Ken Kupsch Shooting Page
2390 8882-170 St. T5T4M2 Edmonton, AB, Canada

I got a Corolla for cheaper gas and to save wear on my truck. Good thing I don't have 34" barrels on my shotgun. The dealership ought to have a warning for that!

I shot the Super Sporting match at Silver Willow yesterday and am just starting to get thawed out now. The wind was absolutely brutal, not only did it blow through everything you were wearing but also helped some very challenging targets become even more challenging! I loved their targets, some really tough ones but they were all hitable. Usually super sporting has 3 traps but Silver Willow had four on each stand, making even more interesting. This was the first exposure some... of our shooters had to super sporting and I think they all enjoyed it. If you're a compulsive choke changer, four machines are your worst nightmare because once you start a stand, you can't change them. I think it was maybe station 4 where you had a rabbit that required no choke and a midi or 70 that was ripping away from you at 99 mph. I just shot LM/M all the way through and didn't bother switching barrels anywhere. I'm not sure how many shooters but I think it was 70 some, split between nsca and cnsca. Overall it was an awesome match, great job SW! Next weekend we're back at Blackmore for 250 targets, shoot either Sat or Sun.

Shooting rimfire Steel Challenge was always fun but it seems like you could never get a gun to last for the whole match.

We finally got some Winchester AA Diamonds in the store. They make different loads, these are 7.5 1250 fps, 11/8 oz. I shot these at the Florida matches in December and you can see the difference. What's special about these is they use 8% antimony, making the pellets much harder. This should give you more consistent patterns and harder breaks.... I don't think you need to use these for a whole match but just keep a handful in your vest for the long range targets and further rabbits. A flat should last you the whole season.

Want to see what's smoking at Blackmore Shooting Sports? Come shoot Boxing Day and check it out. Some nice changes to the course in the works.

Here's a pair of rabbits going from right to left. They were not going slow as the picture suggests.

The shutter speed on these phones is amazing. I thought there would just be an orange streak in the trees but it actually captured the target. I'm not sure what the quality will be here once it's transfered. This is a true pair, the orange one comes out from behind the right tree, it's fast and maybe 40 yards away. You can see it just after the third tree in that row of trees. The other target goes up in front, also from behind the right tree and then comes down on edge. If y...ou zoom in, you can see it in the sky. I don't know what the lower black thing is. At first, I thought it was the shot, but the shooter is still aimed at the first target. Anyway, a lot going on there. I just had a look, it's not clear enough to zoom in here, has to be on the original image.

I have some extra time tonight so I'm going to write a bit on what I look for when I view targets. Some of you have been able to travel and see these things for yourself but many have not. Most of our local shoots, the machines are randomly dropped around the stations and you get two targets. The best targets setters have a whole bag of tricks they use to get you to miss. They use spin and speed to make a target look like it's doing something that it's not. They use landscape...Continue reading

NSCA US Nationals started this weekend and run right through next weekend. Wish I could have made it, would have likely been the only Canadian there. They have 1750 shooters so the numbers are good considering travel restrictions. This is probably the longest I've gone without shooting in the US for maybe 20 or 30 years and if it wasn't for Blackmore Shooting Sports, I'm not sure what I would have done. Speaking of which, there will still be winter shoots at Blackmore but scheduled when the weather is acceptable.

Enjoy the weather out there because this is what it could look like right now.

If any of you are interested in a clay thrower or robot, give me a call, we just got a new shipment. Most of the inquiries we get are for machines with a wobble base. Trap machines oscillate side to side but a wobble base will also move it up and down. Trap and sporting clays are two different games with different techniques. In sporting clays, you know the exact path of the target and it's usually repeated several time.... You don't know the path of a trap target except that it will be somewhere inside a cone shape in front of you. A wobble trap isn't really going to help you with either of these games. I guess it will help you for shooting wobble trap but that's usually a side event at best. It's still fun to shoot, just not the best way to train if you want to improve your scores on the other shotgun sports.

It's been about three years since I shot the Steel Challenge World Championships. I was just checking scores from this years match and the biggest change is the shooters. I don't think I know more than maybe a third of them. I miss this match and might have to get back to it next year, I see I am still listed as a Grand Master with four different guns. I'm pretty sure that with a couple weeks practice, I could still shoot my best scores.

