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Yesterday, we went and had another day of our kind of "golf". Maddy found another sporting clays course online about 40 miles from Cincinnati. So we rented a car and four of us went, the original three (Maddy, Wayne and I) plus Mel. We drove out along Interstate 75 to Middletown, Ohio. Which, we guess, is in the middle between Cincinnati and Dayton. Hence the name, Middletown. We were heading for the Middletown Sportsmens Club. We drove through a very depressed downtown area. Lot's of boarded up shops and places for rent. We crossed a series of railroad tracks (strangely enough) and it was like night and day. The houses we passed were set back from the roads, and those we could see where huge with well kept lawns. A small sign directed us to a narrow side street that led to the clubs entrance. We could hear the snapping of gunfire as we entered the grounds.
After paying our 56 dollars for course fees and ammo (or greens fees and golf balls if you want to stick with the analogy), we met Bob our trapper for the day. He pulled up with three golf carts, had us divide into pairs, and follow him out to the course.
This course was not as nice as our last, nor was Bob as clean as Andrew. Andrew at Sandanona, the last course, had a nice plaid shirt, tucked in to his tan hunting pants, shoes neatly tied, not a hair on his head out of place. Bob on the other hand, was wearing an untucked white T-shirt, and a baseball cap, slightly askew. His jeans had stains on them, as did his teeth. I watched as Bob drove the cart ahead of us. He was slouched like any other teenager behind the wheel. One hand hanging down with a cigarette.
We were definitely not at Augusta (think golf metaphor), this was going to be like playing a local public golf course. Fine for a round every now and again, but don't expect magic.
We pulled up to the first station and Bob explained how to load the shotguns we were using. Again, these were not as nice as the golf clubs we had at Augusta (shotguns at Sandanona), These shotguns were semi automatic (as opposed to over/under double barrels) and considerably heavier. Think $3400 vs. maybe $500. To load, you'd stuff one round in the chamber, cock it, and then load the second round. And to add to the fun, they only gave us two shotguns for the four of us, and both stocks were loose.
Not to say we didn't have a really great time. When we started, we were a little grumpy at how uncomfortable the guns were, how fast the targets moved, how small the field of fire was, etc.. But we were especially mad at the fact that we weren't hitting much of anything. By about the 5th station I think I had figured it out. The only reason we had been hitting more targets at Sandanona was because we got to see the "presentation" 5 times. Here we were seeing the "presentation" 3 times. I figured the last time, we'd be hitting our stride at about half way through and getting extra rounds in for more hits.
The advantage of this course was it was more "realistic" to competition sporting clays. Andrew (at Sandanona) explained to us that in competition, the most you will get is 6 rounds at each station. At Sandanona, we played 10 stations with 10 rounds each. At the Middletown Sportsmens Club, we were shooting 16 stations of either 6 or 7 rounds each to total 100. So basically, we hit our stride and then move on to the next station and start all over again.
After this revelation, we had a blast. We started ribbing Bob every time he'd explain the "presentation"."Okay, here we will have 3 set of true pair, one is the standard 108 disc but the second is the smaller 60 disc."
"How big is the 60, Bob?"
"Oh, about the size of a hockey puck. But the real fun is that it's so small when it leave the trap you don't know what direction it's going."
"OH GREAT!! Thanks Bob, why don't we just shoot 6 rounds at the clouds and go to the next station!"
We'd all laugh and then get on with it. We were there for just under three hours, but time flew by so fast it was unbelievable. We started the course a little after 12:30PM, and the first time I looked at my watch it was already 20 minutes to 2PM!
Again, our best shooter was Wayne with 35 out of 100. I was 2nd with 29 of 100, a far cry from my 51 from the first time I went. Mel and Maddy tied with 20 out of 100. It was humbling, the presentations were much harder than before. The clays were moving much faster that we expected, not to mention those 60s!
I'm looking forward to the next time.
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Here's a couple of pictures and a two videos from our day of fun. I noticed the last time I posted pictures, but you couldn't see the clays. This picture was from our final station which I think was called "Bridge and Gully" We stood on a bridge and two targets were released in "true pair" meaning, at the same time. Other releases were "On Report" (explained in the last skeet blog) and "Following", which meant Bob would throw one and then quick load another one and throw it. I added red arrows so you can see the disks.
Now here's a quick video of the same presentation. I think Mel is pulling the trigger. You can see him miss the first one, but annihilate the second one.Here's another favorite presentation of ours. Most times the clays are flying across your field of view. But at least once on a course you'll get what are called "Rabbits". It's when they roll the discs across the ground. At Middletown you got a "true pair" of rabbits. One would think these targets are easy, but they're not. You should note the first one bouncing high into the air after release. Maddy is shooting and doing a great job at mowing the grass. Not so great at hitting the discs though. I think Wayne and I shot the best this time out getting 2 of 6. The first time, I think I was the only one to hit a rabbit.
I just watched the video, maybe you can't see the "rabbits" in the window like I can on my computer. I guess it's because I enlarge the window. If you want to see it, I can email you the video.
And finally here's a list of the 16 stations and the presentations. Lots of challenge there.
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