The sun had set, the lights were on and the wind had died down…the perfect conditions for shooting.

The Tri-Star had put up a pretty decent round an hour before. Now the decision had to be made. Should the next round be registered? A good portion of the whole team had shown up tonight and there was magic in the air. All the tea leaves said yes, count it.

The line was started on station 2. The birds were flying consistent and seemed to draw the Tri-Star‘s barrel into the perfect point of break. It felt so right…it was automatic. Station 3 and 4, same scenario. The Tri-Star was doing all the work and grinding up bird after bird. Could this be the night? Station 5 loomed. The heart was starting to pound. The first bird on five was a hard right, the Tri-Star came off the hold point, led the bird by a foot, fired…followed through and a solid break. Another one ground up.

Number 1 station was all that was left. The temperature was cold, every breath was visible. Steady, keep concentrating, control the breathing, stay into the gun, follow through, feet placement. Come on heart, slow down a bit. 24 straight so far. Could this be the night? The final bird, a straight away…no excuses, it’s the easiest shot and it wasn’t a hard left. Could this be the night? The Tri-Star pulled into position. Floated the bird 35 yards out. Just got to break this last bird. Squeeze the trigger, don’t flinch.

Yes, tonight was the night.

I’ve added a link on the left, to the 2009 Fall League Scores page. Scores will be updated as we progress.

A handful of the “Off A Lot” crew made their way to Seaway today and shot Sporting Clays, along with a line of trap.

Stephanie, Ted, Jack and Ben made the trip and to say they had a tremendous time would be an understatement. Ted was top dog among the troops, shooting a 26 in Sporting Clays. He has now been designated the Sporting Clays Captain of “Off A Lot”

The weather was very pleasant and waited until the shooting was over before it got windy. Ben shot his first round of Sporting Clays and left Seaway with a grin from ear to ear.

A very special thanks to Mike D. and the other gentlemen at Seaway, for their generous hospitality. The “Off A Lot” crew was able to shoot at member prices and got a free soda pop and peanuts to boot. It was the kind of day that you live for.

Hey guys, it’s Justin. Thought I’d take a moment here to let everybody on the team know I had my first, and hopefully last, negligent discharge tonight.

On my last line of trap and on the very first bird I shouldered the gun, placed a finger on the trigger, called for a bird, and as soon as the word “PULL” left my mouth I unintentionally discharged my shotgun. I think the cold weather helped numb my trigger finger a bit, but that’s no excuse. It still shouldn’t have happened.

September 20, 2009

Good news, the T-Shirts have been shipped and are scheduled to be delivered to my house on Tuesday. If that happens, I will have the shirts Wednesday night. Cost is $15.50. If you don’t have the money yet, you can pay me when you do. 

Three ”Off A Lot” shooters shot in the West Walker Fall 150 Shotgun Blast, this past Saturday. There were about 20 top shooters from around the area. I’m pleased to say that all three of our guys did very well in their events. All three finished 2nd in at least one event. Dan placed 5th overall.  We kicked butt.   

Joe Jr. lent us an excellent Trap instruction video, he said we could pass it around the team. So please watch this video, I did and it is very good, it will put you at a whole new level.

I think Jack summed up our meeting in the previous post’s comments pretty well:

Thanks to everyone who came out for our second annual “Off A Lot” kickoff. It was a wonderful time shared with wonderful people.

Lots of new faces this year, I can’t put into words how excited I am, at how the “Off A Lot” team has taken on a life of it’s own. The sky truly is the limit.

There is something special in watching someone shoot their first line of trap, there is a sense of apprehension, awe, anticipation, wonder and a hunger to excel. All these different emotions jumbling around inside a person. I call it the human element. Well, we were able to watch some people shoot their first lines yesterday evening and it just added to the magic of the night.

Special thanks to Uncle Joe and Danny. I don’t think Danny quit teaching all night. Every time I turned around, he was showing somebody something or explaining something else. I swear to God, he missed his calling in life, he is such a good shooting instructor. We truly are lucky to have both Danny and Uncle Joe.

Personally I’m completely blown away that the group is 19 strong as of our meeting this Wednesday. That’s just amazing to me and I can’t wait to see what this group looks like a year from now!

Here’s some pictures from the evening’s shooting activities. Click the thumbnail for a larger version.

The 2009 "Off A Lot" Shooters and Bell the Labrador.

Arlen is hiding behind Uncle Joe in all the group pictures. If you zoom in on the big version of this picture you can see his ears growing out of Uncle Joe’s neck.

Joe Sr. showing us how it's done

Here's Doug giving us his good side.

Joe with his Ithaca 37 at station 5

Danny delivering 1oz of lead shot at 1145fps. Just a hair bit faster than USPS 1st class.

Ben running his Remington 870. He doesn't have to point upwards as much as some of us.

Stephanie ran her lines with a 20 gauge Benelli Nova

Ted working his Mossberg 535

Here we see Danny trying to bust clays with his Jedi mind control

Jack got to take his new TriStar out that night

Justin makes a shooting and a fashion statement

Dick gettin it done with his Browning

Opie operating his "Lemon Hundred"

Dale working the over and under

Don contemplating which trap house to shoot first

Nick showing proper form while breaking a clay

Brian from last fall

Ray before he got his new shotty

Here is our Chaplain Arlen

Don before his shoulder surgery

2008 "Off A Lot"

When: Wednesday, September 9, 2009 at 5:00pm

Where: West Walker Sportsman’s Club

Why: We’ll be discussing teams for our internal competition for this fall and winter among other things.

Remember to bring $5 for Jack to cover the cost of the pizzas and bring your guns because we’ll be shooting when the range opens up at 6:00!

When I found out this week that none of our regular shooters, aside from Jack and myself, would be able to attend the monthly sporting clays shoot at Seaway this Saturday I invited a few new folks up and they took me up on the offer!

Nick, Ted, and Ted’s girlfriend Stephanie, came out with out us this morning and shot a  50 round game of sporting clays.  We had a blast!  Nick managed  a 19 on this outing with a 20 gauge Benelli Nova, Ted came away with a 17 using his Mossberg 535,  and Stephanie scored 9 using my Hugly SxS 20 gauge and Nick’s Benelli.  The Huglu fit her better but on the first report pair that came out the gun doubled so she switched over to Nick’s Nova for the rest of the course.

I’ll leave it up to Jack to post his score but I was right down there with Stephanie today only squeaking out a 9 myself.  Seems there’s an awful good reason you don’t see people out there shooting sporting clays with 12 gauge 20″ cylinder bore coach guns.  It was fun to try it but I don’t think I’ll be repeating that mistake again!

I went ahead and took the initiative to create a webpage for the Off A Lot gang.  This will be a space for us to post updates, pictures, videos, scores, etc.  We’ll see what comes of it.