POLL - Entering Championship modeled after a live bird shoot.

The planned shoot admin describes the upcoming shoot to be as similar to a live bird event as possible while using clay targets. I have never shot a live bird event. Too much money for me.

The twist is an interesting handicapping system involved.

I report. You decide.

Merlo out

 

Never entered a live bird event, so it would be interesting how the targets would be set. Kinda like sporting clays? If this works, would be nice to set up at local clubs too!

 

Almost like wobble trap.

 

Helice?

 

Failure to fire rules out?

 

I had been invited to a few live bird shoots and I got to tell you that could be considered a blood sport (not talking birds blood) ... Those guys take no prisoners, I was talking to a few of the shooters and was told how addicting it is and can be if you win a little something ... I have a lot of respect for those shooters, was welcomed by many (figured they wanted any other fish ) lol ... WPT ... (YAC) ...

 

I also have been invited to a few of these events and have shot in them. Trust me, it is a blood sport and I am talking about the birds.

 

How did you get out? Have any "load ems"

 

How did I get out? load ems? Well, I must admit I do not know those terms.
It has been some time ago. I only shot 3 races. I still vividly recall the first one. I think it was a 20 bird race but you had to advance through 5 bird "rounds." My first round I cleanly killed the first two birds. I had been told and heard that flyers shooters always use both barrels. Even shooting "dead" birds on the ground. I found out why on the third bird.
It went down hard. I thought it was dead. But it was a driver and got pretty close to the ring edge. I did not shoot it again on the ground. Bad idea. I killed the next bird and while that was going on the 3rd bird got itself together enough to hop out of the ring. Lost! It shook me up enough that I flat fanned the next bird. I was already counting a 5 and ended up with a 3.
Can not recall much about the other races. I was not competitive.
I think with time I could have been.
As you know well Flyer, when the pigeons are sprung they pop a few feet into the air. The good shooters often kill them right there just as they take wing. But, as you also know well, right then is when they move suddenly on way or another. Sometimes they dip. Sometimes they flare. Sometimes they swoop. Sometimes they drive hard for the back. From my observation, it is right then when they are first sprung where the experienced and good shooters show their expertise. Killing the easy ones fast and dead and pausing just long enough to read the tricky ones.
My memory is that when I fired the first shot my timing was not as good as the birds. And when they zigged as I zagged and I missed that first shot, that I was so confident in, it rattled me enough that my second shots were not great.
I love to shoot game birds. Love to. But I have always loved a nice clean kill and raised, trained and ran in retriever trials labs and goldens for fun and because I felt strongly about finding any wounded birds. I always ate or prepared and served any game birds I killed. And, I killed a whole lot of them.
That is not part of pigeon shooting.
No judgment here. Just not my cup.
Flyer, can you tell me what a "load ems" is? I probably knew at the time but it does not sound familiar.Is that when the birds don't fly? We used pop up traps (which I thought was standard) and it was pretty hard for them not to fly.
Regards, Jake

 

When you are done with the race someone will ask, How'd you get out?, meaning how many did you kill.

When you are done with each ring the puller/scorer, who has been intently watching, will call out to the boys to bring back the number of birds you have dropped in the ring.

You kill 5, you will hear him holler "BRING ME 5". You kill 4 he will holler BRING ME 4. You kill 3 and you will hear,
BRING ME 3. The same if you only killed 2 or 1.

When you miss them ALL you don't hear ANY numbers. Just the dreaded

LOAD EM!

 

LOL. Well, I was fortunate enough to not hear Load Em! But I didn't get out all that good. Killed always 3 or more of 5. Think I killed 5 once or twice in 3 races of 20 (4 rounds of 5) as I recall.
Thanks Flyer.
Jake

 

Sometimes, even when you THINK you have one stoned you get a surprise. I had the first 10 in the morning, killed all 5 in the third ring and then killed 5 in the forth. I was standing there waiting for the boys to pick them up and thinking, 5 more dummy.
I reached for my shells for the next ring and realized I didn't have enough, DUH!

I knew the puller for years and he said
That's OK, go get your shells, no hurry, the boys in both rings are getting a drink so you have time.

It only took 4-5 minutes and when I got back to that ring the guy had a really sad look on his face, my ticket in one hand and his punch in the other.
What's up I asked. I already had an idea.

"Well Bud, while you were gone that number 2 pigeon, the one that was trying to get out the back? the one you made that panic move on. It decided it wasn't as dead as we thought and when the boy tried to jump on him he took off. I'm really sorry but...

BRING ME 4!

Missed 2 in the last ring, they just beat me and that's the simple truth, so when asked how I got out I replied 22. The first 10 paid OK so it wasn't a total loss. The middle 15, last 9, and long run front/back were a bust. Sometimes it isn't how many you miss, it's where you missed them.

 

I don't think someone could "model" a clay target shoot to come close to live birds. Too many things can happen when it's a breathing target. Both good AND bad things. JMO

As TrapSkeetSporting said, Helice or, as we know it, ZZ would be the closest.

 

I always liked this one

 

I sure do miss old Jake at Pikeville. He was the best at head games.

 

HEAD GAMES

Pikeville was the home of the PA State Double Barrel Championship. A 20 bird race shot over 3 rings. If I remember correctly we shot them 4,3,3, twice. The old rope pulled boxes were always a challenge and, SOMETIMES, the puller could do a little something extra if you weren't "one of the boys" and only a shooter from the other side of the mountains.

I was 17 straight going into the last ring. I killed number 18 and was feeling the nerves a little bit but not too bad. When I called for number 19 I saw movement on the far left side and started to move the gun in that direction. Just as I swung on the number 1 trap the bird came out of the far right box. PANIC move time. I feathered it with the first barrel but it was over the fence on the second.

WTH just happened? Oh well, killed the last one for a 19. When I came off the stake my buddies were all standing there smiling. WHAT? WHAT?

The puller gotcha Bud. Take a look at the rope for number 1.

I never thought of it. When I looked back at the rope I could see that at one time it must have been cut and was tied back together. The frayed ends were exposed and kind of blossomed out. Now these ropes were just old white clothes line and that knot with the frayed ends was about 3 inches in size. Just what you don't want. Something that when tugged on, was going to move and draw your attention.

The puller didn't know me from Adam and there were no straights to that point. He was going to try and keep it that way. He drew the pills and couldn't change that, but as I said he COULD do a little something extra.

The puller has his right hand on the metal ring attached to the rope for the far RIGHT box. In his left hand is the ring/rope for the #1 box on the far LEFT.

ARE YA READYYY?
Puller: READY
BIRD!

The puller gives a little tug on the rope for box #1, that knot with the pom pom ends gives a little twitch and comes off the ground. When I swing toward that movement he pulls hard on the rope for the box on the far RIGHT. By the time I saw it, it was half way to the fence.

Welcome to Pikeville kid.

There was one 20 straight that day. The last shooter. He was a well known,well liked, and a hell of a good shot but he was also "one of the boys". No funny stuff for a veteran pigeon shooter. Just for the guys from the other side of the state.

5 or 6 of us shot off a 10 bird race for runner up. My buddy missed the first, I missed the second, we ended up with 9's.
Two shooters were still shooting when we pulled out of the parking lot.

19 still paid enough to cover the cost and that is OK but also learned a valuable lesson about shooting at Pikeville.

This was also the year that one of the protesters attached himself with a bike lock cable to the small tractor they used to bring the pigeons across the road to the traps. The PA state police didn't think so but THAT was funny!