| Time Well Spent With a Shooting Coach By Rocky Ferraro Sometimes we take for granted all the experience we have piled up over the years. Yes, not all days are perfect and when we have one of those perfect days we expect the next one to be even better. We never realize that every minute of every day we learn something new and add it to our repertoire. They may not be all shooting experiences but many everyday experiences add to our overall knowledge base. That experience cannot be learned, bought, or traded for. It is something that is so precious but something we take for granted most of the time. We were on our way to Coyote Valley Sporting Clays 4 young adults and two not so young but young of spirit and heart. On the way down my coach thinking about the day ahead of us had been thinking about this day ever since I had mentioned it to him. He was thinking not about how well he was going to shoot but how well he was going to be able to instill his knowledge in these four young adults. I was hoping to soak some of it up as well. Once we arrived he decided we would be best off not trying to shoot sporting clays but instead on the skeet range. It worked out well since it was forecasted to shower not many people showed up and we had one of the skeet ranges to our selves. As we walked up to the range the kids Ryan, Nina, Elizabeth and Julia were all chatting it up as they had on the way down. It was great to be around a great group of people anticipating a fun day of shooting clay pigeons. Once we arrived Darold had a plan, we started the kids at station number1 to get a feel for what their abilities were but ended moving to station 7 so they could get a feel for hitting their targets. They all started breaking clays and could not wait until it was their turn again. We transferred over to station number 6 and had them start to get the feel for this new angle as well. Ryan was all ready a crack shot, shooting doubles early on. Nina, Julia and Elizabeth soon caught on but played it conservative and did not go for the doubles. Darold and I just had fun. Darold also showed us the importance of having a well fitting gun and how a gun that is broken in is nicer to shoot. He tried out my daughters 410 and told us the trigger was much too stiff even compared to his twelve gauge over and under. He also had my youngest try out his twelve and on her second shot was breaking clays. We took a break and went and had lunch. We did not realize it but they have a new grill set up in the back. We had one of their down home great Saturday lunches with all the fixings and lots of homemade chili. What else could you ask for? Good company and homemade chili! After lunch we headed back but the skeet range was being used. Shortly their after a storm cloud passed overhead and we were treated to a little spring shower complete with thunder and lightning. We all huddled in one of their gazebos until the cloud passed. The skeet range opened up again and the kids got to break some more clays. Then it was time to go home and as they came in the kids, shotguns under their arms walked back to the truck talking about their day at Coyote Valley Sporting Clays; in fact they still talk about it and ask us “when are we going back?” |
| Foster City Rod and Gun Club |
Coyote Valley Sporting Clays
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