I’ve watched the lanky Jonny Carter on many an occasion, but this, his first trip to the U.S., was all kinds of fun to watch.
For those who don’t know the tall Englishman’s background, Jonny is a first-class shotgunner and a man who not only loves his craft, but knows his guns — and his obvious enjoyment of the Gun Thing makes for lovely entertainment. (I first talked about him earlier this year.)
He lands in New York (!), and heads to the Beretta store in Manhattan. (I don’t know why he would, when he’s already toured the factory in Brescia, but clearly the man can’t resist a shotgun.)
Then, after a little fun time with a Garand and M1 Carbine, it’s off to the main event in San Antonio. Enjoy Part 1, and then the Nationals. (What I found really interesting was his reaction to American shotgun ammo — way too much recoil for his taste.)
And then he makes the haj to Gordy’s in Houston, where even he’s impressed by the fine shotgun collection.
Watch, and enjoy. He certainly did.
There’s about four hours of viewing for y’all, just in these links — and there would be far worse ways to spend a morning.
And just for the record, I absolutely hate the way Jonny’s bespoke shotgun looks; that pistol grip? Ugh.
I agree with you about the grip on that shotgun but I guess if brings home the trophies then run with it. I suppose the best view of it is when you’re using it because your eyes are focused on the clays or birds.
JQ
PS so long chore list.
Pistol grips should be shaped to fit the user’s hand. If it’s comfortable to the user, it will be a plus to the score; if not, a negative – and will be discarded.
As I encourage people seeking to purchase a firearm “Pick it up and hold it as you would use it. If it isn’t comfortable in your hand(s), hand it back and select another.” The next step is to step over to the range, and actually fire it – Again, if it isn’t comfortable, find something else.
(an FFL)
Several years ago I met Kim Rhode, the U.S. multi time gold medal winner of the Women’s Skeet team, at the Hill Country Shooting Range in Kerrville. It was a lot of fun watching her shoot and visiting with her. She used a Beretta with a custom made stock and she handed it to me and it was a rather strange gun designed to fit her. She is a strong, busty, five foot, four inch woman who is not skinny and that gun felt ever so strange when I put it up to my shoulder however it fit her perfectly and it had an incredible trigger.
I have my 20 ga. Beretta o/u Silver Pigeon that was custom adjusted for me by a couple of shotgun gunsmith brothers in Denver, Colorado. They had their business outside of town and the first thing they had me do was shoot at paper targets, shouldering the gun rather fast and pointing at a large black dot in the middle of the target. Then they drew two lines, one vertical and one horizontal through the dot on the target and counted the pellet holes in each quadrant. After that they measured my arms and shoulders. Then using a hot oil batch over several days they made slight bends in the stock and they shortened the length of pull just a bit and added a new nicer recoil pad, it was a birthday present from my two grown kids that year and what a difference.
I had already put a lot of rounds through that shotgun and had to relearn a bit about how to use it, pointing and not aiming and trusting the gun to put the pattern out on the bird, taking my time to let the gun swing up on and through the bird, pulling the trigger and swinging on through never slowing down. I first learned decent shotgun shooting on skeet with a sustained lead for each position and a few years later after shooting sporting clays and lots of live birds I had to relearn how to shoot each bird no matter what speed or angle by getting on the bird and then pushing on through letting hand and eye coordination take over and that made a big difference. A close to proper fit, the correct chokes and cartridges and then decent body mechanics and let the eyes and hands work together without over thinking worked out for me.
That great San Antonio shotgun complex is about an hour from my house however I have two great places to shoot closer shotgun than that. Shotgun shooting is a big thing down here in Texas, lots of youth 4-H clubs have teams and colleges actually recruit for shotgun teams with scholarships. I really enjoyed the video about the Brit in Texas having fun doing Texas stuff.
It is not uncommon to see Europeans at gun ranges around here enjoying their ability to rent a pistol and do some shooting. Several have shared their amazement to just being left alone to shoot after being briefed about safety. I have invited a few over to the rifle range to shoot my AR which they really like and it seems the wives enjoy shooting as much or more than their husbands.
So that’s what I know about shooting in Texas and I do wear cowboy boots everyday, old ones for yard work, nicer ones for everyday and real nice ones for church where about 25% of the guys wear boots because we live here in the Texas Hill Country.