Beginner Trap & Skeet Gun

[mmc45414]

I just remembered that your other hobby is woodworking, you probably have all of the tools you would need to just go get a Remington (or anything) and cut the stock down. This is one of those things that is kinda like automotive painting, it seems like exotic voodoo until you do it once. There a couple of methods, including using the angle fixture, but I think many pros just tape up the stock with masking tape and grind the pad down to the tape with a bench mount disk or belt sander. If you go too far there are readily available shims to add back in that get ground down the same way.

That way you would not be restricted to a youth model, that might not come with the barrel she would be best off with.

[rob_s]

I just remembered that your other hobby is woodworking, you probably have all of the tools you would need to just go get a Remington (or anything) and cut the stock down. This is one of those things that is kinda like automotive painting, it seems like exotic voodoo until you do it once. There a couple of methods, including using the angle fixture, but I think many pros just tape up the stock with masking tape and grind the pad down to the tape with a bench mount disk or belt sander. If you go too far there are readily available shims to add back in that get ground down the same way.

That way you would not be restricted to a youth model, that might not come with the barrel she would be best off with.

yep, have the tools and have even done it before, just not interested in doing it now/again. Don't want to spend my limited shop time chopping up gun stocks, in part because if there's some perceived fitment issue later on it will be interpreted as being because I did it myself.

[rob_s]

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.

[rob_s]

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.

[Alpha Sierra]

Want your wife to enjoy shooting? Pay for a professional to fit that A300 for her even if the price includes a new stock.

Despite your insistence that fit doesn't really matter, it still does matter in more ways than a noob like you could understand yet.

[rob_s]

Want your wife to enjoy shooting? Pay for a professional to fit that A300 for her even if the price includes a new stock.

Despite your insistence that fit doesn't really matter, it still does matter in more ways than a noob like you could understand yet.

Maybe. But then...

How can that be so? To "optimize advantageous equipment" one must actually know how to use it to its fullest advantage. That requires skill and time behind the gun: the two things that novices typically are lacking in.

[Alpha Sierra]

Maybe. But then...

Shotgun shooting is unlike handgun and rifle shooting. Giving a novice a poorly fitting gun is like giving her a pistol with the rear sight drifted all the way over and expecting any kind of progress.

Again, feel free to ignore the advice given by others here who know more about this than you. It's the American way.

[rob_s]

Shotgun shooting is unlike handgun and rifle shooting. Giving a novice a poorly fitting gun is like giving her a pistol with the rear sight drifted all the way over and expecting any kind of progress.

Again, feel free to ignore the advice given by others here who know more about this than you. It's the American way.

you know what else is the American way?

ignoring people that aren't actually interested in being helpful and instead are more interested in carrying around some grudge on the internet.

[ranger]

I shot a lot of clays and I never had a gun fitted. Only thing I did was work on the recoil pad with or without spacers to get a reasonably correct length of pull. Best thing I did to improve my clay shooting was to habitually shoot with those much better than me - I dramatically improved my score watching better shooters and listening to their tips. I also shot regularly - Wednesday night 5 stand and some type of local or higher competition every weekend. That was 200+ shells per week. I started with a Rem 1100 moved to Browning Gold Sporting Clays (still have it) then Browning 325 European 32 inch (Invector choke not IN Plus - still have it).

[Alpha Sierra]

I shot a lot of clays and I never had a gun fitted. Only thing I did was work on the recoil pad with or without spacers to get a reasonably correct length of pull. Best thing I did to improve my clay shooting was to habitually shoot with those much better than me - I dramatically improved my score watching better shooters and listening to their tips. I also shot regularly - Wednesday night 5 stand and some type of local or higher competition every weekend. That was 200+ shells per week. I started with a Rem 1100 moved to Browning Gold Sporting Clays (still have it) then Browning 325 European 32 inch (Invector choke not IN Plus - still have it).

I can shoot any Browning 325/425/525/625 right out of the box and crush anything I look at. They just fit me great. If that's the only gun I had exposure to, I would too think gun fitting is a frivolous expense.

But Brownings aren't the only gun I have experience with, and with that comes the knowledge that some guns just don't fit me very well or at all.

1100s are close but not quite there for me, and the Beretta 686 Sporting doesn't fit me at all. I found that out after I bought them and both ended up with adjustable combs. Now they are an extension of my hands and eyes.