Clay Target Nation

The official magazine of the National Skeet Shooting Association and the National Sporting Clays Association

Digital Extra: Gear The Pros Rely On

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In the July issue of Clay Target Nation, you can read an article about some of skeet shooting’s most well-known championship-level shooters and the gear they rely on. You can read the full article here, but here’s a bonus question we didn’t have room to run in print!

 

CTN: Adjustment times seem to vary from shooter to shooter. How long (hours or days of range time) do you give yourself to become comfortable and successful in adapting to a new or different shotgun, ammunition or piece of gear and how did you go about determining that time frame?

Bender: Changes to equipment are only made in the off-season. I would allow one to two months to become comfortable and confident with specific changes.

Brown: Adjustment times vary among shooters due to their level of knowledge/experience.  I have developed my own practice program that I shoot two to three times a week.  On average I spend around two to three hours at the range practicing alone. I can focus on quality, not quantity, with little to no distractions. However if more shooting/practice is required, I will make all efforts to accomplish this.  If I’m making changes, this is done in off/pre-season training to determine the proven performance I’m looking for.  However, at any time during the season, or during each shoot I can and will make changes if necessary to handle a problem/obstacle or improve on something learned from mistakes.

Giambrone: When making any significant changes in equipment (mainly gun), it takes a solid 3-6 months of steady practice at the range and mount the gun at home to get comfortable with it. Steady range time is 3-4 times per week and shooting a minimum of 20-30 boxes per week. This is assuming the equipment fits you properly as well. If it doesn’t fit, I don’t care how much you practice with it, you won’t ever get used to it. If you change glasses, this doesn’t take nearly as long, but it still takes time to adjust.

Huszai: Adjustment times vary, depending on what you are in the process of changing.  Our sport requires constant adjustment – to weather conditions, different backgrounds, and our own changing bodies as we age.  The willingness to adapt and change is necessary in order to maintain your skills.

Stellato: When adapting to a new shotgun I leave six months to become consistent in singles and a year before I am comfortable with doubles. When changing gear, it only takes me a few boxes to become accustomed to the change, as long as I am comfortable with what I am using. If I’m not comfortable with something, I cannot use it. Also, it only takes me a few shots to become accustomed to a change in ammo.

Glenewinkel: I don’t change equipment much after I find something that works for me.  The last time I changed competition guns was in 2008 and the only other significant equipment I have changed was my shooting glasses when I started using the Pilla glasses in 2015.  The change in shotguns took a few months to work through and the change in glasses took a few days.

 

CTN: How much have you relied upon the advice, instruction and recommendations from top competitors and instructors in making the selection of your winning combination of shooting tools and techniques?

Bender: I have been very fortunate in that I worked under the best technical coach in the sport during my time at Trinity University, my coach, Col. Tom Hanzel. During the height of my career, for 20-plus years, I shot with and partnered with the best skeet shooter ever, and one of the best shotgun shooters ever, Wayne Mayes. In the last 10 years, I’ve studied under and taught with arguably the best mental coach, Olympic Gold Medalist, Lanny Bassham. I’ve been exposed to the best information from the best individuals.

Brown: Over my lifetime of shooting skeet I have had the privilege of receiving advice from only a few top competitors and at those times it occurred when I was not asking for the advice.  They were generous enough to pass on a hint or suggestion at various times and I respectfully listened.  I received some of the best instruction many years ago from several well experienced shooters who were not World Champions; however, their knowledge and experience was extremely priceless. Their instructions on proper shooting techniques, hold points, and equipment, to include skeet field etiquette, sportsmanship, and professionalism, have been very important to me as to my style and overall performance. Overall, I consider myself more self-taught when it comes to the final performance. This has been from tremendous hours practicing, wearing out guns and equipment, and learning what works best for me, which might not be the same for other shooters.

Huszai: I have been very fortunate to have had very good instruction over the years. From my Dad, who introduced me to the clay target sports many years ago, to my current coach, I have had good, patient instructors. I feel that it is necessary to work with a coach who knows your shooting style and can observe subtle changes in your game, in order to maintain a competitive edge.

Giambrone: I have been very blessed. I had so many people over the years help me in small and big ways, it would be impossible to name them all. I worked very hard to get where I am and it wasn’t an overnight process. I shot for 7 years with 5 of those being very steady before reaching AA/AAA status. Steady being defined as:

  • Shooting 30-40 boxes of practice a week.
  • Shooting a minimum of 5,000 registered targets each season.
  • Having steady instruction during that time period.
  • Watching the top shooters closely and seeing what they do and how they do it.

