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Martyw

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I love to shoot. For most of my life it didn't matter much what is was, it went bang, count me in. But then at about 32 years ago (tender age of 16) I shoot this game they called Skeet. Hooked ever since, but I digress.

My question to you all, Is simply shooting Skeet for fun enough for you or do you need to compete at some level? Be it In-House or Travel leagues, Club Tourneys, States, Zones, whatever.

What was your path and where are you now?
 
I am just returning from skeet after about a 15 year layoff. This is my first year back into registered skeet. I enjoy the competition but don't need the money or recognition that some do when they win. I am in it strictly for the fun of it and the camaraderie.
 
I just started last year.

I shoot to compete. I don't care about the money or the recognition. I just want to win. That is the fun for me in skeet. Just going out on a weekend and shooting a couple of rounds seems futile to me.

But that is me.

I shoot with a lot of recreational shooters who love to go out on the weekends and plink a few boxes of shells and not give it another thought until the next weekend or the next month.
 
I like to shoot. I like competition. I like to win. I like to win money, trophies, an atta boy from my peers, or just a dinkie medal. I like to see my name at the top of the score sheets.

I've always been fairly competitive whether it was racing BMX, or playing basektball/football/tiddly-winks. I can't say I turn everything into a competition, but I like to do well in naturally competitive settings.

I piddled around with a few different shooting disciplines looking for one that I would be excited enough about to put in the trigger time that would allow me to be competitive. I tried bullseye pistol, IDPA, IPSC, High Power, Cowboy Action, and none of them did it for me. Enjoyed each one, met great folks in all the disciplines, but never really got the bug.

I started skeet almost by accident, met some great folks, kept going out to play every week and it just grew into something that I thought I could do reasonably well competing in. It's worked out pretty well so far.

At this point in my short skeet career, if I had to stop competing for one reason or another, I'd still head out to the club weekly (or more) just to shoot recreationally. I like the game, and I really like the people associated with it at my club. So for me, skeet just offers a combination that appeals to me on at least three levels; comraderie, competition, and recreation.
 
For most of my time in the Navy I shot competitive rifle and pistol. Once I retired and did not have the ammo support and equipment support, plus aging eyes, my target groups started to look like shotgun patterns. So it dawned on me to try shotguns. Skeet is the game I've settled on, and after three years I am an A & B class shooter. I've found Skeeter's to be a more sociable group.
 
I just started this year, we dont' have a league or anything registered up here. But we do have a legal setup. I am like some mentioned above I love to win, but I dont' need the trophies or money. I compete more with myslef then with anybody else.
 
For me, it is the people...skeeters are just the best of the bunch. So I go to all the local shoots, both for the shooting and to see all my outta town shooting buds! It helps that our club also has the best lunch in town included...hey, a guy has to eat too!!

I love the pumped up feel of a registered shoot...I pay for those butterflies! But I have more fun with the Saturday hoot-n-holler pick up squads. It's all good.

But at this point, what I am really getting a kick out of is coaching the 4H shotgun team. To me it is just as exciting and frustrating as shooting skeet myself. Working with those kids is WORK, but it does have it's rewards, you just can't hang them on the wall.
 
My club doesn't do competition except for a sporting clays league with another club. The guys I shoot with just like to shoot. So we go out and bang away.

My club does do a lot of fun shoots with a Lewis class thrown in for those who care to participate.

We do have fun, without the pressure of competition.

Jimbo
 
I started 25+ years ago. I have tried to compete over the last 6 years but it has just been a little here and there. I do not want to adjust my whole families living standard to accomadate my skeet fun. My kids/wife get priority on time. I would like to compete a little more but thats what I always say in the winter. To me the game is expensive and too time consuming for me to dream of being any real threat to the podium. I shoot it like a lot of folks fish. Do it when I can but try to balance with all the other things in life I have to do. I am one of those who likes to shoot for a cheep ribon or button. I feel like money/purses is a unnecessary burden on the sport. I say try a registered shoot or two and "test the waters" it can be a ton of fun. I like to shoot with folks who are not serious shooters but I don't like a bunch of goof offs who don't know how to pull or shoot the sport. Heck you may be the next Wayne Mays.
 
