“Makin’ twenty the hard way” at the Glades Trail Range
One of my favorite places to enjoy a taste of the Everglades is at the “Dade Corners” intersection in Southwest Miami-Dade County. This is a big intersection connecting Krome Avenue on the South to US 41, aka Tamiami Trail, to the West, US 27 to the North, and Southwest Eighth Street aka Calle Ocho, to the East.
In the Southwest quadrant of the intersection, you’ll find a Miccosukee Indian store that sells cigarettes by bulk, devoid of federal taxes, as it’s on Indian Land. Nearby, is the infamous “Krome Detention Center” which is effectively an internment camp, for people we declare as illegal aliens.
Across Krome Avenue and in the Southeast quadrant is arguably one of the more unusual truck stops in South Florida. It’s called “Dade Corners” and, on any day, you will find a rich diversity of motorcycles, heavy rigs, airboats, all-terrain vehicles, recreational vehicles, hunters, shooters, paintball players, commuters and everyday tourists and locals filling up on diesel, gas, food or knives, CB Radios, t-shirts, biker gear and alligator memorabilia.
In the Northwest quadrant, the Miccosukee Tribe of Indians of Florida built a large, multi-story Casino, hotel and entertainment complex. A huge electronic sign welcomes you. But if you kept driving westward, a more wondrous world awaits you, and that would be via US 41 aka Tamiami Trail taking you across the Everglades past Frog City, Shark Valley, Miccosukee Indian Village, Skunk Ape Research Headquarters, Everglades City & Chokoloskee, Marco Island and then, finally, Naples.
Driving north, past the casino, US-27 would take you on a very speedy 90 mile ride past the struggling easternmost sections of the Everglades and then past the sugarcane fields, and then finally up to Lake Okechoobee and Clewiston. Remarkably, your drive would have been interrupted by only about 4 traffic signals between Dade Corners and Lake Okechoobee!
It is, however, in the Northeast quadrant though, where today’s story will unfold. It is here that the Miami-Dade County Parks and Recreation Department runs the “Glades Trail Gun Range”.
I was about fifteen or sixteen years old when my friend Brad took me here. I watched him use a twelve gauge shotgun to shoot trap. Before that point, I had never seen a real gun, never mind one held in the hands of another teenager!
About thirty-five years would pass before I would return to Tamiami and the Glades Trail Gun Range; and, this time, outfitted with my own shotgun. Remarkably, it would be that same number of years before Brad and I would be reunited again and restart our friendship – at the Glades Trail range.
It was on this particular other Saturday recently, that my very dear other friend of 35 years, David, whom I’ve always stayed in touch with, went with me to Glades Trail Range. And it was here, that I was once again reminded that old lessons are timeless and can always be re-learned.
The Glades Trail Range has three main areas. The western side is bordered by a canal. In this canal is a resident alligator. He (or she) is always there, well, at least has been for many years. Next to the canal is the “Practical Shooting” gun range where David and his cousin Donny typically practice, along with fellow club members, the fine art of unloading semi-automatic pistols very, very quickly and accurately at difficult targets – in a sporting contest where accuracy and speed is measured and recorded. I tried this sport one time myself, but the club meets at 8:00 am on Sunday’s, which is a bit sacrilegious to me; after all, I don’t get out of bed until about noon on Sundays!
David tells the story of a fellow “Practical” shooter, who, on one early Sunday morning, just last year, drove up alongside the canal towards the small building that houses the shooting set up area. As the driver continued to engage in a spirited discussion on his cell phone, he made the serious mistake of exiting the vehicle – while it was still in “Drive”. The car, unfortunately, was pointed directly towards the canal, and in seconds, rolled, quite deliberately, into the canal – where it sort of floated for a few seconds and then promptly sunk, much to the dismay (and repressed laughter) of all the shooters standing nearby! The driver was completely unharmed (other than his ego), but, the same could be not be said of his weapons and other items that sank into the dark water teeming with denizens of the Everglades.
Further east of the Practical shooting range is the 100 yard pistol and rifle shooting range; the two ranges are separated by a very high, heavily wooded berm. We often come to the pistol & rifle range for target practice with handguns and rifles. To be allowed to shoot here, the Miami-Dade County Parks and Recreation Department requires you to attend a 15 minute training session on gun and range safety. Given the rich diversity of advanced weaponry brought by Miamians to the range, I think this is probably a very good policy.
