Thanks for all the suggestions. My plan (in order) is to:
take a gun course
Go out and blow away some targets & small fruity objects in the woods somewhere - to get familiar with the gun
Find a trap shooting club somewhere
I’m not sure about the hunting thing. Turkey is good, I’ve never had pheasant. I didn’t much enjoy the venison my aunt tried to pass off as tacos, either.
For the record, I think the road-sign/paper wad shooting ideas probably fall into the “bad” idea category. Perhaps the “very bad” category.
I used to live in Kansas (Wichita & Pratt) - never saw a pheasant. They must not shop at Wal-mart, much.
Belrix, excellent choice in a gun. I only own one shotgun and it’s the same.
One neat thing about these 870’s is that they are very easy to change out the barrel. The knob at the end just unscrews and it pops right off. (DON’T lose the knob). So, for a few more bucks, you can buy a seperate barrel for big game and another for birds.
The barrels for birds, or skeet shooting are longer and have a ball at the end. Both of these features are for increased accuracy when quickly throwing up the gun to shoot at a moving airborn target.
The barrels for hunting big game, like mine, have a front and rear sight just like a rifle. Also, the barrel is shorter. This is to make it easier to carry all day.
You live in a warm climate, so you should wear padding when shooting this gun. It will turn your shoulder black and blue after 50 rounds. You can also buy an extra shock absorber to attach onto the stock. These are at WallMart for short money.
I think it’s a great idea to take a course in shooting. I got a lot out of the one I took.
UncleBeer, I hesitate to disagree with you because you obviously know more about shotgunning than I do. I’m cross-dominant too (right handed with my left eye as dominant), and in traditional archery (where you shoot without sights), many people suggest learning to shoot so that your dominant eye is over the arrow. In my case, that would mean learning to shoot left-handed. Others invoke the name of Howard Hill (famous longbow archer who was also cross-dominant) to refute this. But in general, what I’ve read is that you’re better off working with your dominant eye rather than against it.
I’m going to try it in archery, even though it will be a total PITA to switch hands and build up the strength to pull a decent hunting weight bow with my left hand.
I shot a shotgun for the first time last weekend. I shot it right-handed, because I knew I would have a very limited number of shots. If I were going to shoot a shotgun seriously, I think I would try it lefthanded.
That’s all valid, Archergal. In fact, I’ve heard some very good and very experienced shotgunners recommend the same thing you suggest—a right-hand/left-eye dominate person should learn to shoot left-handed. And to be honest, for a person just starting out it might just be a good idea. For me, with years of experience shooting right-handed, the switch just seems too difficult for too little return (I regularly knock down 19-23 out of 25 trap birds) . Belrix is, and you are, a new shooter; both of you might find that it would be worthwhile to learn to shoot left-handed to reduce the inherent parallax. For the two of you, I certainly wouldn’t rule out that method.
There is also such a thing as an “offset” stock. Which essentially places the barrel(s) under the left eye, while allowing a person to still shoot right-handed. These are few and far between. And very expensive, usually custom pieces. Probably not something you wanna put on an 870, or it’s ilk.
Good luck! I hope it goes well and you get the results you’re looking for.
Another thing you might try, UncleBeer. is to “disable” your dominant eye. The following assumes that you keep both eyes open like you should. You need another person to help, and a pair of shooting glasses that you will only use for shotgunning.
Take your unloaded shotgun (verified to be unloaded by both you and your helper), and mount it normally. Have your helper hold up a thumb and aim at it with your dominant eye closed.
Then, withhout moving the gun, open your dominant eye and have your helper place a bit of that fuzzy-clear Scotch tape on the lens of your glasses directly in the line of sight between the the pupil of your dominant eye and the front bead.
This is harder to describe than to actually do.
What that little square of tape does is obscure the central vision of your dominant eye without affecting your peripheral vision.
It’s a simple way to avoid parallx problems and you won’t have to squint.
Failing that, learn to shoot left handed. I know a guy who shot right handed for thirty years before he went blind in his right eye. He switched, and his scores went right back up within a year.
As an aside, I never had a problem hitting skeet doubles with a pump, and I’m a total spaz. Also, a 26" barrel is a tad short for trap. I’m with you on the choke though. “Bull’s ass tight” full choke ain’t tight enough.
Not to nitpick on UncleBeer, but I think I can help clarify a few things. Agree with the trap effort, shooting skeet with a pump gun takes some skill in cycling the action. The barrel lengths is a bit off. Skeet and sporting clay barrel lengths have changed over the years, but for the longest time, 26" barrels were the de rigeur for skeet. I’m a competitive trap shooter (ATA member) and I can honestly say you won’t catch many trap shooters with less than a 30" barrel. I shoot a Browning BT-99 with a ported barrel and it’s 34".
Dominant eye can play a factor in sighting, but if you get a good instructor, he’s going to have you shooting with both eyes open. In the clay shooting sports, the shotgun is not “aimed”, it’s pointed at where your eyes are focused.
You didn’t indicate if your 870 came with a fixed choke. If it has multiple chokes, you can definitely try skeet (using Improved Cylinder or Modified choke), and Improved Modified or Full choke for shooting trap from the 16 yard line.
Ammo will be key. I recommend you shelve the game loads and go out and get light target loads. A good shell for skeet or trap would be a 1 ounce target load, in number 8 shot. After you get comfortable handling and shooting your 870, you can move up to heavier target loads and/or game loads.
Careful here, you could get addicted, and next thing you know you’ve bought a reloader and you’re shooting 8000 rounds a year, and your girlfriend…um, a-hem, where was I … Oh yeah!, welcome to the shooting sports, have fun and be safe.
I read 'Beer’s post again to check out that link and see that he wrote “shorter than what’s normally used”. Sorry UncleBeer for my mis-read. Anybody interested in getting started in trap, feel free to email me.