March/April 2019

Any kind of break! A smoke ball . . . a chip. At this point I’ll take a fleck of paint . . . . It was mid-December, and I was silently pleading with the clays gods to throw me a bone. I was shooting sporting clays at the new Beretta Shooting Grounds at Georgia’s Barnsley Resort—and doing miserably. Target after target was flying by unscathed, and I was getting more frustrated with each pull. Admittedly, the shots were challenging—lots of crossing and curling birds at tricky angles—and I was using a borrowed gun, but I should have been connecting more. And this was supposedly the easier of the grounds’ two clays courses . . . .

One of my shooting companions that day was John Burrell, owner of High Adventure Company, which manages the property. JB is a heck of a shot and was busting birds with regularity. I joked that I shoot much better when my quarry has a pulse, but deep down I knew it was a matter of getting out more and pulling the trigger. I walked off the course that afternoon vowing to up my game at the range.

A more rewarding experience had taken place earlier this past fall, not because I had broken more birds (although I had, thankfully), but because I had been privy to seeing a couple of youngsters get introduced to the sport.

I was with good friend Jeremy Hatch and his family at their camp in northern Maine, and we had driven to a deep-woods gravel pit with a portable trap and box of clays. Jeremy and his father, Dave, acted as range masters: instructing on gun safety, doling out shells and keeping watchful eyes on inexperienced hands. It was wonderful to see three generations interacting around a common interest in shooting—and even better to see the smiles on the faces of Jeremy’s 10-year-old son, Ben, and 13-year-old daughter, Abby, when they broke their first targets. In addition, Jeremy’s wife, Ali, was trying out a new shotgun and setting another great example for the kids. It was a true family affair during which more seeds for shotgunning’s future were hopefully planted.

I relate these two anecdotes as an introduction to our annual clay-shooting issue. This time we’ve included a helpful guide for those in the market for a target gun (“A Range of Sporters,” p. 52) as well as reviews of shooting glasses (Gear Guide, p. 31), practice aids (Field Gear, p. 80) and CZ’s All-American (Gun Review, p. 76).

Hopefully you’ll have a chance to get out this spring and give those clays a break!

Ralph P. Stuart