SHOOTER13 said:
Well...finally a picture !!
Let the oil drain a bit and give us a range report...
before Thanksgiving !!
One of the users at Calguns.net has set up an ongoing series of skeet classes at BBB skeet range in El Monte, CA with one of the coaches (Don Ziegler).
The classes are very low cost, and they are excellent classes. Not just "excellent for the cost", but truly great training. I can't wait til the next one.
Today was my second class. Last time I borrowed an over/under, today I brought my 20" 590.
I got some odd looks, some comments. Nothing rude, but a couple of the guys had very nice skeet guns, mine was the only synthetic stock, and everybody has an opinion. The funny thing was, one person would tell me it makes skeet "too easy", another would tell me it makes skeet "too hard"... Coach Ziegler summed it up nicely: "Some people shoot those well, some people don't." One guy gave some very helpful advice about how inexpensive it would be to get a longer barrel... but didn't enlighten me as to how that would help. ;-)
In the morning session I took between 20 to 25 shots spread between stations 1-3, all low-house singles. (this is the warmup/training portion of the class). I missed ONE. Last class, I was definitely last-place in the class for the morning session, today I was up near (or on) the top.
In the afternoon session, we ended up shooting a full round of skeet in the rain, with pretty heavy winds. I swear the clays were making defensive maneuvers. I didn't do as well, hit about 60-70% of my targets, scored roughly 16 in the skeet round... although I think I got all the doubles... might have missed one. with all the worry about hitting targets and proper form, I kind of forgot to keep real accurate score. ;-)
The amazing thing to me was, pumping was a lot easier then I expected. I'm not a shotgun guy. This is maybe the 4th time in my life I've touched a shotgun, and my first skeet class was with an O/U, so I thought for sure I'd screw up the pumping: forget to do it, do it slow, have to think about it, etc... I never even thought about it or noticed doing it, but I did it every time when needed... it's a real natural motion.
The gun fits me real well, comes up to my eye very nicely. This seems strange to me: at 6'6" and 330lbs, most things are not my size. This makes me wonder if the stock 590 is too big for most people?
At any rate, I'm VERY happy right now.
Got home, sprayed some wd-40 into the worky bits to get the rain out, cleaned and dried it off, and it's back in the safe as I type this.
What this has taught me:
1: I don't need to buy another gun to do skeet as a hobby. In fact, I like the idea of using this for skeet because, if I ever did need this shotgun in an emergency, I'd like the gun I practice with to be the gun I go to... not some fancy range-only piece.
2: I don't need the pistol grip. The stock grip is very nice, fits me well, and why mess with a good thing?
3: the kick wasn't too bad. I shot... 100 rounds (ish) today with the stock buttpad, and my shoulder isn't sore from the kick.
4: my shoulders are, however, sore from hosting the dang thing for 5 hours. I need to lift more weights.