| SHOOTING
WHERE WE LOOK |
| WINGSHOOTING
|
| RANDY
LAWRENCE |
| My
daughter Ashley doesn't like guns. Sure, she's a fan of grilled grouse breast,
and she understands that guns are a part of that experience. Ashley knows how
much fun her brother has shooting clays and notes her mother's growing interest
in the sport. But for now, she'll pass. Shotguns are loud and scary, she says.
Though she has not firsthand proof of this, she imagines that it hurts to shoot
them, too. |
| On
top of that, redheaded Ashley is 13 years old and good at it. She has mastered
the eye roll, the shoulder shrug and the not-so-quite audible rejoinder of her
generation: "Whatever!" To paraphrase a note she wrote to a friend (and forgot
in a pair of jeans headed for the washing machine), she has been sentenced to
hard time under the dumbest, most unjust despot alive. That would be me. |
| I'm
no better. During our most heated moments, I catch myself believing that all adolescents
should be mercifully freeze-dried and stored until they return to humanity at
about age 17. |
| We
had begun spending a good deal of our time sulking in neutral corners, the lines
of communication down and nearly out. Or at least that's how it was before the
broken curfew, a b race of BB guns, and a Texas quail hunter named Leon Measures. |
| Against
explicit instructions otherwise, Ashley stayed for a late move at our local shopping
mall. This involved an extra trip for her mother across town and a nervous, after-hours
wait in a poorly policed parking area, one still shadowed by the unsolved murder
of a young girl several years ago. Stiff sanctions were in order, but while Ashley's
fate was under advisement, I had a conversation with the aforementioned Measures.
Suddenly, Ashley's mother and I had a better idea. |
| We
outlined the standard punishments of being grounded and having Ashley's phone
privileges curtailed for the remainder of the century. Or…she could work off her
sentence in half-hour increments. Call it community service, spending time with
me learning to shoot flying targets with a BB gun. Desperate to avoid incarceration
and fiber-optic isolation, Ashley opted for the air gun. |
| Maybe you've
seen Leon Measures' "Shoot Where You Looksm" students perform their air gun wizardry
on ESPN. What you don't know about are the dozens of clays shooters and whitewing
dove devotees who've slipped up to Measures' back door, hat in hand, shotgun confidence
in tatters, and left with a Shoot Where You Look kit. You don't know about them
because they're sitting smug in a pile of target dust and game feathers. Mum's
the word. |
| But
the air gun practice is really no secret. The method is based on military training
that used BB guns as introductory tools for instinctive point-and-fire methods.
Measures' adaptation for wingshooting got its start in a church Boy Scout troop
if the troop finished its merit badge work. Measures promised to teach them to
shoot. He was as good as his word, and since then, his program has proved to be
an ideal activity for 4-H clubs and other youth groups looking for a fun, safe
skill activity. |
| Besides
improving a person's shotgun swing, Shoot Where You Look features plenty of applications
toward personal responsibility, teamwork, and goal-centered commitment. For Ashley
and me, it offered even more. |
| But
let's talk about shooting first. Certainly three of the biggest roadblocks to
becoming an accomplished shotgunner are cost. Finding safe areas to practice,
and jaw-jumpin',cheek-crackin', shoulder-bangin' recoil. Enter the air rifle. |
| One
of Measures' Daisy guns, sans sights and stocked high enough so the shooter looks
over the barrel, is not a big-ticket item. Thousands of rounds of ammo cost but
a few dollars. The targets are milk jugs, tennis balls, and tin cans. Graduates
of his course practice by puffing aspirin tables out of the air, but heck, the
generic brand can be purchased in bulk for cheap. |
| Well-fitted
safety glasses are absolutely mandatory, as is a safe area to shoot. But where
a shotgun requires large-area considerations for field of fire, shot fall, and
noise, air gun practice can be done almost anywhere there's an appropriate backstop
and careful consideration of BB ricochet. Measures has given dozens of demonstrations
in high school classrooms, gymnasiums, and trade show auditoriums. With a tarp
backdrop and adequate lighting, some of his students fashion nighttime practice
ranges in their backyards or garages. |
| And
finally, there's that feisty rascal we used to call kick. We know that recoil
