A Letter to Brian.

Oh Brian, Brian, just relax. It's all a good time. That guy was a jerk. Sorry I forgot my camera, or I'd send you pictures.

Thanks for coming out on Sunday. Bull Run Shooting Center is a nice facility. Taking that class together was fun. I didn't learn much I didn't already know. And to be quite honest, I think the teacher was misinforming us a bit about stance and gun mount. Just relax.

I think my favorite part of the day was during the class, when the trap button was stuck and constantly launching clays, the instructor handed you the gun and you mounted and shot at one of the clays! He threw down the button in frustration (which by the way, stopped the trap) and gave you the grumpiest look. Now granted, you did forget the first key for shooting; Saying, "Pull!" to launch the target. But then again, the targets kept coming and you probably thought he had launched one for you. Just so you know, everyone in class had a laugh.

I apologize for taking you to 5-Stand on your first day out. That was rather selfish of me. But I thought it would be the best way for you to taste how the Sporting Clays course was going to be. Sure we could have gone and done the wobble trap, but we would have been following those pimply faced college students in our class, and I just wanted to get away. You did well I thought, and that trapper was a jerk. That was very out of line of him to tell call you a "dangerous shooter". And that you will probably be kicked off the Sporting Clays course.

I guess my only problem with Bull Run was how uptight they were. Perhaps I'm just spoiled shooting where I've been shooting because it's always just been me and my friends on the courses, and we shot at our leisure. I wanted to shoot the first stand at the 5-Stand, then let you step in and I can help you loosen up. But Jerky the Trapper, made you step into the 2nd station, and without even helping you understand what you were doing, and started launching targets. Jerk.

Now TJ on the other hand, that was a cool dude. TJ was a good trapper to have on the Sporting Clays course. Young kid with a beat up baseball cap and jacket. His wallet hanging out of the hole in his jeans pocket. He wasn't pretentious, or judgmental, he was just a cool kid who gave us pointers on what to do when the targets came out. And he wasn't going to kick you off the course. He did what that other guy should have done, helped you out and told you to, "Just relax".

I will apologize for this though, that was a tough course to shoot. The more I think about it, it was probably the toughest I've shot in my short career. It certainly would have helped if we were able to shoot 100 rounds instead of 50, but I really don't think my score would have improved dramatically.

I promise, the next time I'm in town, we'll go again. This time we'll shoot 100, but you'll have to take a day off from work, because I am not going to shoot there again on the weekend, too many people!

And if we're ever in Hawai'i together again, we are flying to Lana'i and shooting the course there. The girls can hang out for tea time at the hotel.

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