This past saturday, I took my "new to shooting" friend to a Ruffed Grouse Society fund raiser. It was advertised as a fun shoot ... what that means I was not sure, but we were told to show up with 100rds at 8am , so we where there ready to go. Well it turns out that to these guys a fun shoot is 15 stations of Sporting Clays in 95 degree weather.
My first comment, all these clay pairs do not simulate my grouse hunting experiences. IF I even see a grouse it is a joyous occasion, and if I ever saw a following pair of grouse, I would wet myself in ectasy, drop to my knees and thank the lord for his divine quidance to this honey hole of a covert, let alone try to take the double.
Anyway, we had a great time. It started off a little rough for us though. I have never shot sporting clay and my friend has only shot once before and it was a few round of trap. We got into a squad of four older guys that were all hunting/shooting/field trial friends and a nicer group we could not have asked for. They gave us lots of helpful hints, some advice and plenty of wisecracks. They even let us shoot their guns, so I got to run some shells through to Ruger Red Labels, a Franchi 48 AL and a Browning Citori.
Well, my rather new CZ 720 was letting me down a bit, I was using some Winch AA 7/8 loads which I thought were rated as powerful as the fiochi golden pheasants I used a few weeks ago. The problem was that the
recoil action would not fully load the second shell. So I just kept working it, tried some remington hi velocity stuff, and it did no better. What did work was I loosened the screw cap a 1/4 turn. Maybe that gave the spring a little more room to flex? I dont think it is intended to be an adjustment as there is no mention of it in the manual. It started to work great and I did not have another glitch all day. But it could have been worse like my friends experience was turning out to be. He only has a Rem
870 express 12g Viking and that howitzer was totally out of place. But he solderied on, and because he is such a good, natural shot he managed two doubles on two teals that hung forever and two rabbits that
he got both with one shot! Anyway, we both shot 42s, which I was mighty proud of, having never seen these presentations before. And my friend was so excited because he learned so much from one day of shooting, great practicle and safety lessons.
Bottom line, the cz 720 will work fine, I still miss my 16q Simpson sxs, but I will work this gun and see how it goes. I really need to pattern it. Plus maybe the speed of a 20 g is so different then a 16g because I seem to be behind many of my shots.
Axe
My first comment, all these clay pairs do not simulate my grouse hunting experiences. IF I even see a grouse it is a joyous occasion, and if I ever saw a following pair of grouse, I would wet myself in ectasy, drop to my knees and thank the lord for his divine quidance to this honey hole of a covert, let alone try to take the double.
Anyway, we had a great time. It started off a little rough for us though. I have never shot sporting clay and my friend has only shot once before and it was a few round of trap. We got into a squad of four older guys that were all hunting/shooting/field trial friends and a nicer group we could not have asked for. They gave us lots of helpful hints, some advice and plenty of wisecracks. They even let us shoot their guns, so I got to run some shells through to Ruger Red Labels, a Franchi 48 AL and a Browning Citori.
Well, my rather new CZ 720 was letting me down a bit, I was using some Winch AA 7/8 loads which I thought were rated as powerful as the fiochi golden pheasants I used a few weeks ago. The problem was that the
recoil action would not fully load the second shell. So I just kept working it, tried some remington hi velocity stuff, and it did no better. What did work was I loosened the screw cap a 1/4 turn. Maybe that gave the spring a little more room to flex? I dont think it is intended to be an adjustment as there is no mention of it in the manual. It started to work great and I did not have another glitch all day. But it could have been worse like my friends experience was turning out to be. He only has a Rem
870 express 12g Viking and that howitzer was totally out of place. But he solderied on, and because he is such a good, natural shot he managed two doubles on two teals that hung forever and two rabbits that
he got both with one shot! Anyway, we both shot 42s, which I was mighty proud of, having never seen these presentations before. And my friend was so excited because he learned so much from one day of shooting, great practicle and safety lessons.
Bottom line, the cz 720 will work fine, I still miss my 16q Simpson sxs, but I will work this gun and see how it goes. I really need to pattern it. Plus maybe the speed of a 20 g is so different then a 16g because I seem to be behind many of my shots.
Axe