My new Rand's hat is on the way...

[Tanks]

... I have the means for sure, but writing big cheques for pretty stuff is not my hobby. ...

Yet, you think paying for a hat, even if it is custom, is writing a big cheque.

 

[WAB]

When one of us shoots 25 straight at skeet, you gotta throw your hat up and it gets shot all to hell. A $20 grocery store hat would come in handy.

That should be just a shooters first 25. You don’t typically blast a guys hat after that unless he really pisses you off.

 

[Flipper Dude]

It is. Point being, you wouldn’t wanna be wearing one of your Rand’s at the time.

 

[Ontario Hunter]

Yet, you think paying for a hat, even if it is custom, is writing a big cheque.

I toured that custom hat place in Billings back in the eighties when I was teaching HS not far from there. At least I think it was Rand (but I seem to recall the shop was outside of town?). Those hats aren't cheap! Why would I pay that much money for something I would only wear for dress-up? Still had horses back in those days but by then I had figured out expensive fur felt cowboy hats were a pain to maintain and generally just about useless. When anyone needed cattle moved, I often got the call. My pack horse was a dynamite cutter. I always showed up wearing a ball cap. As often as not the rancher was wearing one too. Most have gone to Stormy Kromer caps now but wool is just too hot for my head when I'm chasing game. I'm sure they are the cat's meow sitting on a horse, tractor, or SxS. The $20 crushable hat I wear for dress-up now is zero maintenance ("crushable" is no exaggeration) and practical shape. I once had a NPS ranger Stetson 3x beaver felt hat cleaned and blocked. It was never the same. Had to buy a new one. This cheap wool felt hat never smelled and it sheds water about the same as expensive fur felt ... poorly. It looks as good today as it did when I bought it twelve years ago. Sat on it more than once.

 

[Jfet]

And here I thought that you were talking about a 22Lr

I did too. I thought i had an opportunity to talk about going quail hunting with my uncle and few cousins. All the cousins had shotguns, but my uncle had a .22lr rifle. On two occasions that day we all missed flushing quail with shotguns. That was when my uncle hit them with the 22. Since they weren’t talking about 22lr, I won’t dwell on the subject.

 

[Jfet]

I toured that custom hat place in Billings back in the eighties when I was teaching HS not far from there. At least I think it was Rand (but I seem to recall the shop was outside of town?). Those hats aren't cheap! Why would I pay that much money for something I would only wear for dress-up? Still had horses back in those days but by then I had figured out expensive fur felt cowboy hats were a pain to maintain and generally just about useless. When anyone needed cattle moved, I often got the call. My pack horse was a dynamite cutter. I always showed up wearing a ball cap. As often as not the rancher was wearing one too. Most have gone to Stormy Kromer caps now but wool is just too hot for my head when I'm chasing game. I'm sure they are the cat's meow sitting on a horse, tractor, or SxS. The $20 crushable hat I wear for dress-up now is zero maintenance ("crushable" is no exaggeration) and practical shape. I once had a NPS ranger Stetson 3x beaver felt hat cleaned and blocked. It was never the same. Had to buy a new one. This cheap wool felt hat never smelled and it sheds water about the same as expensive fur felt ... poorly. It looks as good today as it did when I bought it twelve years ago. Sat on it more than once.

That is outstanding that you like your Hat. What did you teach back in the day?

 

[WAB]

It is. Point being, you wouldn’t wanna be wearing one of your Rand’s at the time.

You got that right. One of our shooters in Kenai had been a very good runner at KU or KSU (sorry Kansans, they’re all the same to me). The night he shot his first 25 he was wearing his favorite school hat. We put a rock in it, threw it up, and hit it so hard it flew into the tundra off the end of the skeet field. We never found that hat!

 

[Red Leg]

I don't shoot skeet any longer. It has become such a silly technical game that configured equipment provides a real edge. 395 for 400 won't even get you a sniff of the shoot-off.

A group of us use to shoot clays in Northern Virginia every weekend the weather permitted. We all used vintage guns, usually SxS's. I used several different guns over that decade, but my favorite 12 is my James MacNaughton. It was built in Edinburgh before WWI. It has also taken several thousand pheasants since I have owned it - both driven "shoots" and walking the CRP in Western Kansas.

I digress. Every one of those guys would normally shoot mid-nineties. A 90 or 92 would be a really bad day. In any case, we would usually bet 5 bucks a miss into a pot for the best round. Very rarely did anyone go home down more than 20 dollars. We also regularly shot the pigeon ring competitively. There one can go home considerably poorer. That is, in my experience at least, the most challenging shotgun game.

I confess that I usually wear a Rand or Baron - clays or pheasants. They also work when walking up sharptail in Eastern Montana.

A couple of other thoughts about semi-autos or repeaters in general for anyone reading this and thinking about a first shotgun. Many shooting venues no longer allow them. Break open guns are simply safer in a group where both other shooters and range management can monitor an open gun far easier than an open bolt. Secondly, showing up at a quail hunt most anywhere from the Rio Grand to Savanah with a repeater, particularly a 12, will at best not get you a return invite. Most likely, one would simply be asked to leave.

Never heard of that "first 25" tradition. Could likely get someone killed in Texas.

 

[Ontario Hunter]

That is outstanding that you like your Hat. What did you teach back in the day?

