Visiting Northern California in early fall turned out to be an extension to our limited Wyoming summer. People in Sacramento area are still enjoying warm temperatures and us, Wyoming  residents, more than enjoyed the daily supply of fresh fruit and vegetables at local farm stands. Our daughter competed at a horse show just few miles southeast of California’s Capital. The main competition did not go on until the later part of the week, so I took this opportunity and visited couple of Sporting Clays Ranges within reasonable driving distance of Sacramento. I’ve never visited the area before so I really enjoyed learning more about it. There is many things I noticed, but will mention only some. There is a significant difference between the landscape, people’s attitude and overall atmosphere in what I called the “Heartland of California” compared to Southern  California. Once I realized that and talked to people on the phone at the respected clubs/hunting preserves I really looked forward to breaking some and hopefully lot of clays.

My  preparation started before we left home. I looked up Sacramento Sporting Clays on the internet. Names, phone numbers and addresses of many clubs popped up on my screen. Two days of time and driving distances initially limited my research. Upon learning people have reviewed many of their experiences my focus narrowed even more. My clubs of choice ended up being Raahauge’s Pheasant Hunting & Sporting Clays and Bird’s Landing Hunting  Preserve & Sporting Clays. read more »

As many of you know I am an avid Sporting Clay shooter. It does not mean I am good at it, I just really enjoy the sport and the challenges that come with it. I was given a great opportunity this past winter to spent couple days and take lessons down in Vero Beach, Florida courtesy of CZ-USA. The instructor was Tom Mack, 13 Time All-American and worldwide known competitor in Sporting Clays events. I knew going into the lessons how good of a shooter Tom is and soon I have found out that he is as good of an instructor. His personality allows everybody to relax and to be able to focus on improvement of their shooting skills. I have to mention that Tom grew up in Michigan and he is a lifelong hockey fan. During the two days we spent together, we had some good conversation about the game of hockey. It never interfered with the teaching because Tom is a great professional. We could not help ourselves but use references from hockey to sporting clays and the other way around. Both require lot of refined hand eye coordination and focus. read more »