I have made some big adjustments to my sporting gun this week and I think it's very close to shooting 50/50 now or in other words, zeroed to hit the exact center of whatever you're shooting. Before going further I just want to say that there are some advantages to a high shooting gun if you're shooting trap. For sporting clays, I think you're better off to have your gun shoot perfectly flat. In my shitty drawing, you can see the target at the bottom of the core of the patter...n. In this case, the target would be absolutely crushed and all you would see is small chips and smoke. Everyone will say you centered it, but really, you didn't even though it was a crushing hit. It's obvious that if you shoot a little high, you will miss the target by shooting over the top. I don't even have to point that out. The more subtle problem here is if you are shooting a crossing target. Look at the difference between line A and line B. If your gun is shooting 50/50, you have a far greater width which is critical on crossers. Tom and I were shooting a 40 yard fast crosser last week. I would miss 3, then hit a couple, then miss a bunch again. I had to be 3.5 feet in front. If I was 4 feet, I would miss in front and if I was 3 feet, I would miss behind. I knew my pattern should be 2 or 3 feet wide so this didn't make sense until I started looking at it the way I described here. As soon as I held a foot low, I could hit it every time. The only advantage I see with having a higher shooting gun in sporting clays is that you will be able to shoot flatter at longer distances without having to hold over. For me, I would rather have to hold over than under. To check you pattern and gun fit, scroll back to where I wrote about that. Good luck!

With so many clubs not having registered sporting clays events, I've been shooting some trap. I know a lot of shooters find it boring but it is really good for your training. It teaches you to stay focused and to win, you usually need a perfect score. At local matches, you might be able to drop one target out of 100 and still win, but if it's a calm day and you get 99, chances are that 2 or 3 other shooters will get 100. It's a different game but challenging in ways that wi...ll make you a better shooter. Thanks for the photo Munyui Icharia

Although this is written more for pistol shooting, it all still applies here, great article!

We just finished shooting Blackmore Open, what an awesome shoot! It was a unique competition for two reasons. This is the first time targets were thrown in the new game of Canadian Field Sporting. We shot different red and green courses Friday, Saturday and Sunday. It took a little getting used to, but seems everyone liked it. The second thing that made this match one of the best of the year was the targets setters. There were 12+ people from clubs all over Alberta setting ...targets for several days. Please thank them when you get a chance, they did a tremendous job! Scott, Steve, Tom, Kelly, Paul, Kevin, Tracy, Martin, Josh and a few more, you all rock!! Shooting it had it's challenges in some places and sometimes it's easy to give up. I'll give you a few pointers that might help with that later this week. It appears that most of the remaining registered shoots in Alberta have either been canceled or changed to club matches with the exception of Blackmore Shooting Sports. That's really sad. I think Blackmore has thrown about 3,000 registered targets this year so please let Bob know you appreciate the competitions. Hope to see you all at Blackmore Challenge 9.

Shooting some trap in Medicine Hat but also had time to shoot their sporting clays course. They have a big variety of targets and I think this station at the top is the highest platform I've ever shot from.

Have you bought something this cool lately?

If you plan this right, you can shoot 600 targets on this weekend, or at least shoot AT 600 targets. Start with Blackmore Challenge 8 on Thurs Aug 20 with 100 main and 50 5-stand. Friday is the prelim and 50 Field Sporting. 200 main event targets on either Sat or Sun, or, shoot 100 each day. There are also 50 more Field Sporting on both Sat and Sun. ... The events are all separate so shoot as much or as little as you like.

Nice to have this little board room in my suite, not sure what I can use it for. Maybe someone thinks they don't need a new gun and I think they do, it would be a good place to talk about it till they come to their senses.

Premium ammo usually has harder pellets which puts the cost up a few dollars per box. This hardness helps to keep a tighter pattern and also breaks the clays with more energy. You can actually see the difference and can notice more harder breaks. I'm all for shooting the cheapest loads you can find for practice, but consider stepping it up for competition. Don't believe me? I'll give a free box of Kent with Diamond shot to anyone shooting (cnsca or nsca) the match this weekend at Slave Lake. A box is enough to see the difference, it will open your eyes.