MIKE BRAUN Courses offer a chance to learn

Several courses are planned at area outdoor clubs that can help improve your shooting skills for either the coming hunting seasons or for the clay pigeon scene.
The Berlin Bird Dog Club will host a seminar on practical shotgunning July 26 at the Sportsmen's Shooting Center, 6501 State St. N.E., Louisville.
The focus of the course is for upland game hunters to sharpen their gunning skills. Among the topics to be covered will be individual stock fitting, gun mounting, correct use of vision, patterning for impact, chokes and loads, gunning with a pointing dog and shooting instructions.
The seminar is $50 and includes instructions, 50 clays at skeet, trap or hopscotch and lunch.
Those attending will also be invited to join the club.
For more information, call Mark Fernandez at (330) 854-6940 by Thursday.
Clinics
If you are more in tune with shooting at clay birds, then a two-part clinic planned by the Grand Valley Shooting Ranch in Orwell will be more to your liking.
Being offered on two dates in early and midfall, the clinics will be held Sept. 20 and 27 and Oct. 25 and Nov. 8.
The first clinic, called Series I, will cover the fundamentals of sporting clays.
A comprehensive instructional program will focus on safety, proper gun mounting, target analysis, strategy development skills and setup.
These skills will be practiced while breaking clays on the ranch's clay course.
The Series II clinic will build on the skills taught in the first class with an increased emphasis on time management, gun management, shot planning and strategy.
For more information on these clinics, call (440) 685-4868 or (440) 352-7843.
The ranch is located on Pennimen Road just off state Route 87 not far from the Trumbull County line.
Women in the outdoors
A Women in the Outdoors course will be offered at the Leetonia Sportsman's Club, 400 East High St., Leetonia, on July 26.
Presented by the Beaver Creek Capter of the National Wild Turkey Federation, the course offers women a chance to experience the outdoors through a series of activities such as archery, shotgun shooting, handgun practice, fishing, canoeing, orienteering and more.
The event is open to women age 14 and older. Those 14 to 17 need parental permission.
Registration for the event is $40 and includes use of all equipment, program materials, lunch, a one-year subscription to Women in the Outdoors Magazine, a visor and membership in the National Wild Turkey Federation, the sponsoring organization.
Women in the Outdoors events have been held now for four years with a mission of providing hands-on education opportunities for women.
More than 42,000 women have participated in these events nationwide.
For more information or to register for the event, call Jayne Gallagher at (330) 332-0041.
braun@vindy.com