Reflections from Cosner Reserve

It looks like people are getting back to some sense of normal.

On our way to Sporting Clays at Cosner Reserve in Pelham, North Carolina, the airport was really crowded. There wasn’t a seat left on the airplane – and it was a brand-new plane, at that. This is the second time this year we have been on the first flight of a new plane. The first time was when Brian and I went to Phoenix in February.

I’m not exactly sure what that means, but it makes me feel good that the airlines are coming back again

Our clinics are full, with ten shooters each day. It appears people are tired of being inside and are ready to move about again. Last year was our first time at Cosner Reserve, and we had a blast then. Charles Sole and his group are the best at taking care of their customers. They didn’t disappoint us again this year.

There were lots of new faces and new “a-ha’s.”  Students were amazed at how easy the OSP system is to use and how effective it is in making more targets turn to dust.

For several people, making the plan and then shooting the plan was a big learning experience. Since they had never thought about that, they would just wait to see the target and hurry to catch up to it.

Keeping the gun in front of the target makes so much more sense because if the gun is in front and the target is behind the barrel, you have a chance to hit the target if you are going at the same speed as the target. If the target is coming from the left, it better be on the left side of the barrel when you take the shot – and vice versa if it is coming from the right.

You need to know which side of the barrel it is on when you shoot. If you do, you can replay it and repeat it. If the target was not on the correct side of the barrel. you can immediately correct the next one.

The post-shot routine was another thing I worked on in my group. It’s something no one wants to do. There are three routines in this game – the pre-shot, post-shot, and correction routine. You need to have all three when you are shooting.

You need the pre-shot routine to decide what you are going to do where you are going to see the target, where you are going to break it, and the sight picture.

If you don’t hit the target, you need to correct the shot – therefore, the correction routine.

If you break the target, you need the post-shot routine to replay what you just did. This is the most wasted and most important routine, and nobody takes the time to do it. They are just loading to shoot again.

If you will take the time to replay the hit and be clear to the brain what you are expecting, the post-shot becomes the pre-shot routine.

Wouldn’t it make sense that, on the targets that you blew up, you take the time to replay that break to give the brain the picture to repeat? The best time to do that is right after you did it, but no one wants to slow down enough to do it.

Our shooters did it this weekend. They kept them in the same rhythm through their series of targets. They would break more targets and be more consistent.

We’re on to Kiowa Creek near Denver next week and Partridge Creek in South Carolina the following week. It sure feels good to get back to normal again!