distances; and Improved-Cylinder for close range shooting. All three chokes were used, with Full and Modified being the most popular. With the advent of skeet shooting, the more open bore returned to popularity. The short range (21 yards), and fast moving targets, soon encouraged manufacturers to produce a skeet bore, a slight constriction that, depending on the manufacturer, is basically the same choke as the Improved-Cylinder. Unlike trapshooting, which requires the use of the larger twelve gauge, skeet was an ideal game for the smaller gauges: 16, 20, 24, 28, and the baby bore, .410, all accepted the Challenge of short range targets and grew in popularity on the skeet ranges, although time would See the eventual demise of the 16 and 24, but an increased use of the others.
The Charlottetown Skeet Club continued to operate once a week through the summers of 1936, 1937, and 1938, when once again war clouds in Europe would stifle any momentum which may have been building to firmly establish the clay target game on Prince Edward Island.
The club of this era was not well organized, and no one really seemed to care. There were few meet- ings, no organized competitions, and all of the re- quired upkeep was done by the members during Saturday afternoon shoots. These weekly shoots were well attended, by members and the occasional visitor, and it appears all were satisfied to approach skeet shooting as a personal challenge, and to simply shoot better this week than last. Like clay target shooters before them, and those who came after, they did have fun--there were private squad contests, personal challenges, 'auction' shoots, and grudge matches, undoubtedly with a few pooled coins going to the winners. It always seems, whether there is organization or not, when scattergunners get together to shoot a round of skeet or trap, there is always some sort of inherent challenge...and always a method to settle it.
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