Start Planning Now

Posted On: 11-23-2023

As the end of the year approaches, now is the time to start getting ready for the 2024 season.  So where to start?  I would start by doing a little reading and exploring the internet on trap shooting.  Amazon offers many books on shooting that I know are informative and provide tips you may otherwise not have heard about. 

Next up how about getting physically fit for shooting.  I have said this before, and I cannot understate the need for you to do at least 50 gun mounts a day.  Make sure you are on board with your parental supervision but get the unloaded gun out and face a mirror and start doing the mounts.  There are several components here that you need to be aware of: eyes, cheek, forearm, and stock placement.  Keep doing these until you get stronger, and you become so accustomed to the mount it is not something you have to think about.  Imagine if you do your gun mounts correctly how much more prepared you are to shoot.  Fifty mounts can easily become 100 as that is what you need to do each event.  I have been around plenty of kids shooting and adults too that get just plain tired.  That is not a compliment to good shooting especially when you are on a good run.

Now is a perfect time to get your team out and go to the pattern board.  Order some pattern targets and take the time to go through the shot to understand, point of impact, percentage of targets that are in the hit zone, and understanding just how many pellets are available to hit a target.  Understand what A 30” circle is and how it relates to a target 30 yards out.  Do the pattern board correctly from a sitting well settled mount that can stay on the center of the target without moving around.  Remember a ¼” of movement is 10” at the target.

Now is not the time to quit shooting.  Keep going to the range and set a goal for targets you will shoot over the break.  Get your team together and have an impromptu shoot.  Have fun but take the time to talk to each other about why you hit targets and why you miss targets. 

While at the range try different chokes.  Work your way up to a full choke and understand what that choke does.  A full choke will put 70 pellets in a 30” circle at 40 yards while a modified will put 60 in the circle – you be the judge but get to know your choke.  In the words of the great Leo Harrison III. There is only a full choke in shooting trap.

Finally, start to plan for shoots in 2024.  MYSSA Spring Break Ems start in late January and usually are completed shortly before the Paul Larsen Memorial Shoot at MTA, MTA AIM Shoot, High School Summer League at MTA, 4-H shoot in late August.  Summer provides opportunities for additional training including the Mid-America Trap Academy June 5,6 and 7.  Two events in the fall with the MYSSA Fall Classic and the United Sportsmen Club Combo Shoot in Jefferson City.

Best to all in 2024.

David R. Vaught, Ph.D.

Executive Director