I was going to be off now right through next spring. Once I was out of the hospital, I booked in with a friend at his parents’ house. They were such nice folks. They were quite outdoorsy and loved to fish and hunt. They also loved shooting traps, and after trying it, I was hooked. I went right out to the River Sportsman outdoor store. I had known the owners for most of my life and they allowed me to set up an account with them. I purchased a nice Browning pump-action 12-gauge shotgun on my new account with monthly payments.. Then we all chipped in on getting a reloading kit, and I started to reload shells that I gathered after gun meets. I would gather shells after each shoot. I would sell half of our boxes of reloads at shoots, and this covered buying the shot, powder, casing, wads and primers.
I rigged up a shop out in the backyard and set up a reload station where I would sit for hours loading shells. I kept all the stuff out there and could go anytime I wanted and reload. The more empty shells I had, the more boxes I could load. They would all sell at the trap shooting meets, as I charged half price for them.
Shooting trap was a blast, and when you were at a meet, you could have your abilities recorded. During a competition shoot, you would shoot a total of 100 shots. When you hit 100 clay pigeons out of 100, you get a pin saying you accomplished this. I got 99 out of 100 so many times without getting the elusive 100 pin. All in all, though, it was such a fun pastime, and you would meet so many other folks.
Five concrete sidewalks fanned out towards the pigeon launcher building. Each had four spots for shooting, each 5 feet further back from the pigeon launcher. The first round was shot from the closest end. You would shoot 5 times, then move across to the next sidewalk until you shot from all the points, then move back and do it again. When you had moved through all the stations and distances, you would have shot 100 times.
When we were not at a meet, we would go to the range and practice. We had clay pigeon hand throwers made of metal put out by Winchester. Today, they use rubber throwers, but back then, a metal thrower attached to a wooden handle was used. My friend, his dad, his little sister, and I were up at the gun club one day practising, and there was no one else around.
I was throwing pigeons from the front of the auto launch hut. As my friend was shooting his rounmd, he turned towards his dad and sister to say something, with his gun pointing down. As he turned, his trigger came into contact with a set of keys hanging off his belt. The gun went off, hitting the concrete and then ricocheting up into their legs. They went down, and then the dad jumped up, grabbed his daughter in his arms and started to run to the car. My friend was in shock until he saw his dad fall on the way to the car. Dad was unaware that he had been shot as well, and it was adrenaline that took him that far.
I picked up the girl, and my friend grabbed his dad, and we got them to the car. They both were bleeding quite badly. My friend had a pretty hot car that went like stink, and he just hit the gas. He had no concerns about speed limits. Right away, he blew past a cop going in the opposite direction, who pulled a U-turn and started to chase us, and then we began to pick up more of them as we flew through town. By the time we reached the hospital, we had a long line of police cars, lights flashing and sirens screaming behind us. We were racing with the cops. It must have looked pretty wild, like something you would see in a movie. Our town was not very big, and this was not something you would hardly ever see. All in all, even though it was terrifying, it was pretty exciting.
When we turned into the hospital, they realized there was a reason for the high rate of speed. My friend jumped out of the car and ran into the emergency ward for help while I talked to the police. They were pissed off and blasted my friend for driving so fast, but they did not charge him with anything. Dad and daughter both had some of the pellets removed and wounds wrapped at the hospital before being sent home. They picked more pellets out of their legs for quite some time. They both had full recoveries, although they did have scarring on their legs.