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Clay target attacks shooter!

3K views 30 replies 23 participants last post by  NewtoSkeet 
#1 ·
No kidding, yesterday, during skeet shooting I called for low 1 target while standing under the high house, did not see it, thought it was a broken bird or perhaps an empty trap....well, when I looked around the doggone thing was flying right at me!, do I shoot it or duck,? well, I ducked and it hit the high house about one foot from my head. guess there's a first time for everything. Next time it's dust!!
 
#4 ·
We get that sometimes also w/ our high house. The wind seems to always blow behind the high house and if someone breaks the high house bird from #7 before the stake the pieces from the break always seem to come back at the shooters.
 
#5 ·
Yeah...sometimes they fight back. Evidenced by all the dings in skeet gun stocks (not to mention cut to the hands, shins, and other exposed body parts).

You do bring up an interesting point....not just about a whole bird flying well off the flight path but also large pieces flying at you. Almost everybody at one point will make the mistake of trying to juke and duck while still having a loaded shell in the breach. e.g. singles on 7 when a large piece is flying at you after breaking the high house and you are a shooter (like me) who loads two. Often, the instinctive move is to turn you back on the flying piece(s)...especially if you are trying to save your gun from yet another ding. This ends up being a turn to the left toward the squad, ref, and spectators with a loaded gun and puzzlement as to why everybody is suddenly yelling their heads off :lol:

I caution I would recommend is to develop the habit of breaking open the gun immediately and THEN ducking, side stepping, putting an NFL wide received move on the bird, etc.
With an auto, it gets a little more complex. When in doubt with a loaded gun, take the hit....a gun without a ding has no character :wink:
 
#6 ·
You do bring up an interesting point....not just about a whole bird flying well off the flight path but also large pieces flying at you. Almost everybody at one point will make the mistake of trying to juke and duck while still having a loaded shell in the breach. e.g. singles on 7 when a large piece is flying at you after breaking the high house and you are a shooter (like me) who loads two. Often, the instinctive move is to turn you back on the flying piece(s)...especially if you are trying to save your gun from yet another ding. This ends up being a turn to the left toward the squad, ref, and spectators with a loaded gun and puzzlement as to why everybody is suddenly yelling their heads off Laughing
That is why they shoot low 7 first England... No shell in the gun after shooting the high bird...

Might be something we should think about...
 
#8 ·
XSSkeet said:
That is why they shoot low 7 first England... No shell in the gun after shooting the high bird...

Might be something we should think about...
You're a lot more likely to get shards of a broken clay showering all over you at Station 8 than Station 7.

No experienced shooter is going to wheel around and point a loaded gun at the squad. And any inexperienced shooter who does that probably won't do it again after the squad comes down on him like a box of rocks.

Seems to me like much ado about nothing.
 
#10 ·
Case, thank you for your cheerful contribution to the string.

First, station 8 is not the issue insofar as nobody should ever have two loaded on 8....unlike 1 or 7. In registered, its a rule violation if you do.

Second, the string started with a fellow who asked "do I shoot it or duck". Clearly not everybody has your wealth of experience and it seemed to me like an opportunity to possibley save someone from having "the squad comes down on him like a box of rocks", which would be the least serious outcome.

No, an experienced shooter won't do that....but this site does not seem to be limited to those with experience. There are beginners at almost every shoot, thank goodness, and wouldn't it be nice if one of them saw and thought about this possible scenerio before they reacted on the pad to flying pieces and "ducked" with a loaded gun?

I think I will go back to enjoying my day now.
 
#13 ·
Must have been shooting at Carter's in Spring, Texas. Wobble skeet and attack rocks are thier specialty.

:p :p :p :p :p :p :p
 
#15 ·
Bob_K I've noticed that. I'm still trying to figure where you find all the 26 round boxes :wink: . All kidding aside it is instinctive to duck the incoming bird or pieces especially when they take you by surprise. This is one of the reasons that I have gone back to loading only one for all my singles plus it gives me time to think (which may or may not be a good thing :oops:
Chip
 
#17 ·
recently, I've been getting pieces of clay at me after breaking the low house on #1, actually I don't duck(I guess I would if it was coming at my head) yesterday I just let a piece hit me in the chest...my daughter(who pulls and keeps score for me) thought it was pretty funny....and I never have had the chance to load two shots at the low house on #8, so that issue doesn't concern me!!! :oops:
 
#18 ·
Pop-a-cap - yes, you are absolutely right and my statement was wrong....I was thinking about high 8 and didn't write/review my post carefully enough. Certainly this situation can, within the rules, occur at low 8 also. Personally, I only load one at low 8 (on those happy occasions where it is my option to load 2 :) ), but that's just my personal choice...slows me down and forces me to set up for each shot from the beginning and is not really related to the issue.