All the sciences and all the social studies. Six classes to prep for every day and I coached basketball. The upside was my largest class had six students. Almost one on one. Those kids got a great education. Everyone was on the ball team, even the postmaster's boy with a club foot. The gym was a WWII surplus quanset hut so small that the ten second line was in the fore court halfway to free-throw line. Then the players could take it back to mid court. Unwritten rule was if the other side's team fouled out more kids than they had on the bench, you pulled a boy over and made him kneel next to the bench to even things up (coach could get a technical foul if he didn't keep as many players as possible on the floor). Many times I rode a horse six miles to school. One morning before school I gave our only senior boy the keys to my Wagoneer with instructions to take the 9th grade son of the town's single mom barmaid back down the road to Yellowstone River and have him shoot a nice buck I'd just seen with my 30-06 laying on the back seat. It was the boy's first deer. His chest was sticking out so far I think he popped a couple of buttons. Those were the good old days.

 

[WAB]

I don't shoot skeet any longer. It has become such a silly technical game that configured equipment provides a real edge. 395 for 400 won't even get you a sniff of the shoot-off.

A group of us use to shoot clays in Northern Virginia every weekend the weather permitted. We all used vintage guns, usually SxS's. I used several different guns over that decade, but my favorite 12 is my James MacNaughton. It was built in Edinburgh before WWI. It has also taken several thousand pheasants since I have owned it - both driven "shoots" and walking the CRP in Western Kansas.

I digress. Every one of those guys would normally shoot mid-nineties. A 90 or 92 would be a really bad day. In any case, we would usually bet 5 bucks a miss into a pot for the best round. Very rarely did anyone go home down more than 20 dollars. We also regularly shot the pigeon ring competitively. There one can go home considerably poorer. That is, in my experience at least, the most challenging shotgun game.

Never heard of that "first 25" tradition. Could likely get someone killed in Texas.

I agree with your assessment of skeet. Americans have dumbed it down to the point of
being ridiculous. If I shoot it, it is typically low gun .410. If I run a round with my Model 42 Skeet gun I feel like I’ve done something.

International skeet is much more interesting with variable release, low gun and faster birds.

 

[Ontario Hunter]

Never heard of that "first 25" tradition. Could likely get someone killed in Texas.

Not if they were shot in the head.

 

[Red Leg]

Not if they were shot in the head.

Care to clarify that?

 

[WAB]

Care to clarify that?

I’m not sure I want to know!

 

[Ontario Hunter]

I agree with your assessment of skeet. Americans have dumbed it down to the point of
being ridiculous. If I shoot it, it is typically low gun .410. If I run a round with my Model 42 Skeet gun I feel like I’ve done something.

International skeet is much more interesting with variable release, low gun and faster birds.

I only shoot skeet and clays low gun. Gun mounted is just asking for trouble. With my poor eyesight and old man reflexes I need to find the target quicker. Also coming from low gun narrows the window for shooting which decreases the opportunity for overthinking. Just make sure the gun is a perfect fit. One of our machines can be set up for computer intl delay but club executive autocrats won't allow it. You're right, North American skeet is very predictable. I often pull the targets on station seven with A5 hooked under my arm, safety on. Station 8 is usually high gun. I can't see the targets quick enough. Left eye is legally blind.

 

[Ontario Hunter]

I agree with your assessment of skeet. Americans have dumbed it down to the point of
being ridiculous. If I shoot it, it is typically low gun .410. If I run a round with my Model 42 Skeet gun I feel like I’ve done something.

International skeet is much more interesting with variable release, low gun and faster birds.

What choke do you shoot with your 410? I would think targets could be flying through 410 skeet pattern on station 4.

 

[Tanks]

Wow, never realized buying a decent hat was such a controversial decision.

 

[Flipper Dude]

O.H., I see that you are a cantankerous, eccentric sorta feller. Opinionated. I like that in a feller.

My son once told me, “All of your friends are strange”

I told him ”No, all of my friends are interesting”

 

[WAB]

What choke do you shoot with your 410? I would think targets could be flying through 410 skeet pattern on station 4.

IC. I’ve run many straights with my .410’s. I have a seriously over-bored .410 Browning Ultra XS with 30” bbls. It absolutely crushes targets across the middle.

 

[CM McKenzie]

That hat looks identical to my $20 grocery store fedora. Different hat band. Speaking of which, those who appreciate extra cylinders and carburetors should check out the horsehair hatbands the tweekers at Montana state prison make. Beautiful stuff. I think it's sold on ebay?

I’ve got an old acquaintance that’s got pretty good at hitching horsehair in the Montana State Prison. He wasn’t a tweeker; but he seemed to have a knack for finding stray horses, and putting his iron on them.

 

[Fixfire]

Suggestion. If you plan to be fitted for a Rand Hat at DSC, be waiting for the doors to open and go directly to their booth. I got fitted at 9:01am on Friday at this years DSC Convention. I was the only customer there. By 9:45am their booth was full and remained full the entire day.

Ha!! My plan was the same but was put off with the wait. I opted for a Daisy May hat (I currently have 1 Rand of 1 DM). Daisy is Nashville based and it was their 1st SCI. The owner does a lot of community outreach with veterans - I like that. I wonder did anyone here get a Daisy May?? They are very popular with the country and pop stars. Beaver felt, of course. This is in no way a slight or a hijack to Rand. I wear my Rand for fishing and DM for dress.