VIDEO

Bob Self (left), Browning Pro staff shooter and instructor at the Indiana Gun Club, gives a shooting lesson to Indy.com reporter Neal Taflinger. (Michelle Pemberton / Indy.com)

Indy.com reporter Neal Taflinger unloads his spent shotgun shells. (Michelle Pemberton / Indy.com)

Indiana Gun Club instructor Bob Self looks down the business end of an unloaded gun while instructing Neal how to sight along the barrel. (Michelle Pemberton / Indy.com)

Shooting a shotgun at discs launched above and in front of you is explosive fun

My parents did their best to raise sensitive children. My mother read "Little House on the Prairie" to my sister and me. We learned how to play piano. We never lacked for stuffed animals. But in spite of my parents' efforts, or maybe because of them, I am standing in the sun in Fortville, blowing clay discs out of the sky and loving every minute of it.

The Indiana Gun Club sits at the end of a long drive, off a rural route that is decidedly less rural than it was when the club opened in 1958. The shop is the center of club activities, filled to the brim with exotic and expensive shotguns. This is where I came to learn to shoot a shotgun, under the instruction of pro shooter Bob Self.

A solidly built gentleman of some years, Self sports a trim white beard and skin damaged by years spent on the shooting range and on the hunt. He looks the part of a professional shooter, the kind of guy who appears on ESPN2 on Sunday mornings to demonstrate birdcalls from behind orange-tinted glasses.

In fact, Self is such a good shooter that he's on Browning Firearms' payroll. And he has lent his wisdom to ESPN2 on at least one occasion. He's been an instructor at the Indiana Gun Club for 10 years and has distinguished himself in competition. If there is anyone I want to teach me, it's this guy.

Self selects a Browning for me, natch. The Browning Citori XS Skeet is an over/under, meaning it has two barrels stacked vertically. The Citori has a bored-out barrel, which Self explains "opens it up more and reduces recoil." Sweet.

Self gives me a brief tutorial on range safety: Keep the shotgun "broken" and unloaded until the moment before you call for the clay; treat the gun as loaded all the time and point it at the ground when not shooting. Then he supplies me with safety glasses and earplugs.

Self demonstrates how to follow the "bird," a 130-mm piece of orange-painted clay, across the range, keeping the shotgun ahead of and slightly below the moving target. He shows me how to mount the gun, starting with proper footwork, then bringing it up into a notch in my shoulder and sliding my cheek up against the stock to reduce recoil.

I mount the firearm and call for the clay. "Pull!" BLAM. The clay falls to the ground unharmed. Self explains I was behind the bird. I reload and call for another clay. "Pull!" BLAM. Nothing. Self says I was in front of it.

I repeat this process several times before Self moves me closer to the skeet machine and tells me to line up my shot with a post in the ground. He says not to chase the bird, to simply wait for it to intersect my firing line.

I fire fruitlessly twice more but my third shot finds its mark. Watching the clay break apart midair, I feel like Luke Skywalker when he used the Force to bury that photon torpedo in the heart of the Death Star. I destroy several more targets in that position before making my way back to where I started. Self shouts gleefully every time I destroy a target, which I do regularly now that I've got the hang of it.

I shoot almost two rounds of clay before my eyes start to get tired. On the way back to Indy, all I can think about how to pitch yet another hobby to my gun-averse wife. Skeet shooting is relatively inexpensive and if you have a good teacher it's more than just a little fun: It's a blast.

The Indiana Gun Club

Where: 14926 E. 113th St., Fortville.

Contact: (317) 485-6540 or www.indianagunclub.com

This summer, one round of skeet, trap or sporting clays is $6. Gun rental is $5 per day. Safety glasses can be used for free and earplugs are provided.

You can bring ammunition with you or purchase it on site. Club membership ($100 first year, $50 each subsequent year) includes several discounts and members-only events.