A challenge that many clays shooters aspire to conquer is breaking a simultaneous pair of clay birds. This feat requires a special set of techniques and strategies to accomplish. This article explains the basics of clay shooting, how to aim at two clay birds simultaneously, the art of breaking a simultaneous pair, and mastering techniques for successful double hits.
I wouldn’t exactly call it a slump, but clearly my sporting clays performance felt like it was undergoing a creeping atrophy of body and mind. Focus and concentration required digging deeper and deeper into myself, casting adrift my inner instinctive shot like an untethered astronaut floating off into space. Finally, I simply had to accept the inevitable: go ahead and just take lessons again.
Winchester AA Diamond Grade[/caption]But essential to the sport is the shotshell and its components. So Winchester® looked at one of the things it excels at, the manufacture of shotshells, and thought about how to make the best better.
Covering nearly 600 acres, Orvis Hill Country in Fairfield, Pennsylvania is the latest addition to the Orvis Shooting Grounds Collection – joining the flagship Orvis Sandanona in Millbrook, New York and Orvis Pursell Farms in Sylacauga, Alabama as America’s luxury sporting clays, upland hunting and shooting school destinations.
Imagine shooting a British sporting-clays gun anointed with Royal Warrants from every reigning monarch since Queen Victoria, up to and including present day. It’s a 12-gauge tour de force that moves to the target with grace and deportment – even on that low chartreuse crosser that blends against the leafy background until the trees swallow it like a tasty mint.
Kevin Kelly has a knack for cultivating the sweet spot in America’s fine shotgun market. His collection of bespoke Plantation side by sides and over/unders for the field are built to his exact specifications by family-owned Fratelli Poli Armi in Gardone Val Trompia, Italy – replete with the hand-finishing you’d expect from an $80,000 English Best, but starting at $8,995.
Up until a few weeks ago Rich Cole’s stellar career was 100-percent Italian shotguns. Starting in 1979 he joined Beretta USA as a five-dollar-per-hour apprentice gunsmith. The job included extensive time at the mothership in Gardone, Italy learning the finer points of repairing and enhancing Beretta sporting shotguns.
Over the years the sporting clays game has evolved from just targets thrown fast and far to an enticing mix of speeds, angles and distances. In the early years, throwing clays fast and at distance was a great way to challenge the best shooters, but doing so took the wind out of the sails of those new to the game.
Beneath a Texas mesquite tree, I sat on the camo bucket seat with a 20-gauge Zoli Expedition EL resting across my lap, watching skyward for doves.
We anticipated an extraordinary weekend of shooting and dining, since we also had dinner reservations at another great American institution, the Culinary Institute of America in nearby Hyde Park.
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