hampers consistent technique and wears on a shooter's stamina. Therefore, if we're
starting a shotgun, a gas autoloader, open choked in 28 bore or bigger and maintained
to perform reliably with the terrific new light or trainer loads, is the scattergun
of choice. Custom-molded plugs under stout, well-fitted muffs provide cost-effective
defense against recoil associated with muzzle blast. Providing the beginner with
a variety of appropriate targets keeps the focus on the eye-hand-target relationship,
dampening buttstock punch through the adrenaline rush of success. |
| But
there may be an easier way. The air gun is recoil free. It is lightweight, effortlessly
lifted over and over for dry mount practice and shooting. Measures' entire kit
- sturdy, wood-stocked gun, a comprehensive video and companion manual, two pair
of safety glasses - comes delivered under $170.00. |
| The
bottom line is that any student willing to commit quality practice time to the
Shoot Where You Look system can manage the staggering number of correctly, successful
repetitions that groove fundamental technique. Graduates make an almost seamless
transition to the shotgun, jump-started to a performance level that would have
cost many hundreds, even thousands of dollars to reach by a conventional approach. |
| So
if air gun introduction to wingshooting is such a great idea, why don't we see
more of it? Lots of reasons, first of all, a BB gun just isn't very sexy. It's
perceived as a kid's toy, a gimmick, and a comedown for an adult. Shortsighted,
cynical folks might even see it as a drain on the traditional gun and ammo market.
They need to take another look. |
| Many
more adults with little or no shooting background now want to try shotgunning.
Three of my newest students are city-bred, young professionals drawn to wingshooting
by the allure of fine over-unders, notions of pretty dog work, even the tug of
game dinners provided by an afternoon afield. I'm convinced that if Hollywood
ever gave us the shotgunning equivalent of a River Runs Through it, The game of
sporting clays-scenic courses, imaginative targets, elegant equipment, bloodless
kills-would surely boom in the same way catch-and-release fly fishing has over
the last five years. |
| Along
with these newcomers are the old hands who've found sporting clays to be an honest
way to keep a bird gun hot when the seasons are closed. Count, too, the more casual
folks whose shotguns often have dust on them when they get to the range. Many
of them have realized they can actually enjoy more consistent shooting with some
directed primer popping. |
| But
how many of these folds are dissuaded by the cost involved in practicing such
improvement? How many beginners are put off shooting forever by the punishment
they get from a gun they're not really ready to shoot or targets that are far
beyond their ability? |
| On
the other hand, how many people, introduced to shooting in an intelligent, success-oriented
manner, are simply started for more shooting? Are eager to buy another shotgun,
a good shooting vest, flats or high-quality ammo? Will join their local sporting
club, attend a fun shoot, and find their way to competitive shooting? Might later
buy a hunting license, perhaps a duck stamp? |
| There
are lots of ways to learn to shoot a shotgun safely and effectively. The air gun
is simply an inexpensive, easy-to-practice method for anyone willing to give it
a try. Those who practice the techniques Measures demonstrates will not only shoot
where they look, but also they'll hit what they see in wingshooting-and, just
maybe, in life. |
| This
is where Ashley and I come back into the story. You see, after checking out the
complete kit, I bought a second air gun. Now my daughter and I practice together,
long after Ashley has worked off her "community service" hours. We take turns
tossing targets; we bet trips to Dairy Queen on handicapped shooting percentages.
The lines between teacher and student have blurred by our common attempts to get
together, and we have something more to talk about than the condition of her bedroom
or whose turn it is to mow the lawn. We look forward to the time we've made together.
|
| Her
mother has gone on from the air rifle to shoot at clays with her Ruger 20 bore.
But Ashley and I keep plinking away with our BB guns, learning to shoot where
we look, hit what we see, and see what's good about a friendship between a freckle-faced,
professional teen-ager and a clumsy dad who had found one mark he cannot afford
to miss. |
