[Uncle Billy]

Every winter my Dad and I would shoot trap in a winter skeet and trap league they ran at our local club, which also had skeet fields. Both Dad and I did pretty well- I won my division a couple of years. The membership was divided between the skeet guys and the trap guys so there was always a lot of (usually) good-natured needling between them. Once, on a dare, I shot a round of skeet, but not with my Winchester which was expected- I used a Rossi coach gun- SxS 12 gauge with 20" barrels, IC chokes, 2 hammers and 2 triggers. My then-wife bought it new for $125 for me as a joke. It looked ridiculous in the rack next to the Citoris and Krieghoffs and other $3000-and-up guns that were common among the skeet guys. Well, I shot a 24/25 with it, hammers and triggers notwithstanding. Boy, did that give me a lot of currency in the ongoing debate with the skeet shooters- my usual retort was "How difficult is skeet when you know exactly where the bird is going to go every time? And a $125 riot gun shoots as well as one worth 6 months' mortgage payments?". It was a good laugh all around, and the top-shelf payoff at the bar went down real easy. One of the skeet guys was going to try the Rossi, but after he got over the external hammers, he came up with the 2 triggers. He broke it open, took out his shells and handed it back.