During my trapshooting career, a number of facts were indelibly seared into my youthful brain. I became aware that the really good shots—the men and women who missed one or two birds all season, just so they could remember what it was like—never changed guns. They never experimented, or tinkered, or diddled, or agonized. They just went out and broke every bird that came out of the trap. Everyone else experimented, or tinkered, or diddled, and God knows everyone else agonized.
My favorite story along these lines is that of Rudy Etchen, who was an ATA Hall of Famer, and one of the great trap doubles shooters of all time. He used a Remington 870 pump for singles, handicap, and doubles, even though he could have afforded anything he wanted. When he was asked why he didn’t at least use an o/u for doubles like everyone else, he said, “But what would I do between shots?”
But when…
