Lehigh Valley Sporting Clays

Friends invited us to shoot some sport clays in their area. I only shoot skeet and trap before but figured it'd be fun. We went to Lehigh Valley Sporting Clays (http://lvsclays.com/). Yes they're on facebook too (https://www.facebook.com/pages/Lehigh-Valley-Sporting-Clays/121986084482004).

We parked, grabbed our gear and went inside to wait for our friends to arrive. Following the rules I left the shotgun outside.

It took only about 5 min for a staff member to run inside all excited yelling and wanting to know who owns the saiga outside. I walked over and told him it was mine. He told me it wasn't allowed there because it had a pistol grip and was too short. I explained to him that I read the rules on their site and had a barrel extension with me, and that I brought my only Saiga that was bone stock and DIDN'T have a pistol grip. It was even nj legal! He said he would have to get the range safety officer. We did the same dance all over again. He said he wasn't sure and he Got I believe it was he range manager. We started the same dance all over again. I had to correct a number of innacurate statements made by the range safety officer about my shotgun.

* It has a collapsible stock! - no, it does not. It is a fixed stock, it doesn't even look like it can be collapsible. even if it was what the hell is wrong with a shotgun stock that can be adjusted to fit the shooter properly?
* It has a pistol grip! - no, it does not. It is not even a pistol grip as per old and elapsed federal awb, and it is not a pistol grip as per nj law. Even if it did have a pistol grip, what's wrong with having a grip that fits the shooter?
* The barrel is barely legal! - Uhm yeah they are imported and maintained in the optimal configuration to not need to pay the $200 tax stamp. Driving 55 is a 55mph zone is BARELY LEGAL! I informed the range safety officer I usually only hear barely legal when describing 18 year old porn stars and whores in certain counties in NV. The range safety officer did have a funny expression on his face after I told him that. I also told him that I did have a barrel extension and a modified choke I was going to screw on for shooting there. I was allowed to shoot my Saiga as long as I added the barrel extension, modified choke, and only had 2 rounds in the mag at a time (range rules). At that point I was really regretting not having brought an MD-12 or Md-20 to hold 2 shells just to fuck with the fuds.

I was shocked to see so much gun misinformation coming from employees of a range owned by someone who's on the board of NRA. I am how ever very happy that the employees were willing to listen and learn what I explained to them. Glad I didn't have to show them that it wasn't full auto.

I know the Saiga is a rare sight at a place where many people shoot guns that cost $5,000 to $8,000 but that is no reason for not allowing it. As long as it's a safe fire arm, legal and the owner can use it without damaging the property, other patrons or themselves they should be treated like any other paying customer.

Shooting a really fun station with my Saiga 12 - both clays are fired from the other side of the abandoned quarry towards the shooter.

The Saiga is fun but the pattern spreads too quickly for longer range. Borrowed Ed's browning.

The golf carts have tail gunner positions!!

We ran into quite a few broken stations. Our clay launcher/controller would often report not being plugged in despite being plugged in. It took a bit of time to wiggle the plug, press on it and get it just right to get it to work. Definitely something they should work on.

At one of the stations the previous people unplugged their controller, the launcher at one of the houses went full auto, sending a clay pigeon across about every 20 seconds or so. The staff was called and told us it would take some time to fix it, and that we're better off going on to the next station.

About midway through the 17 stations there was a warming house with a gas heater, coffee, hot water and hot coco mix. Huge plus as the temperatures were dropping and it was getting to be pretty chilly (about 42F).

Had an interesting conversation with a staff member about their launchers. There is no AC in the field, all the launchers are run off 12v DC deep cycle batteries. Every few days they swap them out and charge them. They tried adding solar panels but they didn't do anything. turns out they just plopped them on roof tops of houses without even trying to aim them, never mind winter sun/summer sun angles etc. Would save them a lot of time, effort and aggravation to set up panels correctly.

I'll probably go back there at some point. Also trying to get a hold of permission to go exploring there when they aren't operating. Many of the buildings from the old quarry are still there. They are in rough shape but still interesting. Would make for interesting photographs.