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| WENDELL CHERRY JOINS THE BRILEY TEAM |
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Sporting clays champion Wendell Cherry, with a list of wins that is as figuratively long as a jet’s flight path, has joined the Briley team. In addition to his impressive shooting record Cherry is one of the most sought after shooting instructors on the face of the planet. His daily contact with so many shooters, at both major sporting clays events and with his shooting school students, promises to be a big bonus for Briley Manufacturing in Houston, Texas, arguably the most prominent player in the entire field of shotgunning, pistol smithing, high-tech rifles and rifle work.
Since you are on this website you no doubt already know about Briley, but the more often you visit www.briley.com the more you’re not only going to learn about this company and its many varied products, we’re going to try and help your shooting life increase in pleasure every week. This introduction of Wendell Cherry as a member of the Briley Team is the start of information that will be new virtually every week, information that’s aimed at keeping you informed about the newest, the most interesting, the most effective products and services. We want you to visit our website often. That’s why you’re going to find something new here every week. But let’s get back to Wendell Cherry. He sort of looks like Jack Armstrong, the All-American Boy of radio back in the 1940s. Most of you aren’t old enough to remember this fictitious Jack, but there are plenty of you who are aware of the name and expression. Cherry is the type of person that others can easily look up to, especially younger shooters. Clean shaven and always dressed impeccably, he’s the type of role model that parents want their kids associated with. Born in Red Boiling Springs, Tennessee, north of Nashville, Wendell grew up with a father and a grandfather that were serious about their deer hunting, their English setter pointing dogs and their “burd”, i.e. quail. This duo didn’t waste a shell on a clay target because they couldn’t eat one. By age 14 the younger Cherry had picked up a shotgun and began shooting over his own bird dog and was soon breaking trap targets at a local gun club. His first shotgun was a 12 gauge Remington 870, and he still has it. During the intervening years he became interested in waterfowl hunting as the number of bobwhite quail in north central Tennessee dwindled. One day after hunting, his bird dog in the back, he passed a sign, “Upper Cumberland Sporting Clays.” He had a box or two of upland bird shells in his vehicle, he was minimally aware of sporting at that time – 1995 – but he thought, “Why not take a look?” Wendell Cherry did take a look, loved what he saw within only a few stations, and the sporting clays bug bit deeply into his blood. |
Wendell Cherry is now being sponsored by Briley Manufacturing in Houston, Texas. His winning ways of the last several years are unmatched.  In addition to his prowess on the sporting clays course Wendell Cherry is very much in demand as a shotgunning instructor.  Next week learn from Wendell Cherry how sporting clays has changed, changed to become even more popular and more challenging – as well as the shotguns – the ones he started with, graduated to, and that he shoots now. |
| WENDELL CHERRY JOINS THE BRILEY TEAM - WEEK 2 |
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Picking up where we left off last week with Wendell Cherry, he told us, “Initially most of the clay targets thrown at sporting clays ranges were from hand cocked traps, each of them manned by an individual puller.”
These traps were only capable of throwing targets so far. Also, report pairs could not be thrown as quickly – as they can be thrown with today’s electronically operated traps. Of course, there were a few expert trappers who became quite good at minimizing the time gap between following or report pairs, but there was a lot of variation. But with modern, multi-stack machines like the Mattarelli traps from Briley there was no need for a so-called trap boy. And that person didn’t have to be protected from the shooters since no one manned these new traps. Today targets can be thrown farther, i.e. faster, and thus the game has become more difficult and thus more challenging. Also, when sporting was in its infancy the trend was to throw closer, sometimes slower targets – presented at distances ideal for open chokes. But the days of shooting 100 targets in a tournament – all with open Skeet chokes – are long gone. Today the trend is to a lot more very fast and/or very long targets. Tighter chokes, at least for a significant number of targets, are essential. As Wendell explains it, “With more distant and faster targets the time frames in which the two birds must be shot – are compressed. You just don’t have the luxury of time between shots that we once did. You not only have to plan your first shot very carefully, you also have to train yourself to set up ideally for the second bird, and there’s very little time for you to do that. This makes the planning essential, as well as carrying out what you’ve planned - to a successful ending.” Last week we promised to tell you about Wendell’s shotguns. That’s when he started with an 870 pump gun. He shot that a lot at trap, but his first real trap gun was a Beretta 682 Trap Single with 34-inch barrel. He shot that one well, but soon he took up trap doubles, so he had to have a gun that would shoot twice. He selected a used Winchester Super X Model One – a gas operated semi-auto. But after he discovered sporting clays – that meant deciding on a “specialty” gun for that sport. First he went with a Browning Citori Special Sporting – with 28-inch barrels. He shot that gun for awhile, but others were then moving to 30-inch barrels, so Wendell went for a Beretta 682 with 30-inch barrels. But shortly thereafter others were going to even longer barrels, so Cherry switched to a 682 Beretta with 32-inch tubes. His next over and under was a Renata Gamba. Finally, Perazzi came along – and he first went with a 32-inch barreled Perazzi MX2000, but for several years now he has been doing his shotgun work with a 34-inch MX2000. |
Briley is the importer of the outstanding Mattarelli traps.  |
| WENDELL CHERRY JOINS THE BRILEY TEAM - WEEK 3 |
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If you ever take a lesson from Wendell Cherry, and we certainly suggest you do, you’re going to learn that his most important mantra for shooters is that – “The eyes are controlled by the way the hands work.” He’ll show you the “why” of this within the first few shots you take with him standing behind you and watching.
