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Thread: Beginner Trap & Skeet Gun

  1. #171
    Quote Originally Posted by rob_s View Post
    Of course.

    Especially with smaller shooters, gun selection has always been a struggle between lower weight for easier handling which in turn means more felt recoil, gun fit, and new shooters not really *getting* the technique (which I personally think is a large part of the problem here).

    What I'm really most interested in is the most ubiquitous off-the-shelf shotgun used by women in sporting clays, preferably (well) under $1k.

    Nobody is nearly as special as they think they are, and women have been shooting "men's guns" for hundreds of years successfully before Syren and others showed up hawking "you're so special" versions that cost $3k.

    I really want her to try my A300 but at 6'-1" I have pretty much all the shims on the stock and we're going to have to deal with the LOP issue.

    Beretta had an A300 Sporting RL (reduced length?) at SHOT Show this year: http://www.beretta.com/en-us/a300-ou...r-sporting-rl/

    Reduced length, trigger reach, and grip circumference for smaller built shooters. MSRP is $1,100, so street is probably around where the standard A300 Sporting is. The grip and stock felt similar to what Beretta did with their upscale Vittoria line.

  2. #172
    Member Shotgun's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by rob_s View Post
    Shot the same tournament this weekend that started this all last year. I managed 80/100 so I was pretty proud of myself. A lot of the tips we got from the lesson we took really helped out.

    Wife shot it too, with my a300. Made it all the way through and bronze 42. I was immensely proud of her. It only for finishing but for doing so well on only her 3rd try. Said she liked the a300 better than either of the other guns she’d shot before, so now I’ll buy a second identical gun for her and take the spacer out of the stock. And I’ll only have to stock 12ga, which is good since I accidentally ordered 6 boxes of 250, not the 6 boxes of 25 I thought I was ordering...

    We are going on check out Quail Creek Plantation, a little north of the range we have been going to, with some friends in May, and the wife is going to shoot a ladies event in March at the range we have been going to (called “OK Corral”).

    This is turning out to be the most fun I’ve had with a gun in a long, long, time.
    Great post. Women are THE growth demographic for shotgun sports. Good for you that your wife enjoys shooting and that you are getting her out to do that!!

    Quote Originally Posted by rob_s View Post
    While we're on the subject of new shotguns...

    anyone that can help me understand the A400 line? There's the Xplor, the Xtreme, and the Xcel, and then there's also some sort of "unico" business... and then most of these are available with any without the "KO" option which I understand to be their kickoff shock-absorbing stock (which seems it may be able to be retro-fitted to the A300?)...

    I'm not looking to mess with success since the wife likes the $750 A300, but I'm curious about some of these other options.
    Regarding your question, the Xcel is Beretta's current target shotgun. It cycles extremely fast for follow up shots. I have actually seen a fair number of women shooting this shotgun. The blue receiver of the Xcel, at least where I shoot, does not seem to appeal to men as much. There is a black version of the Xcel that men seem to prefer. The other models in your inquiry list are more used for hunting. They could certainly be used for target shooting, but you rarely see those models on clays courses.

    Go with the a300. Since your wife likes that shotgun, do not mess with your success at this stage. The a300 stock should have shims, as I recall, and you can get it to fit reasonably well. You can do the shims yourself, but a gunsmith can help with that for not much money. A simple inexpensive fitting option you might consider is to have the stock cut a little shorter and a new recoil pad installed. At least you can get the length of pull right for your wife without spending too much money. If she can shoot without developing a recoil "egg" on her check and she is hitting targets, there is no need for a stock fitting at this time. Keep it fun. If she keeps with it (hopefully) she can consider better shotguns and stock fittings as her skills and interest increase.

    Keep encouraging the spouse and have fun!
    "Rich," the Old Man said dreamily, "is a little whiskey to drink and some food to eat and a roof over your head and a fish pole and a boat and a gun and a dollar for a box of shells." Robert Ruark

  3. #173
    Site Supporter rob_s's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Manbearspider View Post
    Beretta had an A300 Sporting RL (reduced length?) at SHOT Show this year: http://www.beretta.com/en-us/a300-ou...r-sporting-rl/

    Reduced length, trigger reach, and grip circumference for smaller built shooters. MSRP is $1,100, so street is probably around where the standard A300 Sporting is. The grip and stock felt similar to what Beretta did with their upscale Vittoria line.
    thanks, that's good to know.


