Not so long ago there were a couple of threads on trapshooters.com – one about favourite trapshooting sayings and another about inspirational sayings.
Enjoying both threads enormously I realized (once again) that our trapshooting community is a pretty close-knit one and once you get accepted you find a strong family ready to help you. As with any family you’ll have the odd members, the black sheep and all sorts of other characters. But, at the core, in its essence, they will love you as much as you love them back.
And that gives me hope that we’ll be able to revitalize this beautiful sport even here, north of the Second Amendment’s border. That more and more people will come to realize this sport is as much about beauty and calm and happiness as golf (like Michael just figured out: it’s the new golf 🙂 ). It is about traditions and family values, respect and appreciation, about outdoors and friendship. Of course you’ll find the bitter ‘old’ ones but most everyone else is shooting at the little clay ‘thingies’ for the pure joy of smoking one.
Getting me re-acquainted with a shotgun after many years of pause was, most likely, the best gift my husband gave … himself 🙂 I am sure lots of people will shoot better if they’ll get their better half to join them on the range – it is a wonderful sport, but like any other it needs lots of practice hours. And ranges here are far from being as accessible as a golf range or a soccer field or a hockey arena. Which means, most likely, more time away from home… and what family enjoys having a part of them being swept away for hours and hours at time?! But what family wouldn’t enjoy the same time doing something together, sharing the love for a common hobby? Granted, not everyone is made for trap shooting… but I am quite sure there could be more women and more young people on the range than there are today. Sounds strange to try to bring on the ‘competition’, doesn’t it? But it’s not – the future of the sport is not in the hands of our wonderful third generation of veterans and senior veterans… the future is not even in the hands of our male adults… the future lies with the children and youngsters. And what best way to bring the youngsters than to bring their moms, sisters, and girlfriends into the sport as well? This is not an entertainment sport where we can get the cheerleaders and watch for 2-3 hours a match… We are talking about day-long competitions… it takes a very dedicated person to endure hours and days of a middle-of-nowhere. So what could be better than actually transforming them from simply spectators into participants?!
And so I happily dream of a day when we’ll be able to have high-school teams of trapshooters… or collegiate competitions… like our neighbours down south. Wouldn’t that be nice?
Until then, I am going to share a few of the trapshooting sayings – for humor and for a thought before Provincials.
Shoot well!
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If you’re shootin’ bad, you need a new new gun; if you’re shootin’ good, you deserve a new gun.
It ain’t the gun that causes misses, It’s the nut on the end of the stock.
Trapshooters fear the angles and miss the straightaways.
I must have shot overneath that bird.
Ya get ’em all? Naw……I left some for seed!
There is a lot of space around the target.
If you knew what day you were going to shoot good that’s the only day you would shoot.
Look at that kid, he don’t know he’s supposed to miss.
A talented puller is someone who can throw the bird into your pattern.
I shot a perfect score. They threw 25 targets – the gun went bang 25 times!
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To break them all you should break this next one.
Just like the fishing saying ‘If it was easy, they would call it catching not fishing’. The same goes for trap. It’s called ‘trap shooting, not trap hitting’ for a reason.
How to shoot doubles: You shoot that one and then that one.
Never admire the break on the first bird in doubles!
Can you break one bird for sure?… Then you can break 100!
The best thing about winning is knowing you can.