If you saw this post, you’ll remember that shooting skeet is not only fun, but a practical activity when it comes to maintaining your shooting skills. [Side note: maybe I should have practiced more before dove season started? More on that tomorrow…] Well, towers and traps can get kind of boring, particularly when you are familiar with where you’re shooting & have a pretty good idea of where the target will go. I say “boring,” rather than “easy” because we all have days that we just can’t hit an “easy” shot, or the broad side of a barn.
Enter: Helice. Have you heard of it? This article was passed along to me at work – an office in which I am the only female, yet am known for my affinity for hunting, shooting, and well, all that this blog is about, really. Honestly, if I tell them I am going out of town one weekend, the response is typically, “So what are you going to shoot,” or, “what season is in?” Am I that predicable? Apparently. But, back to helice.
Helice shooting uses little targets called ZZ birds that have wings attached to each side. These wings can (and will) catch the wind and send the target flying in any direction it chooses – entirely unpredictable to the shooter, just like a real live bird. I will save you my butchered explanation of exactly how this happens and what is involved (go
here or
here for that), but essentially the shooter has just two shots to hit the target, which separates from the propellers, and then has to land in a certain area, called the “ring.” There is a medley of specific measurements to the ring and location of the little launchers that send the targets flying, but you get the general idea. The shooter also might not know which launcher will send the next target…
So, you don’t know where the target will come from (or when), you have no idea what its flight path will be, and you have about 1.2 seconds to comprehend all of that, and take the shots. Bottom line? It’s tough. But, I also want to do this. Really really badly. Probably embarrass myself just as badly, but I would love to try it. The US also apparently has a pretty
badass team... Pretty cool, huh?
Here is a video from a helice grand prix. You can see how the targets fly, and exactly how difficult they can be to hit even for world-class shooters! Plus, the narrator is British – he makes it sound incredibly intense, and it’s even more entertaining.
Who wants to join?