Let’s see if we can get into this mantra more succinctly because it’s a new concept to many of us. What happens when the hands don’t work together – is that something negative happens to the eyes. We can’t have one hand working at a different speed than the other hand – and have the eyes working in perfect harmony with those hands. It’s only when the hands work at the same speed, in harmony, that our eyes can work in perfect conjunction with those hands. This is most apparent when shooters who don’t mount the gun before calling for the target – by the way the right hand (pistol gripping hand) works much faster than the hand on the fore-end. Sporting clays instructors are always telling their students to “slow down.” This is relatively easy to do with the hand on the fore-end. We select our break point, move the muzzle(s) two thirds of the way back to the trap (for most crossing shots), and we can maintain a lead ahead of the target to the break point. But what most of us have been programmed for all our shotgunning life is to get the darn butt stock to our shoulder first. This is where the right hand tends to over speed, accelerate faster than the hand on the fore-end. When this happens the two hands are not operating at the same speed. They are working against one another. Because they are your vision suffers. Why? The front end of the gun, controlled by your hand on the fore-end is moving at one speed. But your pistol gripping hand, in addition to pulling the butt stock to your shoulder, is also swinging the rear end of the gun with the target. When the two hands are thus not working together at the same speed your eyes lose contact with the bird. Now this is a very subtle eye thing. You don’t lose complete vision of the target, but if the hands are working against one another, the front end of the gun moving at a slightly different speed than the rear end of the gun, the eyes can’t figure out what’s going on. So – the idea is to not only go slow with the front end of the gun – the hand on the pistol grip must move just as slowly. This is why top shooters never look like they are working hard. They look like they’re almost moving in slow motion. |
Wendell Cherry shoots a Perazzi MX2000  Cherry makes certain his right hand works at the same speed as his left. This allows his hands to work in perfect conjunction with his eyes.  |
| WENDELL CHERRY JOINS THE BRILEY TEAM - WEEK 4 |
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Most sporting clays enthusiasts, at least those in the lower classes, might go out and shoot a full round of sporting – 50 to 100 targets once or twice a week – and think they are “practicing.” Shooting a full round at the sporting range is not practice at least it’s not practice that will make you a better shooter in a shorter amount of time.
How do the Master Class champions like Wendell Cherry actually practice? What they do is remarkably simple. You’ll have to get special dispensation to do this at your local club, but in many instances getting permission to do this will not be all that difficult. Start off with a crossing shot, either left to right or right to left – from a distance of about 20 yards. Pick your break point, move back two-thirds of the way to the trap or bird’s emergence point. Elbows comfortably down, relaxed grip on the gun, stare intensely for the target, and then call for the bird. With your hands working together at the same speed, smash the target at the break point. Do this over and over using the same pre-shot routine. Don’t rush between shots. After breaking 10 of these birds from 20 yards, move back to 30 yards, and do the same thing. What you’re trying to accomplish is embedding a mental picture in your brain of what crushing this target looks like – at 20 and 30 yards. There will be a difference. Take your time. Slow down. Implant the pictures in your brain. Now this is a very subtle eye thing. You don’t lose complete vision of the target, but if the hands are working against one another, the front end of the gun moving at a slightly different speed than the rear end of the gun, the eyes can’t figure out what’s going on. So – the idea is to not only go slow with the front end of the gun – the hand on the pistol grip must move just as slowly. This is why top shooters never look like they are working hard. They look like they’re almost moving in slow motion. Next it’s back to 40 yards, and as you become more accomplished try 50, even 60 yards. Before moving too far back you might want to try a crossing shot in the opposite direction – with the same deal – break 10 in a row at 20 yards, move back to 30, et cetera. With this type of practice you’re really learning something, you are blessing your brain with what to do when you see that shot anywhere in the world. There are only seven shots to practice in the manner that Wendell Cherry suggests, the right to left crosser, the left to right crosser, the quartering away left, quartering away right, quartering in left, quartering in right, and the teal. With each of these seven shots – simply start them at 20 yards – break 10 in a row – and move back 10 yards at a time. Again, any time you see any one of these targets at a new sporting course you’ll know how to shoot it – because you have shot it successfully so many times in “practice.” |
Wendell Cherry won the sporting clays event at the Browning/Briley World Open held March 29 – April 1, 2007. This ring went to Wendell, the Champion and was provided by Hinz Jewelers.  Wendell Cherry is one of the most sought after shooting instructors. He can be reached at wcherry@twlakes.net.  |