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Guest

Odd day at pasture trap Sunday. My brother and I were shooting off the Trius One-Step. I only took two field 16s -- both FAIR-made O/Us -- because it's the time of year to get grooved with the fowling pieces.

Shot nothing but low gun. Gun butt on the rib cage about halfway between the belly button and the armpit, sort of like like a setter had just hit a solid point. I started with the FAIR 900 and was just smashing the singles and doubles for three boxes of shells or so. Switched to the Verona 501 -- which I've shot quite decently at clays games and pasture trap before -- and just could not hit well with any reliability, gun down or gun up. Switched back to the 900, and was grinding 'em up again.

Could be the switching of guns, slight difference in LOP, slight differences in weight (the 900 is a little heavier), could be the way I had the Verona choked, influence of clothing on the mount, etc. Still, to put my mind at ease, I'm going to put the Verona on paper this week to see if there's anything amiss.

Looks like the 900 will get the call on opening day, though, which upsets me not at all. Smile

Joined: 02 Jun 2007 Posts: 107 Location: N.W. Iowa

Perhaps your Verona has turned into the "Slump Gun"
A few decades ago I coined that phrase in ref. to an 1100 3" magnum with a 30" full choke.I noticed it one day when the most spectacular rooster erupted about 30 yards in front of me and went straight up.
I emptied the Remington and he was still going up.From that day for almost half the season I missed every bird I shot at,finally my friend took me out to shoot some hand thrown targets and it was dismal at best.
We both decided I sucked and went hunting.
Later we were walking and out of the snow were the tail feathers of a rooster so I crawled up laid down the gun and decided if I could'nt hit em' I'de catch em'.This was amusing to Tony who I assumed would be a good source of back up.I came up with a hand full of feathers as the rooster flushed and to my amazement Tony missed twice as I went for my gun.I dropped that bird from my knees and it's been the Slump cure ever since.
I've also found that yelling loud enough to frighten all the small children in a 3 mile radius as you pull the trigger can sometimes produce the same result.
Good luck with that Laughing

Guest

Think I found most of the problem: The Verona 501 was choked IM and Full. Looks like I pulled its tubes for the the other gun (same maker, same tubes) and threw into the Verona the first two I grabed. Next time, I'll lighten the chokes. IM and F were just too tight for this little fun session.

Also choked the Model 900 lighter (C and IC) than I usually do the other night at 5-stand and shot my best score with a 16.

Bottom line: At least out of these two guns, I don't need a ton of choke.