Posted: Aug. 12, 2016 12:01 am
WANTAGE -- With my left eye trained over the small green traphouse and a healthy portion of my weight over my right foot, I shout, "Pull!" and the adrenaline immediately takes over.
The fluorescent orange disc flutters through the air, I squeeze the trigger of the shotgun with my left pointer finger and a jolt shoots through my left shoulder and courses downward. Suddenly, the disc is split in two.
Nothing like a little beginner's luck: a minor miracle.
The Clay and Oak Sporting Club at Clove Spring Range in Wantage is hoping to produce similar moments for the area's target-shooting beginners, like myself, while providing a nearby outlet for seasoned sharpshooters.
The club, which is a managed property of Crystal Springs Resort, has been open to the public since the end of June.
"People want to continue to come back," Clay and Oak head instructor Mike Kearns said. "We get people whose wives who have never shot and they were kind of against guns, now turn the corner, learn to shoot here and now husband and wife are shooting together.
"For me, that's a big positive. People who are scared of guns, they learn the safety and the control and see what a good fun sport it is when it's done the right way."
Trap shooting and skeet shooting are way to simulate various situations and shots while upland bird hunting.
In trap shooting, the clay bird is fired going away, which simulates the way a pheasant, quail or bobwhite might react if startled by a pointing dog. In skeet shooting, there is a low and high house, which causes the flying targets to cross patterns and is more of a right to left shot.
The Clay and Oak Sporting Club at Clove Spring Range provides a sanctuary for those two extremes of target shooting, with three trap fields and two skeet fields.
"It will never be so crowded that you come here and have to wait three hours to shoot, like so many ranges on the weekends," said Palumbo, who is also a co-owner of Kromka Sporting Adventures in Boonton. "We're doing scheduled times, so we're not going to overbook. It's always going to be convenient to come here. We're going to do our best to make sure there's never a long wait."
The clubhouse was built in 1953 by the Winchester Firearm Corporation as way for the community to partipate in the sport of target shooting, while benefitted the farmer who earned the revenue from the lease, and the corporation which had a way to promote the sport and to sell its guns.
Along the wildflower-trimmed farm road in Wantage, a driver might blink twice and miss the inconspicuous sign for the shooting range.
A vast alcove of green grass sits beyond a gravel road and in front of the old-time clubhouse.
Now, anyone more than 12 years old can receive private instruction from Kearns and club manager Sam Palumbo to try and knock a clay pigeon out of the sky. The club also holds private and corporate events.
"Public ranges they tell you, here's the course, go at it," Kearns said.
"We're right on top of them, showing them every step along the way, what they're doing wrong, what they need to do to get to the right place to be a great target shooter."
Together, Palumbo and Kearns have well more than five decades of shooting between them.
On the wall inside the club's timber hideaway, you'll find Palumbo's name from the time he was 13 years old among a list of others that had cracked 25 straight clay pigeons.
There's others from across Sussex County that made sure 100 clay pigeons did not reach the ground without being popped out of the sky.
Before a novice takes hold of the shotgun, Palumbo and Kearns preach the proper etiquette and safety: only one gun is loaded at a time, the firearm is pointed down range at all times, firearms that are not in use should have the actions open, slides back or be placed in the gun case.
When it comes to shooting, the action shares several similarities to the game of golf.
The finger is not placed on the trigger until a person is ready to shoot, much like a golfer doesn't address the ball until they are ready to hit.
The weight is placed on the front foot in the shooting position; if a shooter leans back, the shot will often go high, much like if a golfer leans back the ball tends to pop up or be skulled.
And the etiquette among participants is paramount.
"Athletes, in general, take instruction well and bring it to fruition," Palumbo said.
"They also physically have the eye-hand coordination."
As I step up to the shooting line, Palumbo adjusts me into the proper position to fire, twice training my eye to maneuver up from where the clay pigeon is shot out of the traphouse and into the sky where it flies.
As a lefty, the end of the gun is situated next to my left cheek and my left elbow is raised up to shoulder-length.
Palumbo steps away, I train my eye over the third slot and get ready to fire.
He said the way to aim is as if you're leading a wide receiver in football -- just a little in front to adjust for the time it takes the bullets to crackle through the air.
The first one collides, the second does not, and I clip one of the next two.
I'm no gunslinger, but for the first time firing a gun, under a haze of exhilaration, two-for-four ain't bad.
