Father-Son Project

Sporting Clays is sometimes described as "Golf with a shotgun"  And the analogy is apt in many ways.

Both events are something of an endurance race.  It's not just the ability to hit the targets, one has to carry the gear while walking the course.  And always in the heat!

A first step to alleviating the load is carrying the gear in a hand cart instead of over the shoulder.  (The ultimate is a motorized cart but that's beyond...}

Commercial carts are available but run about $300.

The SandCastle Queen was out shopping at a local goodwill "just to get out of the house" and spotted an old "jog behind stroller" for an Andrew Jackson.  I said "Buy It!"

So the weekend task for the SandCastle Son and your humble host was to transform this:

a "jog behind" stroller into this: A shot gun roller.

Carries 4 shotties and plenty of room for a cooler & shells.  We even added cup holders after this shot was taken.  It even folds in half for transport (stay tuned for folded pic).

Total all up cost (including the drink holders), around $50 (tax included).

But my real motive for tackling this project was to teach the SCSon to use power tools safely: eye protection, and never let go of the work piece (or clamp it to the table)!  He fabbed the bottom rest which required trimming with a power saw and notching with a hole saw on the drill press.  Also drilling holes in the PVC caps and laying them out on the final piece.

I took wood working and metal working in 7th & 8th grade, plastics in HS and welding in Jr college.   The SCSon's HS doesn't have any kind of industrial arts on site!  If you want to learn those skills you have to go to a different school for those classes.  This was a huge shock to me.  What a disappointment.   These are valuable life skills no matter whether you intend to make a profession or not!   My HS had wood, metal, plastic and auto shops!  Seems someone today sees different.

I re-installed the "baby seat" for storage.  We may design and sew a new storage area in the future, but this will do for now.

Bonus: the SCSon learned to adjust a bicycle brake!  Yet another skill we learned by age 12 in the day but now.. not so much.

The hard part was finding the stroller at a reasonable price.  New, they are $300 easy.  Used they typically run $75+.  This has some corrosion which knocked the price down.  So far the tires hold air but even if we have to replace tubes, we'll still have a nice cart for far less than a C-note.  And hopefully the SCSon's power tool lessons will last a life time.

And many years down the road he will remember building this cart with dad.   *priceless*

I can only hope.

Happy flag day.  We flew ours, did you?