time to
help out with this job, you will know what it is like. If you have
not volunteered, you can only imagine. Anything that we can do to
make scoring easier, quicker and more accurate would be a boon to
those self-sacrificing saints among us.

Well, there are some things that you can do. If we all wrote the
scores down on the score card the same way, sacrificing a little bit
of our considerable individuality, the score totaling would go much
faster. Miss Manners urges you to enter your score tallies in the
following way:

For each miss enter a " - ", just a horizontal dash, not a "0" or
some other creative cipher. For each hit, enter the Arabic numeral
in ascending order. The first hit is a " 1 ", the second is " 2 "
and so on. A score line of five hits out of eight attempts would look
like this: /1/2/-/3/-/4/-/5/.

Use of the dash " - " instead of the zero " 0 " avoids confusion with
numerals 6 and 8 and is easier to read at a glance. Not everyone has
had the advantages of Miss Manners third grade penmanship course. At
the end of the line, enter the total score for the station as usual.
As this total score will be the same as the last hit number, some
mistakes and miscounting are avoided.

When your squad has finished the course and is walking back to the
club house, swap scorecards and have two other shooters add each card
up, confirm the total and initial it. If we all follow this
procedure, all the cards will be totaled when we hand them in.
Entering the scores back at the clubhouse will be a piece of cake.
The scorers may actually get to eat lunch and you will return home
before dark.

In addition to that little refresher on how to write score cards,
this is also a good time to go over the Miss Manners approved method
of refereeing a station. We Travelers do not use outside referees at
our monthly shoots because self-refereeing keeps things informal and
holds costs down. By now, each and every old Traveler knows how to
referee and is willing to show a new member just how it is done. We
are all well versed in the rules and can quote passages from memory.
Can't we?

One area that the rulebook leaves a little vague is just what a
referee should call out as a shooter hits and misses targets. Some
misguided referees say absolutely nothing and like to surprise the
shooter with the final score. Not only is this bad manners and
likely to hurt the shooter's feelings, it is also not very good
refereeing.

A referee must call out loud each pair of birds dead and lost. A
shooter is entitled to know how he scored on each pair. Silence from
the referee is often an attempt to avoid the responsibility of making
the call out loud or a misguided effort to be polite. Call out the
pairs. Silence is not golden.

When the shooter has finished the stand, the referee should also call
out the shooter's total score for that stand. If the score is
entered sequentially as suggested above, no adding is involved. The
referee just reads the last number. This way the shooter knows just
how he did and can immediately correct any scoring errors that might
have occurred. Later is too late.

There it is- how to score and tell with Miss Manners. Do it right or
watch out for a smack with the ruler. Your Miss Manners believes in
Tough Love. No! No! Not that kind of tough love you shameless
brute.....

PEACE DALE FITASC…

You will note in the shoot announcements section that Richie Frisella
is having a FITASC shoot at his Peace Dale, Rhode Island range on
April 13, 14 and 15. This is as good as it gets. Call Peace Dale at
401-789-3730 for details and reservations. Richie’s targets will make
you weep for joy, gasp for breath and do a little dance. Can’t ask
for more






*** 2001 CONNECTICUT TRAVELERS SHOOT SCHEDULE ***


MAR 18 MID-HUDSON-MARCH MADNESS
MAR 30-APR 1 MARYLAND SPRING TRIP-NORTH~SOUTH SKIRMISH
APR 22* NEWGATE COON CLUB-TAX TIME REVOLT
MAY 6 EAST MOUNTAIN- COURTING CLAYS
MAY 20* TAMARACK-MAY MINUET
JUN 1-3 PEACE DALE- CLUB FITASC CHAMPIONSHIPS
JUN * TAMARACK-NATIONAL TURKEY FEDERATION
JUL 15* ORVIS SANDANONA-SUMMER TIME, SUMMER TIME
JUL 28* MID-COUNTY-DICK LOSEE MEMORIAL CLAMBAKE
AUG 10-12 ADDIEVILLE EAST-GREAT EASTERN LOBSTER CLASSIC
SEP 16 FAIRFIELD COUNTY- CLUB SUBGAUGE CHAMPIONSHIPS
OCT 5-7 FALL TRIP TO PENNSYLVANIA
OCT 21* MILLBROOK ROD & GUN-OKTOBERSCHUTZENFEST
NOV 18 EAST MOUNTAIN-CLUB CHAMPIONSHIPS
NOV 25 EAST MOUNTAIN-KOEHLER SOCIETY FUNDRAISER
DEC 16 MID-COUNTY-CHRISTMAS PARTY SHOOT
* Date pending


