An update on the clay pigeon shooting thing: I'd say I hit something like 65% of them. Not sure how that stacks up for a first-timer, but it felt pretty decent to me. I owned the ones that launched from areas close to me (I think they were just easier to draw a bead on, and I didn't have a problem tracking them). Had much more trouble with the ones that launched from a distance, which I probably only got about %25 of.
It's counter-intuitive to not "aim" down the barrel, but apparently that's the ticket. Tough to get myself to not do that, but things were really clicking when I just watched the target and didn't glance down the barrel.
It struck me as very much like golf: There's a dozen things that you need to do right for it to work (things with your stance, tracking the target, and where you aim, etc.). Do one of them wrong, and you miss. Then you correct that thing you did wrong on your next shot, but if you focus too much on that, you can mess up another aspect. What works for you for a bit might not work for you later on, when you get better. Sometimes I did better when I cleared my head, sometimes I did better when I was focused intently on doing something right. Weird stuff like that.
Lots of fun, though. I'd recommend it. The whole group enjoyed it, even my fiance (who's relatively small, couldn't hit the broad side of a barn, and gets frustrated quickly by a lack of success). The 3 guy friends I went with were in one group with a 20 gauge, and I was with the girls with a 12 gauge Benelli.
Edited, Dec 27th 2011 11:36am by Eske