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This Month In Clay Target Nation

CTN April 2025

The April issue of Clay Target Nation is full of hard-hitting tips and tactics to help you improve your shooting and have more fun.

In our Training Tips columns, instructor Al Scooler offers a simple tip to improve your odds on high 1, while Anthony Matarese Jr. gets serious about confronting the excuses that are holding you back from reaching your full potential.

This year, we’re celebrating CTN’s 10th anniversary by bringing you one article each issue from our 2016 archives, and in April, that’s a feature on a topic most shooters can relate to: how to break out of a rut. You’ll also find a feature outlining what to expect out of the fully custom gunstock process, and a cool feature highlighting some successful Ladies Nights at various clubs. We interview some of skeet’s best shooters about how they handle the pressure to constantly be perfect, and we also take a look at how to understand target types as well as target presentations during your shot planning. And don’t miss instructor Deon Thompson’s article “Body of Work,” in which he encourages shooters to pay attention to how they body feels—not just how everything looks—when they’re setting up.

Advertisers in the April issue are:

Clay Target Nation is available monthly to all members in digital and/or print form. Not a member? You can receive the next issue when you join at http://nssa-nsca.org/join-nssa-nsca/.

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NSSA-NSCA Announces Lockton Affinity As Additional Insurance Provider

NSSA-NSCA is pleased to announce its offering of a second insurance option to its members, member clubs, and instructors, enhancing one of its most valuable member benefits. In addition to its longtime affiliation with Sportsman’s Insurance Company, Inc. to offer discounted insurance plans for guns, clubs, and instructors, NSSA-NSCA announces a new partnership with Lockton Affinity Outdoor to provide additional options to its members and member clubs.

“Gun insurance is very important to our members who need to protect their investment in equipment, and our clubs and instructors require liability insurance,” said Michael Hampton Jr., NSSA-NSCA Executive Director. “Every member, club, and instructor’s circumstances are different, so adding this new partnership gives them the opportunity to compare plans to find what works best for them.”

For more than 24 years, Lockton Affinity Outdoor has been administering an insurance program specifically designed to gun clubs, firearm instructors and individual firearm collections. “We are excited to be partnering with NSSA-NSCA,” said Jeff Hewitt, SVP and Program Executive of Lockton Affinity Outdoor. “At Lockton Affinity Outdoor, our goal has long been to bring a consistent and long-term insurance solution to gun clubs and instructors and protection for individually owned firearm collections.”

The new partnership is effective immediately, and U.S.-based NSSA-NSCA members can visit www.locktonaffinityoutdoor.com/nssa-nsca/ to learn more and request a quote for coverage. Insurance coverage is not available to international members.

 
Disclaimer:

The Lockton Affinity Outdoor Insurance program is administered by Lockton Affinity, LLC d/b/a Lockton Affinity Insurance Brokers LLC in California #0795478. Coverage is subject to actual policy terms and conditions. Policy benefits are the sole responsibility of the issuing insurance company. Coverage may be provided by an excess/surplus lines insurer which is not licensed by or subject to the supervision of the insurance department of your state of residence. Policy coverage forms and rates may not be subject to regulation by the insurance department of your state of residence. Excess/Surplus lines insurers do not generally participate in state guaranty funds and therefore insureds are not protected by such funds in the event of the insurer’s insolvency. NSSA-NSCA will receive a royalty fee for the licensing of its name and trademarks as part of the insurance program offered to the extent permitted by applicable law. Not available in all states.

 

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Final Shots: Doug Coulter

We are sorry to report the passing of Doug Coulter, 76, of San Antonio on February 20 after a short battle with cancer. His long-time friend T.D. Berkes III recalled him as “a great person, a great friend, and a long-time shooter who was a true ambassador to skeet.” Since joining NSSA in 1972, Doug registered over 280,000 lifetime targets. He was honored as the 1997 inductee into the Armed Forces Hall of Fame, won many championships (including winning the last 250-target 12-Gauge event for the 12-Gauge Open World Championship title in 2009), and was named to many All-American teams throughout his career.

“I am proud to have shot with him, proud to call him my friend, and was privileged to have known him for nearly 50 years,” said Berkes. “He will be buried forever in the best of all places, in the hearts of us who knew him.”

NSSA extends its sincere condolences to Doug’s many friends and family members.

 

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Final Shots: Barry Hartmann

It is with much sadness that we report the passing of Barry Hartmann, 85, on February 10. A long-time member of Tulsa (OK) Gun Club and an NSSA Master Level Instructor, Barry helped teach countless youth and adults how to shoot skeet and, as Zone Instructor, trained 75+ NSSA Level 1 Instructors.

Target Talk and Clay Target Nation staff appreciated his contributions to both publications. He provided shooting tips for Target Talk through “Hartmann’s Hints” and wrote “Training Tips” and other articles for CTN. We remember him as knowledgeable, gracious, devoted to NSSA and the sport of skeet, and always willing to share his knowledge with others.

Barry registered 90,514 skeet targets during his 31 years as an NSSA member. He attended six World Shoots.

Barry will be greatly missed by his fellow members at Tulsa Gun Club, the instructor program, NSSA staff and his family. We extend our gratitude for his many contributions to the sport of skeet and offer our deepest condolences to his friends and family.