The easternmost side of the Glades Trail Range is the area reserved for shotgun play at the trap & skeet fields. It is here that “Mike” the range safety officer for the trap fields rules. “Mike” is an interesting and colorful individual. From what we’ve been told and in conversations with him, we’ve pieced together that Mike has a) been shooting at the range since 1964, b) was a national championship shooter by 1969, and, c) has been a County employee on this gun range since about 1993. If Mike gives you advice, you probably ought to take it. Mike smokes cigars, wears shorts, speaks his mind and doesn’t take flak from nobody. I would not recommend pissing off Mike, if you don’t believe me, read the article entitled, “Shooters, Beware Miami-Dade’s Trap Nazi” the Miami NewTimes blog. If you read the article, and the resulting comments on the article, I think you’ll agree that Mike is a great guy and it’s a privilege to have him coach you.
David and I joined with three other shooters on this day at Trap Field #1, and Mike was the range safety officer. Mike’s job is to assess and enforce safety and to keep score. He’s the one that presses a button that launches the clay pigeons into the sky for us to shoot at. He’ll watch what you are doing and, if he feels like it, he’ll walk up to you and give you advice on what to do in order to improve your game.
On the trap field, up to five shooters are facing north. In front of us is a small bunker or “trap house” that the clay pigeons (small clay discs) are launched from. In front of the house is, well, a scene right out of the Everglades. There’s a small pond in front of the trap house; this is where the clay pigeons fall to, either intact or blown to smithereens.
Beyond the pond are waving stands of Sawgrass and native hardwoods (joined by less desirable exotics such as cattails and melaleuca), stretching to the horizon, un-obstructed by buildings. Needless to say, I just love this view.
“Pull!”
Our first flight (a round of trap or skeet is called a “flight”), begins! We yell out “Pull!” and Mike presses a button that launched the clay pigeon. Then, you (quickly) aim your shotgun at the moving clay target, pull the trigger, and if everything is right, the flying clay disk will be torn apart, mid-flight by small lead pellets, propelled at about 1300 feet-per-second by your shotgun.
After you shoot, the next player will shoot and so on. All, in all, each shooter will have had the opportunity to shoot at twenty-five clay pigeons during the course of play. Scoring is simple: how many clay pigeons did you hit out of 25? A perfect score is “25”; the only person I personally ever witnessed to shoot a perfect 25 was my youngest son, Justin. In the past three years of play, he did this once. It’s equivalent to bowling a 300, albeit using much smaller “balls”.
On this particular day, on the game, I miss a few and score in the low 20’s. David, being a newer player to the game, scores admirably in the mid teens.
Now, it’s time for the next flight. Unlike the first game, David and I are side-by-side, he begins play at station #4, and I begin at station #5.
“Pull!”
The 1st player yells “Pull!” and shoots, then the 2nd player, then the 3rd, and finally, the 4th shooter, David, yells “Pull!” He fires, but misses his first shot.
“Pull!” I fire, and, I too, miss my 1st shot.
For the next four rounds I consecutively miss the shot. I miss each and every one. I am, in effect, “oh-for-twenty-five”. I look at Mike. He looks at me and just shakes his head, like, “man, doing really great there, buddy!” David doesn’t even want to look at me, as he’s probably thinking, “Jeez, Wayne’s really screwing up today!”
And this is the ancient lesson. Past performance does not guarantee future performance.
When my 6th turn came up, I yelled, “Pull!”, aimed the gun onto the target, pulled the trigger, and unlike the prior five attempts, this time, I hit the target.
I did this again, consecutively, nineteen more times – never missing! When the game was over, I was the top shooter; having hit 20 of 25 targets. Mike strolled up to me and said, “Man, that is makin’ twenty the hard way!” Mike, David and I all chuckled and breathed in the good times of days well spent.
It was indeed the “hard way” to get to twenty! But, it got me to thinking. How often do situations arise where we fail at something and instead of being determined to overcome, we instead become demoralized? The lesson learned, and one often forgotten, is to turn your focus away from the shock of failure and instead turn the focus onto the immediate task at hand. It may not be easy, but, it’s how you can make twenty – the hard way.