My coaches who had the most impact on me would be my father, Paul Giambrone, Jr,, and Eddie Francez of Louisiana. Eddie helped me understand the mental game, and my father always was there on the practice field with me. He was there through the good and bad and always had just the right thing to say to me to keep me going.

Stellato: I have relied heavily on advice from people throughout my career, especially when developing my techniques. Craig and Tommy Kirkman are my primary coaches. They helped me develop a technique which works for me and have taught me how to adjust to different conditions. Larry Seward has been very helpful with my mental game or when I am stuck on something. Being a quick study allows me to apply advice or make changes in a pinch. For example, at last year’s mid-America, I was struggling. John Shima helped me to understand how to best use my new larger barrels. Using that advice, I ran my first 100 straight in the .410 and won the gun championship. When deciding on equipment, I relied more on comfort than on outside advice. I am also grateful I can tell what I am doing wrong most of the time and stop before it becomes a bad habit.

Glenewinkel: Terry Howard was my coach for several years when I began shooting skeet and has undoubtedly had the greatest impact on my shooting technique.  I have also used coaches from time to time for other shooting sports like trap and sporting clays. In addition to this, I have attended a few clinics focusing on particular aspects of skeet, like how to improve my doubles. Over the years I have learned where I usually encounter problems with my shooting. These days, I listen to tips from other shooters and learn from observing techniques of other shooters in the game to minimize bad habits and improve my technique.

Download Digital Clay Target Nation for Offline Reading

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Download CTNNo matter how well connected we are through wifi in our homes, at work, in hotels, and even at the coffee shop, we all find ourselves in places where we can’t access the internet. Thus when our inaugural issue of Clay Target Nation came out in January, along with our interactive digital issue, we heard from some of you with a request: a digital version that you could download to your tablet or computer to read at those times when you’re without an internet connection. You asked and we answered.

The digital edition of Clay Target Nation can now be downloaded to any device for reading at your convenience, whether you’re on a plane, at the gun club, or even in a place where you just don’t want to connect to public wifi.

Open the digital issue online, then:

    On your computer: Look for the download icon  Download  in the grey panel on the right side of the screen.

    On your tablet: Access the menu in the upper left corner of the screen, then touch “All Issues.” You’ll be prompted to download the issue of your choice.

So read the digital version of Clay Target Nation however it’s most convenient to you — online, where you will experience the interactivity of live links, search capabilities, and navigational features, or offline, so you can read it anywhere. Either way, you’ll get the same great content that appears in the printed magazine.

Send Us Your Shoot Wrap-ups and News

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With our new magazine format and website, NSSA-NSCA has the opportunity to include reports from many of your shoots, along with photos. While we will have writers covering the largest of sporting clays and skeet events, we’d love to recognize some of those that we won’t be covering ourselves.

If you participated in an event, especially if you shot high-quality photos, you are invited to send us a shoot wrap-up.

We will be including some shoot reports in our printed magazine, some on ClayTargetNation.com, and some in both places. We also expect – especially when there’s a good selection of photos – to use some abbreviated wrap-ups in the magazine with a link to a longer article and photo gallery on the website.

In addition to shoot wrap-ups, we’d like to hear about other important news, especially perfect scores and other reasons that warrant kudos.

While we do not expect our members to be professional writers and photographers, we’ve compiled some pointers that will help you submit your best material, increase its likelihood of being published, and help us process it efficiently. Here are some points to keep in mind:

    • Be timely. Plan to write your article as soon as possible following the event. With magazine content deadlines about two months before the cover date, a long delay in submitting your news will make it out-of-date before it can be published.
    • Include the basics. Cover all the basic W’s: who, what, when, where, why. We do not have staff to do additional research, so we must depend on you for all the facts.
    • Get the facts correct. Make sure the winners are listed right, names spelled correctly, full name of the club given, etc.
    • Writing tips. Write your article first, then give it a title. When starting with a title, many people tend to treat it as a first sentence and leave out important facts from the actual first paragraph. Also, write in third-person (he, she, they) rather than first-person (I, we). Please, no inside jokes that most readers won’t understand. Write it as a reporter rather than a participant, assuming the reader knows only what you are telling them.
    • Shoot high-resolution digital photos. Shoot and send us photos in the highest possible resolution or largest size your camera allows. If they are not high-res, they probably won’t make the cut for the print magazine but may be suitable for ClayTargetNation.com. Sorry, we cannot accept photo prints.
    • Plan photography in advance. Consider having a professional photographer or an accomplished hobbyist to photograph important events. If possible, write captions or identify the people in the photos. On the website, we can create photo galleries, so if you have lots of good ones, it’s fine to send as many as you’d like. If you didn’t shoot the photos, be sure to tell us who did so we can give them credit.
    • Email it to us. Send us the story, photos, and any additional information in one email to CTN@nssa-nsca.com, with the name of the shoot in the subject line. If attaching large photos requires multiple emails, send as many as you need to but please be sure the shoot name is in the subject line of each. Because of the volume of email we receive, it’s easy to get materials mixed up if they aren’t properly labeled. If you have large files and have access to Dropbox, you may share your materials with skerr@nssa-nsca.com.
    • Include contact info. Always include the name and email address of the person submitting the information and who reported the event, if it’s different. We may need to contact you with a follow-up question, and we want to credit the person providing the material.