Hello fellow skeet shooters;
I shoot skeet for my score; period.
If I win money or my name at the top, well then great. But everyone who knows me, knows that I love trinkets, cause it shows my accomplishments.
I have said this in other threads of the past and still believe it in my mind that there is no competition in skeet, other than the bird and I.
If you were to enter a tournament and not miss a bird, then you are the clear winner.
I do not compete against my squad, the squad next door, the squad shooting an hour and a half after or before you do.
The competition is within yourself to break every bird in front of you when you step onto that pad.
This is what motivates me to accel in this sport.
Do not get me wrong, when the shooting is over, I have a lot of fun and talk with everyone. The best people that I have ever met are skeet shooters.
When I practice at my home club I will help others struggling with their shooting, just to try and keep them in the skeet game(believe me I have struggled in this game myself and almost quit).
Bottom line is that it is fun, meet good people and it is a self confidence booster for me, personally.
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Chevy Wiki
 
Martyw asked:

Is simply shooting Skeet for fun enough for you or do you need to compete at some level?
Competition is everything in skeet. Everything.

But I agree with Clarence P. The real competition is me. I can't beat the good shooters yet anyway but that is not my primary goal. I want to shoot very well, of course, but I would be perfectly happy if everybody tied for first place as long as I performed up to my own standards.

I am fascinated by the level of personal discipline imposed on shooters by skeet. It really is quite difficult to shoot perfect or near perfect scores consistently. Am I up to the challenge, do I have the staying power to achieve a high level of performance, can I master the mental side of the game? I can't wait to find out!

I also feel that registered shooting really adds to the sport. The formal setting ramps up the excitement. And I get to see some outstanding shooters.

Like Clarence says, its between me and the birds.... do I get them or do they get me. :)
 
IM A RETIRED MASTER SERGEANT FROM THE ARMY HAVING LIVED IN GERMANY FOR 15.5 YEARS STRAIGHT AND A MEMBER OF A GERMAN SHOOTING CLUB AND HAVING SHOT OLYMPIC STYLE SKEET AND PRACTICED ABOUT 400 ROUNDS A WEEK AND THE GOOD TIMES OF LAUGHING AND TALKING WITH FELLOW SHOOTERS AND WATCHING THEM PRACTICE FOR SHOOTING EVENTS WHICH NEVER INTERESTED ME BECAUSE I HAD NEVER BEEN TO ONE EVEN THOUGH THEY THOUGHT I WAS GOOD ENOUGH TO WIN, AND ONE DAY THEY HAD CONVINCED ME TO ATTENED ON THEIR NEXT SHOOT AND WHEN WE LEFT STRAUSSBURG FRANCE I HAD SHOT 99 AND WON AND FROM THAT DAY ON I ATTENED EVERY SHOOT THAT OUR CLUB TOOK PART IN. FRIENDS,FUN AND COMPETITION IS WHAT ITS ABOUT! I QUITE SHOOTING IN SEPTEMBER 1986 AND HAVN'T FIRED A CLAY SINCE ,HOWEVER I THINK ABOUT IT WEEKLY AND ON YESTERDAY I BOUGHT A SKEET GUN FROM A SHOTGUN WORLD SELLER AND IM GOING TO SHOOT AGAIN.

""""""" FRIENDS---FUN-----AND COMPETITION""""""
 
Welcome back to the world of skeet Vernie Bernie.

And Please turn of the "all caps" feature on your keyboard lest people think you are yelling at them.

Jimbo
 
It is about the copetition with me. I shoot for whatever, money recognition, for myself, you name it that is why I shoot. I like the bigger shoots. I love being in the shootoffs with the best. Most of the time I feel if I run a hundered I have a chance with any of them and that attitude has carried me quite a ways.

One thing that is kind of funny I always here it is a competition with yourself. Personally I don't care what I shoot If I shot 50 out of a 100 and won. The win is all that matters. After all its not yourself you have to beat it is the other guy.

