As Mrs. Leadchucker and I were waking up this morning, we had the radio on and something caught my attention. They were talking about sporting clays. Nobody talks about sporting clays on the radio. My wife knew it had caught my attention because even though I said nothing, she turned it up for me.
They were interviewing the president of the local Ronald McDonald House about a charity event that is being held next weekend called Kids & Clays. How about that? A shooting event to benefit a local charity. While I have never needed their services, and hope I never do, Ronald McDonald House provides an invaluable service to those who need it. My younger brother spent a lot of time in the hospital growing up, and this would have been just great for my parents.
If I had known about this event earlier I would have signed up for it, even though I suck at sporting clays. The radio host likened sporting clays to golf with shot guns. I hate golf. I used to play when I was in high school. I was able to shoot in the low to mid-40’s at one point, which I think is decent. But it just got to be expensive, and time consuming, and without coaching or practice, it just went downhill for me. No point in paying to be frustrated. At least when I get frustrated shooting, I still made something go bang.
Anyway, I remember a story a while ago about hunting and shooting-related equipment sales surpassing golf. I found the press release on the National Shooting Sports Foundation website via Ahab’s blog. If any charity organizers stumble across my meager pile on the ‘net, they should consider this. I know some of us gunners look like a rough and tumble crowd, and that there can be a lot of misconceptions about us. But I don’t think you will find a group more willing to lend a hand. And if you consider the price of some of the guns people use to compete (and I’m only including the shotguns….go look up pistols, and rifles), I think you will see that there is plenty of disposable income available to be put to good use.
