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Friday Fun Thread for December 9, 2022

Be advised: this thread is not for serious in-depth discussion of weighty topics (we have a link for that), this thread is not for anything Culture War related. This thread is for Fun. You got jokes? Share 'em. You got silly questions? Ask 'em.

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My first shooting experience was skeet.

The guy teaching was a casual competition shooter and supplied a double-barrel shotgun in what I assume was .410. He taught us basic handling on a fixed target and then started loading up the throwing houses. We loaded one barrel and tried for one at a time but towards the end started casting the left-right pair. Sweep one way for the first, acquire, then sweep back the other way to catch the second. Hitting both was incredibly validating. As you said, it feels really natural, like the gun is just an extension of your line-of-sight.

And yes, getting a good stance and really sealing the butt to your shoulder is the best way to avoid bruising. You want it to decelerate into your muscle immediately rather than get up to speed and then meet resistance.

I'd love to try it again. This weekend you may have just convinced me to go to the regular range.

Having tried to shoot clays with a .410 Henry lever-action, I can indeed confirm that .410 is nigh-impossible to hit clays with. That being said, as per C&Rsenal's It's a Trap! series, Winchester did make a boy's clay shooting kit that did include a single-shot, break-action .410 gun. Guess expectations were just different in the 19th Century.

It does seem too small. 12-gauge is apparently the standard, but I’m almost positive that we were shooting something smaller...