It still seems to me, however, that the greatest potential for "ducking" a broken target with a loaded gun is high 7 single. Single on low 1 should end up being shot with a gun with only a single live shell (load two, hit high one, only one live shell for the low house...load two, miss high one, shoot the option, then only load one for the low bird.....load two, miss high one, reload the expended shell, shot the option, end up with one live shell for the low bird...any more permutations?).

On low eight, although often hit with pieces and dust, it seems to me generally to happen too fast for much of a chance to duck and jive with a loaded gun.

In anycase, my minor point was just a reminder to new shooters to think about the fact that they can have a loaded gun when incomer pieces are flying at them and to always think safety first, even at the expense of gun and flesh.
 
#20 ·
On a somewhat lighter note, has anyone ever been hit by a bird coming out of the low house when standing at station 7? I have no idea how it happened, whether the bird glanced off the inside edge of the window or what, and I was not standing too close to the edge, but the darn thing somehow curved or something and the whole, intact bird hit me under my right armpit and broke, WOW! did that hurt. Luckily no injury more than a darn good welt, but it sure made me pay attention. After I cleared the gun and everyone came over, we looked at where I was standing and no one could believe it could hit me there. It had to have hit the window and glanced into me. Anyway, it just goes to show if you shoot long enough, strange things happen and you should keep you wits about you and not do something unsafe with your loaded gun. I was happy with myself that I never lost pace with what I was doing, I simply unloaded the gun as if nothing happened and then yelled like a girl. We all got a good laugh out of it, but it points to what can happen and how you could get hurt. I was black and blue for a few days, but no permanent damage, thank goodness.
 
#21 ·
That's a new one on me....plenty of pieces flying out of the low house when on 7, but never hit by a whole bird....if it glanced off of the window in order to hit you, man that was one tough target!! :shock:

But at the risk of being pendantic (which I am), it once again highlights the need to be completely aware that your gun is loaded when something strange happens...unload first, then react.
 
#22 ·
bchannell said:
On a somewhat lighter note, has anyone ever been hit by a bird coming out of the low house when standing at station 7?
Not "at" the station, but in front of the window during hull retrieval, holding my gun, and handing off the control to my son all at the same time...and accidentally pressing the button. In hindsight, a pretty stupid move on my part.

The target hit me in the neck/jaw area just below my left ear. My first thought was that I'd been shot...it momentarily scared me more than it hurt.
 
#23 ·
Case said:
Yeah, you get an uppity one now and then who gets tired of just waiting to get shot at and decides to take the offensive for a change.
Yep, I've had them little buggers ding my stock, hit me an draw blood. That why I declared war on em. I try to shoot every one I see. They started it an I'm gonna finish it.
 
#24 ·
I agree with you Don. Besides old men like you ant got no blood to spare. :p 8) I saw Don get his new xs dinged recently. Happy fellow he was that day.
 
#25 ·
Baron23 said:
That's a new one on me....plenty of pieces flying out of the low house when on 7, but never hit by a whole bird....if it glanced off of the window in order to hit you, man that was one tough target!! :shock:quote]

My only thought was that it "might" have just, ever so slightly, glanced off the inner edge of the house window. That combined with and odd throw, maybe sitting funny on the arm, combined to hit me. But I fully admit, I don't know how it happened. I suppose it could have only hit me with a large portion of the bird, say 2/3 of it intact. I certainly didn't have time to see it. No one there could see it come out, because it was so close to me and I was blocking their view.
All I can say for sure it that I was hit with what appeared to be an intact bird, and the bruise/welt was pretty harsh evidence of it.
Strange things happen? Sure makes you stand up and take notice!
 
#26 ·
Just curious....was there a chute on the window?

I like to look right into the window for my look point and generally don't like chutes from the point of view of target aquisition. But I sure do like them when standing on 7 and you hear the sound of a low house bird thrown broken with all the pieces smashing about in the chute.

Let's see...self-preservation or a higher score....self or score? Heck, gimme the score :D
 
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