Good Luck

Al
 
Welcome back Verniebernie;
I wish you good luck in this game, just remember to enjoy yourself and do not beat yourself up if you have a bad outing, It will all come together with time.
What kind of skeet gun did you purchase ?
Happy holidays and best of luck in the new year.
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Anger Management Forum
 
Hello Al T;
Just had to make a comment to what seems funny to you.
I am relatively a Rookie to skeet.
I have learned that when you enter a tournament, that you better have the mindset to break all the birds, or you will not(in my case I dont, but I do not miss them on purpose).
Although I do have a couple 100's, a few 99's and a few 98's that did allow me to win outright(gun champ), I was not totally happy with anything less than a hundred.
Winning is not what is important to me, the money is not what is important to me. These are just the outcomes of a sport I desire to excel in. To do this, I must break all the birds.
All I think about when getting on the pad is breaking every bird that flies before me.
The competition is within myself to be able to focus on my skeet shooting ability.
I am going to go out on a limb here and say that I bet you have shot skeet for awhile and are very good at it.
With that said, maybe when I get to your level, I may look at it like you do.
Oh, and by the way, if I ever shot a 50 out of a hundred on any given day, I would donate my XS Skeet to whomever wanted it :) (probably to the person who got runner up)
Happy Holidays to all
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us recession
 
Clarence, I have been blessed my entire skeet career. I picked the game up fast on my own with no leassons just watching good shooters and just picked the game up a couple of month's before I went to tournament skeet I was a true rookie or novice.

I ran my first hundered by my 3rd tournament and had run hundreds in all gauges by my second year. I was Rookie Of The Year my first year shooting and Rookie All American and won my B class in the .410, HOA, and HAA, and 17 other awards including novice world champion at my first world shoot. My HOA was a 544. I won the Champ of Champs at the Texas state shoot my second year. I won 3 major gun championships my third year and Texas State Open First Team by my 3rd shooting year I was number 7 in the state of Texas. and I have been All american a few times.

I have always been a poor boy shooter. I don't have alot of money so I had to win to go to the next tournament. I had not even bought a new gun till last year. I always had to wheel and deal to get my equipment and even on the new one I had to do some trading and dealing to get it done.

I have not been around that long but I have been successful and I believe it is because of my attitude. One of the best things I ever heard from a great shooter when I first started was he told me " Al do you know the difference between a AAA shooter and a B class shooter." I said other than the obvious no. He said "the AAA shooter is not affraid to miss." You start counting targets, you are in trouble. When I get on the skeet field what happens happens I always have another gun to shoot and there is nothing you can do about it except do your best.

It is a given that if you want to win you have to run a hundred pretty much. But not always. I have seen some pretty good shooters pull out of shoots because of weather conditions. I don't do that. I stick it out and sometimes win with less than a perfect score. Sometimes I take a real beating. Look at my averages sometime. If I did not declare up many times people would accuse me of sand bagging.

No I am not a great shooter. I am a very determined shooter. I want to win.

Good Luck

Al
 
Al, what does "declare up" mean?

I would love to be as fast a learner as you. My contribution, I'm afraid, is writing a skeet excuse book with my shooting partners :) We have taken as many excuses, good ones and thin ones, and assigned numbers to them... 9, there are no easy birds, 17 the sun was on my barrel... I guess you get the picture. When we shoot, it isn't uncommon to hear someone shout out...9! and we all mumble in agreement... 9!! uggg!!!

I wish I could advance as fast as you did, for me it's been a long hard grind for a year and a half. I'm shooting alot of 24's lately and looking to take the next step up. I have also quit counting...anything more than zero misses is in a different catagory.

I'm going to shoot my first registered targets this spring. I'm just going to go out, have some fun, and break as many as I can. For me, the best part is the people I have met, but I am looking for the rush of competition, and I especialy enjoy shooting the .410

I'm a Texas shooter, so perhaps I will run into you out there.

Merry Christmas to all.
 
To declare up means that for example you may have a A class average but you declare to AA or AAA and compete in a class above you own because you want the Open points. You only get open points for the All American Team in AA and AAA if you dont win Gun champ, runner up, third, that mean if you win AA or AAA 1,2,3 etc. you also get open points.

If you shoot Dallas, Houston, San Antonio, Or Waco I will be there. and look forward to meeting you.

The main thing for you is to have fun and put no pressure on yourself. If you do that the good scores will come it just takes a little longer for some than others. It does not mean you won't be as good or better shot than me. And congradulations on moving to the next step, Tournament Skeet is a lot of fun.

Good Luck

Al
 
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