Pond Boss Forums GENERAL QUESTIONS Pond Boss Anybody get hit by the winds today?

That was before my time.... I was safely in Illinois.
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April 11, 1965 is a different matter. I was in the first F3 tornado of the Palm Sunday storms that started in Starke County, went thru Marshall and ended up in Elkhart County.
http://www.crh.noaa.gov/iwx/program_area...0and%20Michigan

Dave, at least you know what direction they are going to fly! Just give them about another 3' of daylight before you touch the trigger.

Scott -- yes! They flush into the wind, and then they fill their wings with the big wind, and are gone down-wind before you can get the safety off! Is that what you meant??

Yep! Although I've practiced enough to get lead flying at them before they get too far out. That is definately some difficult shooting. Being able to read the dog helps a bunch when working with flushing dogs. It's a bit easier when working with pointers.

When dog training (Springers), I walk thru the field with the Over/Under loaded, but broke open. The gun gets closed as it's brought to the shoulder swinging with the bird. As soon as the gun hits my shoulder the trigger gets pulled. But, I was looking at giving the dog a 40+ yard retrieve, so shooting the bird as soon as it got up wasn't a requirement. One trainer in Phoenix wanted 80-100 yd retrieves and we'd drive out there from So. Cal. to shoot for him one weekend a month. Light Full and Full choke, handloaded 1 3/8 oz of buffered #6 and #5 lead shot going 1380-1400 fps did the trick. I tried #4's, but the gun wouldn't pattern them as well at 60 Yds as the smaller shot sizes. #6's worked the best out of that particular gun.

We got a lot of practice shooting at birds, 12 months out of the year. 2 of us would go thru between 100 and 200 pigeons a month, and about 50 pheasants. That doesn't include shooting for other trainers. Here in Indiana, my skills are getting rusty. I'm not shooting the volume of shells that I used to.

Dang Scott, that much shooting with those kind of hand loads you must have been awful deadly! That kinda load must have been brutal on the shoulder though... Especially if you had a light gun!

I've made some $$ shooting clay birds with those loads.

We shot at one range where the trap was an international wobble trap, and we'd stand 60 yds behind the trap on the firing line of the rifle range, then call for the bird. Last man standing took home the $$. (Annie Oakly shoots)

I had some work done to the gun - it is a Browning Citori O/U with 30" barrels. I took it up to The Shotgun Shop and had Bill Houston lengthen the forcing cones to 4" and polish them. I wanted to buy the gun without the factory ports and have Bill install his Laser Ports, but Browning said I couldn't. Then I sent the gun to Shooters Emporium in Portland Oregon to have their Soft-Touch system installed (Standard system). http://shootersemporium.net/softtouchsystem.php

Then I called up these guys and had them make a 16 oz unit that fit in the upper chamber (only one barrel was used shooting at clays). I had to send it to them once already to replace the brass at the end - the rim ripped off after a year and a half.

But, with the other things that I did to the gun it shoots pretty soft when shooting at birds. The unit that slips in the barrel is only used for shooting the games, and that's because I was shooting up to 500 of those rounds in a day. I used to play the games at least one night a week, and once a month we started at 9:00 a.m. and went 'till 9:00 p.m.

You're correct, gun weight helps a bunch. But, if you aren't used to it by the end of the evening you are pretty tired from lifting it up 4 or 5 times for every shell that you shoot. To make a long story short, I ended up making a dedicated Model 12 to shoot the games. I took a Model 12, turned it into a Model 25 with a barrel that is a .025" overbored 10 ga barrel with a 12 ga chamber. The only factory part still on the gun is the receiver and bolt. I made everything else. The gun also has a soft-touch type recoil reduction system in the stock, which I also made, although the cylinder has compressed air, not oil in it. The magazine tube is a dummy tube made from Stainless Steel - it's now a single shot. It's a 3" Heavy Duck Gun receiver, but I only shoot 2 3/4" shells. IIRC the receiver was made in 1935 or '36. I threaded the end so it takes a threaded choke tube. Currently it's wearing a ported PatternMaster. Bill Laser Ported this barrel.

I envy people like you guys that can hit what they are aiming at! Back when I used to eliminate herons (tried to eliminate them) I had a few just look at me when I pointed the gun at them and go right on fishing like I was no threat! And I'd fire at them with a shotgun and miss! (Either that or they were standing just out of range and knew it! )

Of course when I went to a 3 1/2 inch shell with a buckshot load that all changed. I called it my idiot proof load.

Cecil, it took many, many, MANY shells to get that way. I even went and had my first shotgun fitted to me, which helped fine tune things greatly.

I shot so many shells that I was buying lead shot by the ton (and THAT wouldn't quite last a year). I had to reload - I couldn't afford it otherwise.

The Citori that I bought new has well over 100,000 rounds thru it alone. Then there were the 4 other shotguns..........