The columns I most enjoy writing about are probably the duck grouse, and pheasant accounts. Seasonal, they are, but so are the weeks we spend in the bright summer hours, seeking to break into a lot of pieces, the clay target. That season has returned, with the opening week of the Becker County Sportsmen's Club trap shooting league. This 16-week competition gets going next Thursday, April 19, at about six o'clock. The usual number of teams will go hard at it.
Skills are equalized with our handicap system, but expertise in shot gunnery always rises to the top, regardless of how intricate a system is devised to give the lesser skilled some advantage.
I pulled the three Weatherby over-unders from their hiding place. Snapped the barrels together with a satisfying clunk and put their glossy fore ends into battery. We're ready for some trap, skeet at Fort Thunder, sporting clays at Oak Point, Perham, Dalton and Long Lake down at Brandon.
It appears to be a long time between late April, and the final days of September, but they pass all too quickly. Shooting the clays with friends, mixing in some crappie and walleye fishing -- well they are the days we live for. They've finally arrived.
Promotional shotgun shells
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Are they any good? Do you need to put the more expensive factory loads in your shotgun to break the clays? Yes and no. The low cost promotional shot shells, made by each of the big three are the choice of many who do not reload. Our gun club sells the Federal brand named "Estate" and some good scores are posted by a great many who buy them. Reloading, expertly done by such shooters as Gene Johnson, Arland Wisted, John McGovern, Tom Lynch, Bill Bruflodt and Layden Jacobson and others will result in a load a good deal superior to the factory promos, and will cost a bit less.
Reloading components, the primers, shot, wads, and powder as now priced, has caused some to discontinue making up their own reloads, but the above named, and others, are regularly the leaders on the scoreboard.
Promotional shells use components of lesser quality than the top lines of each of the ammo producers. The lead shot is softer, the case is a cheaper, non-reloadable plastic, with a zinc or steel head, sometimes plated. They will function reliably, and most will break a claybird when the shooter has done his part. All of the manufacturers advise, on the cartons, that the shells contained therein are okay for practice, but strongly recommend using their higher grades for competition.
Winchester, Remington, and Federal all produce an in-between grade, sold mostly by the big mega-marts. These come packed in a carton of four, 100 shells, and these are probably a mid-grade. I cannot recall seeing these marketed by any of the independent gun shops. Their cost is also about the middle of the range. Many of these are sold and from what I've observed, they perform well for league shooting.
If you're a regular participant in league shotgunning, it is perhaps best to buy ammunition by the flat of ten boxes rather than accede to a weekly purchase of a few boxes. Saving money in order to do more shooting is the aim of all of us, and promotional shells are always a serious consideration. Except when serious money is on the line, in competition, promotional shells are the way to go.
