Indians For Guns

I took my Shotty Beretta Onyx out to the range maybe after 1.5 years. Fired three rounds of trap 75 shots. Name of the range is thunder mountain Ringwood NJ - a very scenic place near NYC and a state park. Its one of the better range near NYC. Folks are really nice and folks can rent shotguns here so dont need a license.

http://www.thundermt.com/Thunder_Mounta ... ntain.html

I drove about for 1 hours to get here and it was a really hot muggy day. I had earlier bought some Winchester target clay shots from Cabela . But what was sad that I being out of touch took me a while to get my feel of the gun, for assembling had to read the instructions sheet... I also requested the range gun smith to oil my shotty a bit before shoot

Blame work schedule and lack of shooting company - hate going to range alone - also it takes special effort to beat traffic to this place.

My first round was with 3 other folks and one of them was really good shooting with his own Remington 870. Then embarrassingly I forgot how to switch barrels for safety they only allow loading one shell and I couldnt figure out switching option between bottom and top barrel. When I had the shot in top I was selecting bottom and vice versa. .

The chap with Remington 870 was scoring 15 plus out of 25. I was decent at 14ish in first round. Again any time I see venerable 870 I admire it a lot as great utilitarian and beginner shotgun. I would recommend it to all .

For the remaining rounds I was alone and now my real trouble started - from past experience I always wear shooting gloves since my shotty is sparingly used it still is quite tight so it takes some pressure to break the barrel and load.
When one is alone shooting it can get tiring loading breaking the barrel without any break - atleast for me out of shape fella. This is when I noticed that many a times my shells werent ejecting - not sure what caused it but this never happened before. May be I wasnt breaking the barrel properly - with less pressure.. need to check it on the range again or buy some shotgun snaps and try them at home. This shotgun barely has more than 300 shots through it and more than likely its me the novice who is handling it wrong.. Any advise folks?

Other nice thing to see on the range was a group of young Gujarati Lads and Lasses shooting and having a picnic, in walked few of techie south indians and some pakistani folks and then hasidic jew lads..diversity of Nj and NY and US as a whole was exemplified that day on the range. You could hear them hollering and shouting in Telugu/Gujarati/Urdu and Hebrew..Unlike the spiffy range at Hamptons folks here are much more down to earth.

ngrewal,

Nice place.Thanks for sharing.

at last you made an escape from NY. looks very good range, so when are you going to invite me?

Navi,
Nice outdoor range. You will just have to practice more. Not that it will be much of a chore.

Naga,
Come to the IFG meet, We can't guarantee the 105 mm howitzer but there will be other stuff to shoot with. we'll try to keep the dogs away.

no dogs no can do

nagarifle wrote:no dogs no can do

How about Hot dogs... with Ketchup and Mustard and some chopped onions?

Beautiful.

Thanx for sharing..

Beautiful.

Thanx for sharing..

Ngrewal,
I travel for over an hour either way to get to the ranges here.
Sometimes it gets hot and dusty, others its hot and humid, or its raining.
But every single time, once i have assembled my shotgun and start walking out to begin the session, all my troubles are fading away into oblivion.
I havent been shooting shotguns for long, but i love the total concentration and the peace it gives us.
Thats why gents like you and me and countless others trudge up to their ranges.
As i was reading your writeup, i was comparing it to my experiences here and there were quite a few similarities.
The traffic for one.
In india, one usually sees perazzis and berettas in the ranges, however once in a while, someone will get a beretta o/u game gun or their browning o/u and one troops over to have a look at the stranger.
While i figure your gun is new and is a bit tight, i guess she doesnt deserve to be ignored to such an extent that you forgot her workings!!
The only reason i say that is that long periods of storage without use might lead to rust etc which might not be caught in time.
I try to eyeball my shotgun atleast once a week, even if i am not going to the ranges, i get it out and do a few dry practises.
All the same, i wish you better luck next time at the ranges and hope the ejectors behave themselves.
After shooting 14/25 after a year and a half, next time should be better.
Regarding the ejectors, My very very limited knowledge would suggest that either you are not breaking open the barrels fully after firing or the spring is damaged smehow.
All the best and do let us know how your next range session went.

Thanks for advise folks...

Safarigent

Long and short of loosing touch with a gun is that its packed away in its original blue box and the card board box it came in. I cant dare to take this shotty out even in gun case because folks will get spooked - owning a gun in my fair city is not considered civil! Other main reason is the cubby hole place small place we live in. Simply dont have space..excuses aside its just finding time and encouragement to plan a trip to the range.

I will be buying snaps to test the shotty more and conduct some dry practice for my swing etc. I typically shoot skeet but enjoyed trap more its - beginner friendly..

nags-- You in US right