Breaking clays and debunking myths
What a week.
This past weekend I had the pleasure of introducing over a dozen local young people to shooting sports with a couple of other club members. The local Boy and Girl Scouts wanted to learn how to shoot trap, and firearm safety precedes shooting firearms.
These young men and ladies sat through a presentation on firearm safety and then we walked out to the range. Most never touched a firearm prior to getting ready to squeeze off their first shots.
Shooting a shotgun for the first time intimidates a lot of people. Shotguns make noise, enough to need hearing protection, and shotguns produce recoil. Everyone worries about recoil or kick before they shoot a shotgun for the first time. And until you actually shoot one, you don’t really know what to expect. Think back to your first time and I know you remember it.
Each young person took their turn and shot a few rounds or more of trap. Each handled themselves in a very respectful and courageous manner. Watching them from the first time they touched a firearm until they were breaking clay targets, and seeing how quickly they learned and how quickly their skills improved really impressed us.
They broke a lot of clays. Not all plan to take up shooting clay targets; some may never do it again. When you’re not completely grown, it’s tough shooting shotguns designed for humans taller and larger than you. Some might come back to this in five, ten, or fifteen years from now with a shotgun that fits them better; it makes the whole experience so much more fun, and I’m told some plan to come out to the club and shoot some clay targets yet this year.
Earlier last week someone from work came up to me and asked about CWD causing Cretuzfelt-Jakob’s Disease (CJD) in humans. Most of us have heard of CJD at one time or the other; it’s the prion spongiform disease that affects humans. CWD affects deer and elk, mad cow disease affects cattle.
There is NO scientific evidence that CWD causes CJDnone whatsoever. In fact, credible sources state that the cause of the CJD is unknown and believed to be from a misfolding of a protein in the persons body themselves. Kind of like a mutation of a cell, something just changed and went wrong. No sources show a link.
I discovered how this person and her husband came upon this when I listened to a popular podcast this weekend about a week after the episode came out. Turns out I’m not the only person that listens to The MeatEater Podcast. I did find the article, which failed to mention what part of the country they were talking about. It also failed to provide any factual data whatsoever. It’s simply someone using conjecture to get something published. In short, this is what all our area farmers will be spreading on their fields in a few short weeks. As for this hunter, on more than one day this fall, I plan to crawl up into a stand and I plan to draw back on a deer and make a clean ethical shot. Then I plan to butcher that deer and do exactly what I did Sunday evening. I made grilled venison bruschetta with some fresh tomatoes from the garden. Delicious - I highly recommend it. As far as a few short weeks, judging by the number of people at the sporting clays range on Saturday’s open shooting, most people recognize that things start to change shortly. Our group met up at Woods and Meadows down by Warrens, a premier place to shoot sporting clays and a challenging course. We always enjoy shooting there. We originally planned to gather at a shoot in the eastern part of the state, but that got cancelled. Another shoot we used as an excuse to get together in the summer for a weekend of fishing, camping, and catching up never got organized. So, we organized our own friends get together.
And lastly the young pup, after having a great first year out has struggled since. And she struggled all training season. But she put things together this past weekend and figured it out. She was a little unsure, but she soaked up all the high praise of doing it right and the next time showed a little confidence. Things are coming together. I did get some fishing in too. Tight lines everyone!
THROUGH A
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CHUCK K OLAR LOCAL OUTDOORSMAN
