[Uncle Billy]

About 42 years ago my father and I joined a local trap-skeet club and shot every Sunday, for fun or in a league and sometimes on Wednesday nights. This went on for more than 30 years until dad and mom retired and went to Florida. He had my grandfather's Model 12 Winchester that was made in 1929 that Grandfather had won fairly prestigious competitions with the 1930s. It has an English style stock (no pistol grip shape) so recoil could have been an issue but wasn't; it was full choked with a ventilated rib and dad could toss that to his shoulder and the beads would line up without any other effort than just shouldering the gun. It has also killed maybe a million white tails, but that's another story.

My dad bought me a Model 12 trap gun also made in 1929 with a full choke and vent rib and had it reblued and restocked by a local guy whose specialty was fitting guns to their shooters. My '12 shoulders like my dad's does; it fits me "like a finger in the mud" as grandfather used to say.

We bought a Mec 600 Jr and with no further research began reloading. I have no idea how much lead or powder it throws; I do know that from day one the shot-powder bar hasn't been changed. I've always used 7 1/2 shot and the same powder, Blue Dot I think.

Over the years we put who knows how many reloads through the Mec and through our Model 12s, Dad shooting 23 or 24/25 consistently; my average was a bit higher over many matches.

I still have the shotguns, the Mec is bolted to my new reloading bench, the powder, shot, hulls and primers are all at hand. But Dad and Mom moved away after they retired, and Dad passed on a few years ago so our little shooting and reloading ritual came to an end.

Every now and then I take Dad's '12 out of the rack and handle it; then mine, and remember all the fun we had together.

Don't know why I posted this, it isn't of any use to the OP or anyone else. It's just when I read "trap" I get a flood of memories and thought to write them down this time.