The first time I ever hit anything, I hit a clay target at Pheasant Valley Farm. For whatever reason, they let me use one of their fancy guns and I hit a clay target! One. I remember feeling very excited to hit something but I had no clue how I hit it.
My goal was to get a pheasant. One.
Perhaps I was being naive, but the thought of shooting a pheasant seemed very singular to me. I never really thought about getting multiple birds. So I hope a lot of folks realize that all of my efforts, in my mind, were to get this one bird.
For the end of the 2017-2018 year I ended up getting a pheasant package from Pheasant Valley Farm, which I will touch on a bit in here, but I really want to focus on my process of getting a pheasant.
When I had spare time, I spent all of it practicing shooting.
Local to me is a place called the "South End Gun Club" which is probably very similar to any gun-clubs in your own area. Like, I could walk there close. The good thing about this is that it was a public gun club so folks like me could go there any practice shooting at clay targets.
Sporting Clay and Skeet are "sports" within their own right and folks really like to competitively shoot at these targets. Particularly old white men over the age of 65. I quickly realized there weren't many women that frequent this place. I went there two times. Both times I stood at a area far away from everyone and did two rounds of 25 each time. And I missed each time.
However, each time I had more guys coming up to me and telling me I had the wrong gun, I needed X, Y, or Z, and in general just made me feel very uncomfortable. I never returned and opted to put my gun away until summer.
I think a common theme for me is whether or not I feel comfortable at a place is if I will return there. Between attempting to get upsold a gun, and now this, at that point in time I really didn't have much hope for myself in getting a bird.
I let some time pass until mid-summer when I realized "Oh crap, pheasant season is going to start soon". So I called another place that was open to the public and they were very welcoming. I went over there for the first time and shot one round of skeet. It took me about 40 minutes because I took a long time between shots. I missed everything.
The next time, I brought two boxes of shells with me which was two round of skeet. I think it still look me a little over an hour. Nothing.
The third time, when I went into the office to get the call box, they guy & woman working asked me what I was practicing for. I'm a friendly mid-westerner so exchanging pleasantries was easy up until this point. And I beamed "I want to shoot a pheasant with my rescue bird dog!" That day I shot at another 50 targets, and I started hitting them. That day I think I hit 10 which made me feel amazing. I still hadn't figured out why/how I hit them, but I felt like I was moving in the right direction.
Still Using that Old, Heavy Winchester
I needed more shells so I went to that first local Sportsman's store and got a case of shells. I was not going to stop until I figured out how to actually shoot. Just hitting them was not enough. Plus, I wanted to increase my "hit" ratio above 20% ha! I quickly looked at their shotguns but didn't want to derail myself to another upselling black-hole.
And so then I went to shooting 100 shells, to my "best day" where I shot off 150 shells and was hitting more than I was missing. Things were clicking for me in terms of following the target, getting in front, above, etc. I was actually enjoying doing this. By this time, most of the folks at this practice place come to know me and they had the call box ready when I pulled up. It started to feel very familiar to me. Never once did I feel uncomfortable and their endearing words about how I was doing all of this "for my dog" really touched my heart. They hadn't met Lindy at this point but I was excited to bring her in to meet them.
I think I shot 500-600 rounds over the course of time. I would go once a week--either on Friday night after work or on Sunday morning before I started my errands. It was actually quite stress relieving! I loved being at the skeet area, alone, just practicing. No old men to badger me. Just focusing on shooting.
Examining and Minimizing Frustration
So I was feeling pretty good about how things were going for me. It wasn't over-confidence but rather gaining a sense of understanding as well as a bit more experience. Like I said, after 500-600 rounds shot, you get comfortable. However, my Winchester was still heavy. Some of the mechanics of the gun were still troublesome to me, and I wanted to mitigate that frustration. I revisited some shotgun options and eventually landed on the Franchi Affinity. I knew I wanted a gun 6lbs or less. I knew I wanted a semi-automatic. And I knew I wanted to spend less than $1,000. That process took me about two-weeks of research. I read review after review. I compared it to other models. I felt pretty confident that this was my gun. But I still had to buy it.
I called that same up-selling Sportsman's retail store and asked if they had the Franchi Affinity. Of course they didn't--but they could recommend an Over-Under they had in stock. Ugh. Okay, fine, but no thanks. Why did I even bother?
The second store I called had it in stock! Except they didn't have it in the color I wanted (black synthetic which was the least expensive material type) but they had it in Walnut (the most expensive material type) -- and just as I was getting ready to eyeroll at them over the phone -- they said it was on sale! to the same price as the synthetic! and I said, okay. I would like to come in and "look at it" and the guy said "Never doubt a woman who has her mind made up" or some other joke. So off I went!
I arrived at French Creek Outfitters a few hours later (#work) and the same guy that I was on the phone with greeted me. I suppose it's not everyday a woman comes in looking for a shotgun, but he grabbed it and brought it out on the counter with me.
"I don't really know what I am looking at" I said. I felt a little embarrassed. I told him I bought my first shotgun "just to learn off it" and that I had been practicing all summer and was ready to buy a gun to have longer term. That I didn't want to spend over $1,000 because I didn't consider myself an "enthusiast" and I couldn't appreciate the value in what some of the guns offered. I told him about the action on my Winchester being tight. He showed me the gun, it was lightweight (I about DIED), the mechanics felt a lot easier to work with, and I honestly liked the walnut color... a lot.
This is where I say that "nothing really came easy" for me. The other sports shop never told me I could trade in my gun. Funny enough, I still had my Winchester in my car in anticipation of going shooting that night and he told me I COULD TRADE IT IN and the value of the Winchester could go against the selling price. OH AND THE WALNUT GUN WAS ON SALE (I know I mentioned that before).
I was FLOORED when they gave me the trade in value of my old gun--it was maybe $50 LESS than what I paid for it. Either they were GIVING me a deal on the trade in or I GOT a deal when buying it. I didn't care.
I don't remember the last time I was ever so excited to buy something. Honestly.
I think I went home instead of shooting that night to just read and read about the gun. I shot with it that Sunday, patterned it, and was ready to go into pheasant season.
To wrap things up, in order for me to fully enjoy hunting with Lindy I needed to identify my areas to work on as well as my points of frustration.
We needed to work on:
Whoa command (Lindy)
Accuracy in shooting (Me)
Points of frustration:
Heavy/cumbersome gun
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