Submissions will be edited. Please be aware that we will edit your submissions to present them in the best way possible, as well as for space considerations. Also, we cannot promise that every submission will be published, although it is our hope to use as many as possible.

We look forward to receiving and publishing your shoot coverage, photos, and news! Contact us at CTN@nssa-nsca.com with any questions and your contributions.

The Story of Our First Cover Photo

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As you might imagine, planning for the first issue of Clay Target Nation began many months ago, but no decision had our editorial team more stumped than the first cover. Of course, it had to be special and set the tone for the months and years to follow. But with coverage of both the World Skeet Championships and National Sporting Clays Championship planned for the inaugural issue, and an earnest desire to spread the wealth evenly between sporting clays and skeet topics, who would get the cover?

One of those head-scratching sessions yielded this statement from yours truly: “Let’s have both champions on the same cover.” Considering there’s a span of a few weeks between the two events, and we had no idea who either of those champions would be, well, let’s just say it was viewed as a very tentative plan.

As discussion continued, the idea began to grow legs: once the World Skeet HOA Champion was determined, we would ask him or her to travel back to San Antonio on Sunday, October 25, the final day of the National Sporting Clays Championship. At its conclusion, we would grab that champ for a photo shoot with our skeet champion — if all the stars aligned. If they didn’t, the back-up plan that we did not want to employ was two separate photo shoots and some Photoshop magic.

The World Shoot produced a first-time HOA, Mike Peterson, that I didn’t know. Sitting in the shoot-off stadium during awards, I was anxiously waiting to see the new champion step forward to accept one of the five medals he earned so I could identify him, snag him for a conversation, and persuade him to come back to San Antonio in a few weeks for a photo shoot. To my surprise, when his name was called, the young man sitting next to me rose to begin collecting his bounty. When he returned, I was ready to pounce. Hey, this might work!

Within a few minutes, I’d had a delightful conversation with the 25-year-old Peterson and made my pitch to have him return to San Antonio from his Wisconsin home for a photo shoot with our sporting clays champion. He graciously agreed, assuming he could be cleared to miss work on Monday while he traveled back home. Within a few more days, we were able to check that obstacle off our list as well.

By now, we all know about the visit of Hurricane Patricia during the National Sporting Clays Championship. Yes, we’re still going to do the photo shoot, I assured Mike Peterson, and he boarded the plane.

Mike arrived Sunday afternoon as sporting clays shooters were still competing, bringing along his shotgun and a fistful of medals. Now he, editor Hilary Dyer, and I only had to wait for the conclusion of Nationals to see who would grace the cover along with him.

Cover shoot
Photographer Thaddius Bedford getting the right perspective on our champions for our magazine’s first cover.
We had enlisted the extraordinary Thaddius Bedford to photograph the champions. He pitched some ideas, and we were anxious to see his vision come to life. To save time, we scouted locations near the stadium field that weren’t overly muddy and acquired a ladder so Bedford could obtain the right perspective. After he explained one of his photo concepts to us, we laid out clay targets in a grid on top of a trap house, thankful that his artist’s eye could visualize how this was going to come together better than we could.

Competition continued, dragging later and later into the evening. Around midnight, the last shoot-off finally produced a winner, William Walton, and in the next moment he was being whisked away by Executive Director Michael Hampton to our photo shoot. “We’ll do this right in a few minutes,” he told Walton as he hung a medal around his neck and handed him a championship ring, “but now we have to do a photo shoot!”

Bedford started with a few shots of the champions displaying their rings at arms’ length. “Yes, we like those,” we said, looking at the camera’s viewer. Then he climbed the ladder and directed the champions to stand among the grid of targets on the trap house. He shot a few frames and showed us the result. “Money shot!” exclaimed Hilary, and we knew we had our cover.

In case you’re wondering, no, we don’t plan to go this route again. The 2016 World Shoot will be covered in the November issue of Clay Target Nation, and the National Sporting Clays Championship will be featured in December.

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