The Waterbury Democrat., 1946-01-01
Ex-Servicemen To Form New Skeet Clubs


 A decided increase in Skeet and trapshooting activities is indicated for the next Severai years, according to Henry P. Davis, of Remoington Arms Company's public relations division.
 "The trend to more clay target shooting is quite positively reflect ed in the number of inquiries this company is receiving each month concerning trap and Skeet layouts cost of equipment, specifications for trap houses, layout of grounds, &C., cessories, etc.
 Tt is interesting to note" said Davis, "that the majority of these inquiries come from eX-service men and men still in the services who want to establish clubs or public shooting grounds when they return to civil life. These men have enjoy ed the sports of Skeet and trap shooting in their army and navy training periods. Many of them have become proficient instructors. They realize the necessity for con- tinuation of markSmanship train ing in peacetime and they know how many of their buddies are go- ing to be active in shooting sports when they finally get settled at home and facilities for shooting, both in competition and merely for pleasant pastime, are made avail able.
 'The experienced trap and Skeet shooter Is going to want to get back into the swing of his favorite sport just as soon as he can and he'll be joined by a lot of newcomers to competitive shooting sports who got their first shooting experience while wearing Uncle Sam's uniforms.
 The same applies to many of the thousands who got their first whiff of powder-smoke on service rifle and pistol ranges" he continued. Many of these sportsmen indicate a desire to organize rifle and pistol clubs in their home areas and are asking for information concerning range layouts, equipment, targets, rules and regulations, etc. A goodly percentage of these inquiries come from men whose letters either state or indicate that they are competi- tive-minded and have a desire to become proficient enough to enter regional and national matches later on. Some are ready for that phase of sports right now and anxious to get into it.
 "It will not be long before the shooting ranges and grounds of the country will again ring with the crackle of rifle and pistol fire and the blast of shotguns, both in prac- tice and in competition. Club, sec- tional, regional and national com- petitions will be resumed before many months pass, and 1t will not be long before American shooters will be back in the swing again and on a larger basis than ever before.
 "Yes," he concluded, T predict that interest in Skeet, trap, pistol and rifle shooting, as well as pink ing, will reach a new high before the end of 1946."
 Davis further backed his predic- ! tions with the results of recent sur veys made by several national mag azines and the experience of Col George o. Van Orden, USING. who questioned some 5000 returned Mar ines within a period of six months Tn recent article titled "Retrain- ing the Returning G. T." and print ed in AMERICAN RIFLEMAN, Col Van Orden said, in part:
 ". 65.5 per cent of these Mar ines say they will hunt game with a rifle of some type after the war; l8.6 per cent say maybe they will and 15.8 per cent say definitely they will not. How about bird hunters? We found that 60 per cent say they will hunt birds with shotgun after the war.
 "Very few of these men hunted before the war. There are a lot of new hunters coming up-if they can get the equipment and place to hunt.
 we find that SIS per cent want to go into some form of organized competitive shooting (73.7 per cent of this group want to hunt bird and game. in addition to the target sports). Of all the men examined. 38.4 per cent are interested in and intend to get into srnall-bore rife shooting, 35.3 per cent into service "A .l. A fan