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Originally Posted by BigJimP
You are a little older than I am ....thank you ....I knew there was someone out there ... ...besides Zippy13 of course …
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Yep, I'm even a pinch older than Dave McC, our esteemed moderator. My first round of Skeet was about 47 years ago. Having be brought up in a home without guns, my only training had been rifle and pistol in the military, I was on my own with a shotgun. I spent many years as a practitioner of trail and error shotgunning, even won a few shoots. Perfecting my errors, I had reached a ceiling and stagnated for many years. It wasn't until I was able until to buddy-up with an All-American shooter, who identified my errors, that I was able re-learn and started making progress, again.
TheKlawMan,
At our age, you don't have twenty years of trail and error to waste, before you get serious. You have one advantage over the young new shooters: you know that you don't know, and want to do something about it. We've all seen brash young men who think high testosterone levels will instinctively make shooters out of them -- I was one of them back in the day.
My neighbor (older than me) got his first shotgun last year after some dogs savaged his livestock. I took him to my gun club for an introductory lesson. Two fields from us there is a manual trap set up for casual practice, and two young men were launching targets for each other. One was a novice and the other a first-timer. A typical case of the blind leading the blind -- ripe with enthusiasm and short on experience. As we watched them, I'd say too my neighbor, "Watch, he'll miss the this one." After the guy missed, my neighbor asked how I'd known. The guy's mount had been so awkward, there was no way he was going to get shot anywhere near the target. They were great examples of how not to mount a shotgun.
You are wise to be seeking some basic instruction, you don't want to be like the awkward young men shooting holes in the sky. An advantage to your age is the old boys at the gun clubs will take you seriously when you ask for help. As clayman mentioned, the NSSA/NSCA has an instructor certification program. In Orange County, Roger Blickham [(949) 498-8736], of San Clemente, is listed. I met Roger some years ago when he and his son competed at the SoCal clubs. In his younger days he was a Class-AA Skeet shooter and no-nonsense kind of guy.
Something that's often overlooked: In addition to schooling in the fundamentals, try to shoot with folks who are better shooters and watch and learn. Big Jim's shooting buddy is an older more experienced shooter. I'm sure, even with Jim's vast experience, he still picks-up a nugget every now and them. Unfortunately there's a dark side to shotgunning: we've all seen the show-off novice trying to impress the less experienced with well-meaning but worthless suggestions.
When it comes to seeing over the top of your glasses, you aren't alone. The Decots Big Jim mentioned are known as Hy-Wyd -- as the name implies the Hy is for high. I've been wearing the same Hy-Wyd frames for over twenty years. When my prescription changes I get new Decot lenses, and send the frames in for refurbishing (free, IIRC).