Henry Rifle Forums

I am reviving my own old thread!

As an update.... I finally purchased an over under for clays. While visiting my in-laws in Western PA, I stopped by the Joel Etchen Company and bought a Beretta Silver Pigeon I Sport with 32" barrels and lefty wood. He had the lefty model at a great price. Couldn't pass it up! Happy to help out a small local company in PA too....

Doing the paperwork at my FFL later this week in SoCal. Will post another update....

Congrats! Nice to see so many variables/pieces come together on your purchase.
Now we'll just have to wait for your Range Reports from those trap/skeet/5-stand fields.
Enjoy your new Pigeon!

congratulations indeed .... do hope it will serve you well

PT7 wrote:Congrats! Nice to see so many variables/pieces come together on your purchase.
Now we'll just have to wait for your Range Reports from those trap/skeet/5-stand fields.
Enjoy your new Pigeon!

I don't think I'll be doing much skeet. I can't seem to get the lead right!

Trap, wobble and sporting clays for sure....

JCN wrote:I don't think I'll be doing much skeet. I can't seem to get the lead right!

Trap, wobble and sporting clays for sure....

a couple of us plan to shoot a long round (100 shells) on a local sporting clay's course on Saturday .... on the 21st while on our way home from South Dakota we hope fire another 100 on a trap range near St Louis .... I much prefer shoot trap but won't pass up any of them .... when you fire 100 12 ga game/skeet shells or sometimes twice as many in a single outing you learn a great deal about your shotgun

And how much punishment your shoulder can take...

You'll find that your shotgun doesn't need to beat your shoulder up the more you shoot.
7/8 and even 3/4 ounce loads at 1250 to 1300 fps break clay just as well as 1 1/8 ounce loads on pretty much all the ranges I shoot at. Just remember the heavier the load the more felt recoil.

JCN, I totally get "...can't seem to get the lead right!"

Early this last spring I took a skeet training class at our nearby MO Dept of Conservation shooting range. I had been shooting trap as often as I could, and skeet looked interesting to me. There were about 16 folk in the class, and we all took turns with training/shooting at the Low House #7 position. The instructor said that was about the easiest place for newbies to start at.

Of course, whenever a group that size gets together, there is always present a little bit of the competitive spirit as we counted how many clays each person brought down. There was a family (dad, mom, and two very young kids) all shooting, and all of them about took top honors. One elderly fellow had a lot of trap under his belt, and did well, too.
As for me, I came out at the bottom of the class -- clearly #16. When I tried to shoot the clays, I missed every single one of them. The instructor held me up and tested me for cross-eyed dominance....which I found out I had!! Basically, I cannot shoot a shotgun well at all with both eyes open. The practical reality from testing my eyes is that my aim was approx. 18" off the target....yikes! At that point, the instructor didn't keep me in the training rotation and saved his shotshells. Admittedly, it was quite an embarrassing morning as I learned I cannot shoot well in the clays sports.

So I modified my barrel and sights on my Benelli 20-ga shotgun from 24" barrel to an 18-1/2" tactical barrel (which of course eliminated the chokes and made it a cylinder bore s/g), added a Skinner ghost-ring peep for the rear sight and bead for the front sight. Both sights are mounted on the top rail. Now I shoot it primarily using slugs, and it's designed as a deer-hunting shotgun with rifle sights. I do quite well shooting it now.

To end this "sad tale" of the end of my sporting clays days, I have about 265 rounds of 20-gauge #7-1/2 and #8 shotshells in my ammo stock, which I don't know how to use now!! C'est la vie. It was fun while it lasted.

BTW, I've never shot an O/U shotgun, but really enjoy the principle of an O/U in shooting my derringer. I did have a 20-gauge Stoeger Condor SXS, and it was a great s/g and a lot of fun to shoot with that barrel configuration.

Sure hope you enjoy your times putting those clays down. Thanks for sharing your hunt for your Pigeon with everyone!

JCN wrote:I don't think I'll be doing much skeet. I can't seem to get the lead right!
Trap, wobble and sporting clays for sure....

PT7 wrote:So I modified my barrel and sights on my Benelli 20-ga shotgun from 24" barrel to an 18-1/2" tactical barrel (which of course eliminated the chokes and made it a cylinder bore s/g),

just as an FYI .... Carlson provides a service where they thread 12 & 20 ga barrels to where choke tubes can be used .... I've had them take care of a Remington 1100 for me and they do excellent work .... before you give up on shooting skeet, try closing the eye you don't want to use in sighting your shotgun .... I know its not the generally accepted way but it does work .... I'm proof of that

PT7 wrote:..... Basically, I cannot shoot a shotgun well at all with both eyes open. The practical reality from testing my eyes is that my aim was approx. 18" off the target....yikes! .....

I am cross eye dominant as well. This is why I shoot a lefty shotgun!

I shoot pistol and rifle with my right hand. Pistol is easy to move the sights in front of my left eye and with a rifle scope/sights I can use my right eye with no problem. Just had to learn how to shoot lefty when aiming at those clays!