mecca for wildfowl hunters, with a large spring and 
     
     fall flight of both the challenging black duck and the 
     
     beautiful and majestic Canada Goose. It would bea 
     
     nucleus of these dedicated smoothbore shooters from 
     
     the Charlottetown area who would show a serious 
     
     interest in clay target shooting. 
     
    
   
   
    
     Shotgunners on the Island were just beginning to 
     
     enjoy the shooting convenience of the new 
     
     breechloading guns that were rapidly replacing the 
     
     muzzle loaders that had endured for many decades. The 
     
     introduction of the new side-by-side doubles was 
     
     making shooting a cleaner and easier-to-accomplish 
     
     pastime, and was creating a new breed of enthusiasts. 
     
     With the introduction of breechloaders came new shot 
     
     shell cartridges, and a new organization. Two. years 
     
     previous, in 1882, ammunition manufacturers had gotten 
     
     together and formed the American Manufacturers 
     
     Asociation to encourage standardization and co- 
     
     Operation in the manufacture of shotgun shells. It 
     
     was with these circumstances--new targets, new guns, 
     
     and new shot shells--that in mid 1884, moving target 
     
     shooting would come to Prince Edward Island. 
     
    
   
   
    
     Doctor Ernest S. Blanchard, superintendent of 
     
     the Provincial Lunatic Asylum at Falconwood, read the 
     
     advertisement from Thomas Dodd with great interest and 
     
     discussed it with his good friend, Rowan R. 
     
     FitzGerald, a Queen's Council and local City 
     
     Magistrate. Both were avid shotgunners who could see 
     
     a potential of challenge, and sport, in clay targets. 
     
     Why then, not organize a new gun club devoted 
     
     primarily to smoothbore shooting? The Provincial 
     
     Rifle Association had been formed some years earlier 
     
     and was enjoying great activity in the area, but 
     
     shotgun enthusiasts had only the spasmodic challenge 
     
     of wingshooting, which, exciting as it was, was 
     
     limited to the availability of birds. Blanchard and 
     
     FitzGerald, enthused with the idea, arranged to 
     
     contact a few other gunning friends, hold an initial 
     
     meeting, and attempt to form and organize a moving 
     
     target group. 
     
    
   
   
    
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