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

APR 1 FRIAR TUCK, NY (800-832-7600) FUN SHOOT
APR 5~8 NSCA, TX (210-688-3371) WORLD ENGLISH SPORTING CH
APR 13~15 PEACE DALE, RI (401-789-3730) RICHIE’S FITASC!
APR 20~22 M&M, NJ (856-935-1230) SEAFOOD BLAST
MAR 4 SUFFOLK, NY (516-924-4490) JEFF GOUN MEMORIAL SHOOT
MAY 5~6 ADDIEVILLE, RI (401-568-3185) RUGER ALL AROUND
MAY 19 FRIAR TUCK, NY (800-832-7600) COUPLES FUN SHOOT
MAY 16~20 M&M SPORTING (856-935-1230) US OPEN
MAY 25~27 HOMESTEAD, VA (800-838-1766) HOMESTEAD CUP
JUN 22~24 HOPKINS, MD (410-348-5287) GREAT AMERICAN
JUN 30 ADDIEVILLE, RI (401-568-3185) NESCA CHAMPIONSHIPS
JUN 29~31 ADDIEVILLE, RI (401-568-3185) WORLD SENIORS SC CH
JUL 22 ADDIEVILLE, RI (401-568-3185) NORTHEAST DU SC OPEN
JUL 28~29 J&P, MD (410-438-3832) BLUE CRAB CLASSIC
AUG 19 HOPKINS, MD (410-348-5287) NSCA ZONE 2 CHAMPIONSHIPS
SEP 9 ADDIEVILLE, RI (401-568-3185) RUFFED GROUSE SOC. CH
SEP 13~16 NSCA, TX (210-688-3371) NSCA NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIPS

Email Bruce Buck at <bbuck@juno.com> or call 203-454-1080 if you know
of any open shoots in our area that might interest our members.


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 by email at <shotguncyndi@prodigy.net> or call 860-584-1083
between 9:00 AM and 5:00 PM and leave a message.

Reload! To place an ad or post a shoot date, email Bruce Buck at
<bbuck@juno.com> (best way) or call 203-454-1080 (worst way). The
current and previous issues of Reload! are posted on the internet at
<www.shotgunreport.com>. You will also find megs and megs of other
useless Technoidal drivel there. Great literature, like mold, never
dies.





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


SUNDAY, MARCH 18, 2001
MARCH MADNESS SHOOT
MID-HUDSON GUN CLUB
NEW PALTZ, NY

You have all heard the phrase "mad as a March hare". Well, it is
March, we are dealing with some rabbits and besides, a little
eccentricity is good for the soul. As Montaigne essayed four hundred
years ago- "A man must be a little mad if he does not want to be
even more stupid." The Frenchman poses a Hobson's choice if ever
there was one.

Mad or not, March is always an interesting time to hold a shoot.
Those of you who have become bored shooting hundred straights may
rest assured that Mid-Hudson’s Mike Maglio will keep you entertained.
If you don’t think so, you satisfy both of Monsieur Montaigne's
requirements.

Registration opens at 9:00 AM and we will move mountains to get on
the course at 9:30 AM, well, perhaps 10:00. In the interim you can
tank up on high test java and little doughnut belly bombs guaranteed
to improve your center of gravity. For those who want to try
sub-gauges in the March wind, our usual gauge handicaps will be in
(gale)force: 16 ga =+3, 20 ga =+5, 28 ga = + 10, 410 bore = + 20,
pumps and SxS get another +5. Saner people will use 12 gauge and the
heaviest #7_s they can get their hands on when those March winds
blow.

The cost is $55 and will include continental breakfast, challenging
targets, sumptuous lunch and the usual lavish prizes from Tiffany and
Cartier. Suchadeal! Naturally, you have to get your prepaid
reservation in to the home office no later than Thursday, March 15.
Same with cancellations. No-show’s entry fees are donated to our
children’s charity. GUESTS ARE WELCOME AT THIS SHOOT.

Directions to Mid-Hudson Trap and Skeet Club, New Paltz, NY: Take
the New York State Thruway to Exit 18 "New Paltz". After the
tollbooth go 100 yards to the traffic light on Rte 299. Turn Right
onto Rte 299. Go about _ mile on Rte 299 to the next traffic light.
Turn Left at that traffic light onto N. Ohioville Road. Go 2.7 miles
on N. Ohioville Road to the Mid-Hudson club entrance on your left. If
lost call the club at 914-255-7460.

NOTE: EYE AND EAR PROTECTION IS MANDATORY AT ALL TRAVELERS’ SHOOTS!

INTERNET READERS: PLEASE NOTE THAT TRAVELERS SHOOTS ARE FOR MEMBERS
AND THEIR GUESTS.