    Quote Originally Posted by Shotgun View Post
    Go with the a300. Since your wife likes that shotgun, do not mess with your success at this stage. The a300 stock should have shims, as I recall, and you can get it to fit reasonably well. You can do the shims yourself, but a gunsmith can help with that for not much money. A simple inexpensive fitting option you might consider is to have the stock cut a little shorter and a new recoil pad installed. At least you can get the length of pull right for your wife without spending too much money. If she can shoot without developing a recoil "egg" on her check and she is hitting targets, there is no need for a stock fitting at this time. Keep it fun. If she keeps with it (hopefully) she can consider better shotguns and stock fittings as her skills and interest increase.
    Yes, the a300 has shims. Immediate plan is to get her one and take the shim out completely. See where we go from there. I'm frankly pretty encouraged that she managed to finish the course with my gun, as I'm 6' tall and pretty thin, and she's much shorter and dealing with boobs. I have to think that my gun less the shim will be a vast improvement for her.

  4. #174
    Site Supporter rob_s's Avatar
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    Stopped in Bass Pro yesterday and got the wife her own a300. Came home and took out the shim. Even with the shortest screws I couldn’t quite get the base pad tightened all the way down but I think we are ok for now. She definitely felt the difference with the stock 1” shorter.

    I held the a300 Outlander Sporting, and loved the way it felt. Not sure why it felt different but it did. Wife was actually encouraging me to get that for myself and give her my a300 synthetic, but I decided I’d rather have the $300 in my pocket than in the gun. I’m hoping that this “takes” and I’ll wventually go with an a400 or maybe oven an OU.
    Last edited by rob_s; 02-18-2019 at 06:02 AM.

  5. #175
    Site Supporter rob_s's Avatar
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    Went out again this past weekend so wife could shoot her new gun for the first time. We put the smallest pad I could find on it (Beretta Micro-Core .39in) and she loved it. She got out to a rough start but rallied and broke 47 out of 100. I hit a personal best of 81, also after a bit of a rough start.

    We encountered a woman's group that was shooting, and the leader of that group scolded my wife for shooting a "man's gun" and had her shoulder a women's model that had a monte carlo style stock. I was all set to have to go buy some $3k Syren, but when we got back in the cart the wife said "fuck that bitch, I like my man's gun".

    I knew I picked a good one.

    We're planning on another outing in March, then going away to another range in May. We're also talking about joining the club we've been going to so that we'd be paying $0.38/clay instead of $0.50. My ciphering says we'd need to shoot 20 times (each) in a year to make it worth the $300/ea to join.

  6. #176
    Site Supporter rob_s's Avatar
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    Anyone have firsthand access to a Scabbard Tech golf cart mount? I'm talking about this part
    https://www.scabbard.com/product/strut-right-side/

    They list it as being for EZ Go, but I have a club car. I'm wondering the hole spacing on the cart-attachment side so I can see if maybe it'll match up to the holes on my cart.

    I suppose worst-case I could just drill another hole(s)...

  7. #177
    Abducted by Aliens Borderland's Avatar
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    Auto loader of some type. Rem 1100 is a good one if you aren't shooting in competition. You can change the barrels on those for different balance and speed. Trap works better with balance toward the muzzle and skeet better with balance more toward the rear hand.

    Beretta 391 is probably the gold standard for clays but expensive new.

    I shot trap for years (for money) and used just about everything. A lot of the big dogs shoot high dollar O/U's but unless you compete there really isn't a burning reason to spend a lot of money on one. A good O/U will cost 2K. A good auto about half that. There are plenty of used 1100's out there for a lot less. That would be my choice in your situation.
    Last edited by Borderland; 03-17-2019 at 02:59 PM.

  8. #178
    Site Supporter rob_s's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Borderland View Post
    Auto loader of some type. Rem 1100 is a good one if you aren't shooting in competition. You can change the barrels on those for different balance and speed. Trap works better with balance toward the muzzle and skeet better with balance more toward the rear hand.

    Beretta 391 is probably the gold standard for clays but expensive new.

