I nervously held up the gun not knowing what to do and yelled “pull.” I waited a second or two and then saw little orange pieces scattered across the sky. The concept is extremely simple- you point at the clay target, pull the trigger, and break the target. However, once you actually apply the concept, the activity becomes much more difficult. I learned this four years ago, when my dad and I were invited to go shooting. As I sat around waiting for my turn, I watched other people shoot and miss, reinforcing the difficulty of sporting clays. But, when it was my turn, I managed to hit the first 8 that I saw. Everyone was shocked because it was my first time shooting. I instantly turned to my dad and said, “We need to do this more often.” I think
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I was especially curious about the mechanics of the gun. In particular I wanted to find out what made the gun fire. I spent countless hours reading manuals and watching videos trying to figure this out. I finally came to understand how it worked: the trigger let the sear disengage allowing the firing pin to hit the primer of the shotgun shell ultimately sending lead shot flying out of the gun’s barrel at 1200 feet per second. After acquiring this knowledge I couldn’t help but appreciate the engineering that went into the design of the gun. I loved seeing how each part worked in conjunction with the others for a finished product that did exactly what I needed it to do. Instead of looking at the gun as a whole, I started to look at it as a collection of individually machined parts with specific functions - a true work of art. As I learned the mechanics of the gun, I also learned about the sport itself. I began to realize how many factors go into the breaking of a single target: the wind, the choke used, the angle and speed of the target, type of target, and gun function. I quickly realized this seems a lot more like an AP Physics problem than it does a sport. And that’s what I love about it. The sport is just like school or even life: those who study and are prepared will break the target and the ones who don’t will likely shoot five yards behind
I was especially curious about the mechanics of the gun. In particular I wanted to find out what made the gun fire. I spent countless hours reading manuals and watching videos trying to figure this out. I finally came to understand how it worked: the trigger let the sear disengage allowing the firing pin to hit the primer of the shotgun shell ultimately sending lead shot flying out of the gun’s barrel at 1200 feet per second. After acquiring this knowledge I couldn’t help but appreciate the engineering that went into the design of the gun. I loved seeing how each part worked in conjunction with the others for a finished product that did exactly what I needed it to do. Instead of looking at the gun as a whole, I started to look at it as a collection of individually machined parts with specific functions - a true work of art. As I learned the mechanics of the gun, I also learned about the sport itself. I began to realize how many factors go into the breaking of a single target: the wind, the choke used, the angle and speed of the target, type of target, and gun function. I quickly realized this seems a lot more like an AP Physics problem than it does a sport. And that’s what I love about it. The sport is just like school or even life: those who study and are prepared will break the target and the ones who don’t will likely shoot five yards behind