Don't Think, Meat

One of my favorite movies is Bull Durham.  In it Crash Davis tells Nuke “Don’t think, Meat.”  This advice was given to keep the pitcher from thinking too hard on pitching.  Once Nuke cleared his head, he threw strikes.  I don’t know about you, but for me shooting a shot gun is the same.  When I start thinking about how to shoot, I start missing.  When I am surprised by a bird rising or a dove showing up behind me, I just shoot and have more success.

A couple of weeks ago, I visited my brother and the rest of my family in North Carolina.  I tried to get him to arrange a duck hunt, but time and scouting just wouldn’t allow it.  We did however visit Deep River Sporting Clays in Sanford and shot a round of clays with my dad and nephew watching.



My Brother and Nephew ready to break some clays



I shot miserably, and started thinking about each shot.  You’d think I’d be better with the nice Browning BPS my brother let me use, but no gun was going to keep me from thinking that day.  The next morning, I noticed a bruise on my arm where I was putting the gun.  I was thinking so hard about lining up the barrel, that I wasn’t even placing the gun on my shoulder.  I wish Crash had just said “Don’t think meat,” let the gun do the work.

Despite my shooting, I had fun.  The best part was that the trapper was super nice and set up some of the clays for my nephew to plink with a bb gun.  He even gave some great advice about shooting, which my brother and nephew used to get better.