Musings of the Rookie
5 almost completely unrelated things you want to *avoid* or be aware of on the course.
- Phone addiction. I’m guilty of this, but usually if I’m shooting when on call. I’d like to apologize now to all the shooter’s whose perfect focus was messed up by my call rings or text notifications. In my (lame) defense, I thought all shooters were as deaf as I am.
- Ejected hulls on the ground. Silver Willow has staff that keep the course clean, but nobody wants to be stumbling over your empties on the stand. There’s a bucket for them at every station and using it makes life easier for everyone. If you shoot a semi or pump, you probably shouldn’t be going in front of the station to pick up ejected hulls – but at least clear the deck of the ones that landed there. As an aside, when you arrive at a station, before shooting, check the empties bin for reloaders who may have crawled inside searching for AA reload prospects (and got stuck).
- Hula dance vs Macarena. The hula dancer steps into the station and stomps his feet into place. His hips sway side to side and then hip circles – once clockwise – once counter-clockwise. A moment of deep reflection follows. The gun comes up and swings left, right, up and down, finally resting on the hold point. He grips the gun hard and tenses up like a rattlesnake about to strike and after another pause, calls for the bird. Instead of Hawaii, consider the rhythm of the Caribbean. Your shot plan is already done. Now, in perfect rhythm- load, close, address, look point, pull, swing, bang, bang – hey Macarena!
- Excess gun movement. You grow impatient waiting for the slow crosser to get to your hold point – so you swing back to meet up with it. (I am SO guilty of this.) It turns your nice, sustained lead shot plan, into… well, something else .
- Treats. So, this starts off with a caution to never offer treats to another man’s dog without his permission. As a following point, the dog will never forget, so there better be something in your pocket the next time he sees you. As an off topic (but slightly treat related) suggestion, I’ll bet Josh’s kids would make a fortune with a lemonade stand at the top of the hill by station 12 on blue.
Rob Ridley
Rookie!