Florida Sporting Clays: Deer Creek Sporting Clays
A few months back Ms. Deborah and I played snowbirds and flew down to FL to beat the cold in CT and start on our summer tan. While Ms. Deborah started on her tan, I used the trip to decompress. I was also in the mood to exercise the Ruger Red Label on sporting clays. At the outing with my brothers-in-law, I did more instructing than shooting. Ms. Deborah kindly agreed to be my trap girl for the outing at Deer Creek Sporting Clays outside of Tampa. I have busted clays at a number of ranges and Deer Creek is one of the nicer ones.
They describe the courses by the relative distance to the target at the break point: White targets are 30-35 yards away, Blue are 40-45 and Red has targets out to 70 yards. The White course is best described as a hunter’s refresher. It was a real ego booster for me. Roger, the manager of the course, describes the White course “if you hit the first target at the sweet spot, the second target will almost magically appear in front of your gun. On the other two courses, this is not the case – you have to adopt a strategy that smoothes out the transition from the first to the second target. The first target may fly higher than the line of the second target, the best way to deal with this is to dismount and re-mount between the shots.”
By the third station
the Ruger and I were on such good terms I knew I needed to move this relationship in a different direction. I moved onto the Blue course where the targets are about 10-15 yards farther out and more evil than the White. The Ruger and I had a few misunderstandings with a high crosser but a few practice throws and we were back on good terms. I did not dare try the Red course because it was described as tournament-level. That ego boost on the White course would have fizzled and I’m sure I would have blamed the Ruger and would have called it quits, and put it on Gunbroker.com as fast as you can say upload image. Deer Creek electronically tracks the number of targets thrown and that keeps everyone honest.
The stations were nicely nestled along trails that wind through pines. Score you say? I didn’t keep score. But I will say the Ruger and I are on much better terms. I need to invite the brothers-in-law again to the Fin, the skeet are calling.
The stations were nicely nestled along trails that wind through pines. Score you say? I didn’t keep score. But I will say the Ruger and I are on much better terms. I need to invite the brothers-in-law again to the Fin, the skeet are calling.
Comments
Nice post - you have a great writing style.
Hope you can return this winter too, if you get our newsletter, you will know we will lose our lease in March
Roger
Posted by: Roger Gascoigne | September 1, 2009 01:43 PM
Roger,
I did read in your newsletter that you lose the lease on the range. You and your wife will be sadly missed. I hope everything works out for you. You really do run a class act sporting clay facility.
SwampYankee
Posted by: swampyankee | September 3, 2009 08:41 AM