Nick Sisley - Gun Digest Shooter’s Guide to Shotgun Games

Sign up for our newsletter and receive special offers, access to free content, and information on the latest new releases and must-have firearms resources! Plus, receive a coupon code to use on your first purchase from GunDigestStore.com for signing up.

or visit us online to sign up at

http://gundigest.com/ebook-promo

Its been over 40 years since Nick Sisley walked onto the skeet fields at Tarentum Sportsmens Club and joined us for a round of clay target shooting. I wasnt too impressed. Everyone knows outdoor writers spend all their time indoors on a keyboard and too little time outdoors. After 40 years and an almost uncountable amount of ammo, hundreds of magical grouse hunts, woodcock bottoms and dove fields, and always, an enormous amount of clay targets, I can attest that Nick Sisley is the outdoor writer that is out there shooting, hitting, missing, learning, and teaching more than anyone I ever met. Hes hunted one kind of bird or another in just about every state in the U.S. and been to South America more times than even he can count. If anyone is qualified to write this book its Nick.

When we met on that skeet field decades ago it didnt take long to find we had a common enemy, a trouble target. A bird that was hard to hit. Even a mystery. Yet here we are, 40 years later, still friends, still shooting, and still trying to hit that trouble target.

Nor has Nicks enthusiasm waned. Hes on the phone a couple days a week. He has got a new gun, a new method, something new hes got to try, so were out after clay targets again.

Many of my best moments on a skeet field were shooting with Nick. For many years, our team, Tarentum Sportsman, was a tough team to beat. One year we tied for the 12 Gauge State Championship against the famous Holtz squad, the great shooting family from Pennsylvania. Both of our teams had shot sparkling scores, 498x500, and had to shoot off for the 5-Man Team State Championship. Now, we were all friends, good souls all, but make no mistake, everyone was trying to win. Without discussing all the rules of a shoot-off I needed to hit the next bird to win. This was not an easy moment. Big shoot, big pressure. And a tough opponent. I strode up to the station, loaded the gun and readied myself. And then, right before I call for the target, Nick leans over to Ralph Holtz, the patriarch of the Holtz family, and whispers Pressure shot.

Im sure Nick didnt mean for me to hear him that day and I doubt if he even remembers. But I hit that bird. We won. And its one of my best memories in 40 years of competition.

Somewhere in those years Sisley created some memories of his own. Our mutual friend, Donald Lavely and Nick, shot Two-Man Team for many years and at the Mid West skeet shoot at Canton, Ohio. They put together a 200 straight in the 28-gauge event. But to win they had to face a couple of first team All-Americans that had tied them. Well Nick and Don beat them in the first round and youd probably have to be a clay target shooter to understand how absolutely galactic that was.

Sometimes, almost comically, Nicks own profession led to problems. One summer hes shows up with a brand new Browning Citori, Briley tubed, high ribbed, all the fixins. Hes hitting everything. Goes to the state shoot, runs 100 straight in the 28 gauge, ends up fifth in the state. Never shoots the gun again. A week later theres something new. And then a week later we ask, Nick what happened? Why did you change guns? He simply replies with a grin, Its my job man.

I will never forget another grin he had during a Pennsylvania grouse hunt. We were hunting in an undisclosed location in the northern part of the state back in the 1980s and the grouse cycle was sky high. It was maybe the best grouse hunt in either of our lives, 27 flushes but the main memory was 7 double points! Maybe a point and a back are expected on a Carolina quail hunt but in the Northern grouse woods it may not occur even once in a lifetime. These were not points and backs, however, but double points different grouse pointed by two different dogs at the same time. There was Nick standing in between the two great dogs, on point in different directions, grinning like a possum-eating chicken.

I wanted to laugh out loud when I saw the trio, but didnt want to scare the birds. Finally a flush, a good shot and I never saw a man more at home. When I came through the brush, hes was talking to himself, repeating over and over What a day. What a year.

Of course one of the central benefits with being friends with a premier gun writer is all the cool guns he shows up with, usually weekly. Shotguns of every price range, weight and use. Shotguns I could never afford or even find for sale are brought to the club in an endless stream of gleaming walnut and blued steel, and these days even shiny plastic. Some we can hit with, some not so well, but every shotgun gets rung out in an honest appraisal. Phrases like good for this, or good for that, nice wood, too light for skeet, great game gun fly around like clay targets thrown from a wobble trap.

Its a tough job as they say, but we dont take it lightly. Maybe with a smile, but not lightly.

The heady responsibility was illustrated one winter day several years ago where we were trying out some nice shotguns on barnyard pigeons, an activity we share a passion for. The shoot was over for the day and I got the job of carrying some guns back to the car. With a $12,000 Perazzi in one hand and a $5,000 Browning in the other, I slip and go down with a splat on the ice. Holding the guns aloft, wracked in disfiguring pain, I announced, I saved the guns. I saved the guns.

Nick and I have shared many outdoor pleasures over the years, grouse hunting, bird dogs, of course, shotgunning in all forms, but the one activity we get a big kick out of is pigeon shooting. Not the competitive flyer ring, although weve done that too, but common barnyard pests plaguing the farm. Most farmers welcome responsible shooters in and around the farm and barns to try eradicating the birds.

Testing out guns, glasses and shells, shooting methods and chokes are all part of this pigeon shooting. So along with giving the farmer a hand wed get to try out all this gear and theory on real birds. They are tough and resilient and hard to bring down. There just cant be a better testing ground for shotguns. But holy mackerel it is fun.

Weve shared some of our best times and laughs during these hunts. In the 1970s we found a great shoot near an abandoned U.S. Steel building. Thousands of pigeons lived there and were driving the local farmer crazy. We had to help. We shot hundreds, probably thousands of birds there over the years, but finally, with the demise of steel industry the building was torn down. That meant the pigeons no longer had their roost. If it wasnt for the man-thing, I think we both would have cried.

After a time of deep depression we started, undaunted, looking for other farms plagued by pigeons. Since those years weve found dozens of farms and farmers needing a hand. Sisley, a long-time pilot, has resorted to flying around looking for silos covered with birds. Sometimes we get a few, or more always trying new guns, equipment, methods. Sometimes sharing spots, sneaking off on our own, but always exchanging advice and wisdom, shot size, choke selection, gun balance, and anything else that can help us hit. After all these years, that common enemy, the tough target in the sky.

Therefore, I can assure anyone wise enough to buy this book and read Nicks advice will never hear guesswork or assumption. Nick is nothing if not humble, questioning and honest. And he will always be trying new things, learning and passing on solid advice, tried and true.