    I shot trap for years (for money) and used just about everything. A lot of the big dogs shoot high dollar O/U's but unless you compete there really isn't a burning reason to spend a lot of money on one. A good O/U will cost 2K. A good auto about half that. There are plenty of used 1100's out there for a lot less. That would be my choice in your situation.
    I see you’re new.

    This thread is over a year old, and I’ve already made two purchases.

    Best practice is to read the whole thread, or a least skim it if it’s a year old.

    But thanks for the suggestion, even if the ship has already sailed.

  9. #179
    Site Supporter rob_s's Avatar
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    Haven't updated this in awhile, and since this is the only shooting I really do now and this is therefore kind of my "journal", I thought I'd check back in.

    Since the last time I posted in this thread, I've added the scabbards to the golf cart and am very happy with them.

    We've been out shooting a few times since then.

    In May we went with two other couples and stayed over at Quail Creek Plantation in their "5-bedroom house". Wife and I gave 5-stand a shot and managed to hit just about not a goddamn thing, and the following day we all went out shooting a round of sporting clays at which we did much better. The course is beautiful, and includes some elevated shooting platforms that are a real blast to shoot from, particularly since we hadn't done that before. The stay in the house was amazing. Zero cell service, so pretty much completely disconnected unless you walk out to the gate post, and we took a ride around the massive property and saw literally herds of deer. Never seen that before. The whole trip reminded me of what I really always enjoyed about shooting, which is an excuse to spend time with friends and family.

    We've also been back to OK Corral a couple of times, and on one outing we took the kids (for father's day, as I recall) and stayed over in their cabins. They are two girls, 8 and 10 at the time, and we really enjoyed having them along for the most part. For one thing, they took turns keeping score and being trapper, which was a lot of fun and surprisingly led to minimal bickering. Hoping maybe the bug will bite them, but right now neither is really strong enough to hold the guns. We did a little plinking with the .22s afterwards so we'll see if they get any interest. Looking forward to taking our little trapper and scorekeeper back again.

    Last month we were on our annual trip to the Newport Folk Festival which is typically far less hippie-ish than it sounds, but in today's political climate there was a lot of "me too-ism" to the lineup so we ditched the morning of Saturday and went clays shooting! We hit up Peace Dale Shooting Preserve and had a great time. We obviously had to rent everything, and I tried out a Beretta A400 and the wife got her hands on a Syren finally. I was worried we'd get "spoiled" by the more expensive guns, but good news is that both of us agreed we prefer our own (less expensive) A300s. The facility was pretty great as it was full on shooting in the woods, over valleys, etc. however, we had several trap malfunctions that put a real damper on the day and proved quite distracting. Didn't ruin the day though.

    on the hardware side of things, I installed a Briley extended bolt release and bolt handle on my gun. Mostly a waste of time and money I'm sure, but it was a good excuse to learn to take the gun apart. Haven't shot with them yet but we'll see if I like them, and if I got the gun put back together correctly!

    Right now it's just so goddamn hot! But OK Corral has a Friday night shoot and dinner so I'm going to try and bug out of work early one day soon and go shoot with the fam.

  10. #180
    Site Supporter rob_s's Avatar
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    Just a little update...

    Got out to Quail Creek Plantation the day after they re-opened. Took the wife and girls (the wife shoots with me, the girls push the buttons and keep score, the trapper and the keeper) and we had damn near the whole place to ourselves.

    On a side note, if you don’t know, the founder died and the family is looking to get out of the business, so it’s for sale. $25M if you’re interested. I. The meantime they’ve shut down all lodge and lodging activities, and they’ve chosen to keep the property across the road where the bunkhouse is, sadly. We stayed there a year ago with friends and had one of the best goddamn weekends of my life.

    Anywho, I shot an 87 on the red course, having previously shot an 81 there so I felt ok about that after 4 months off.

    Funny thing happened though... aftermarket bolt handle fell off. I’m not entirely sure that the wife didn’t yank it and toss it in the weeds as she does not appear to see the humor in the gold parts that I do.

    Didn’t have the factory part with me so finished up with her gun, and didn’t do too much worse (take that you fit hippies!) Fortunately I kept the factory part and it just popped back in. Switching over to my wife’s gun for half the course did make me miss the extended bolt catch from a function perspective but also made me not miss the gold charging handle from a function perspective since you don’t really ever touch it anyway. Still sad to have lost my bling.

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