Well four "newbies" if including myself.

We went to Lehigh Valley Sporting Clays.
I've only been there once before; about five years ago.
The three other guys never shot Sporting Clays before. And either never shot a shotgun in their life, shot one once years ago, or had last shot a shotgun decades ago when he was a kid.

Over the last several years, at work, in NJ, I've been very outspoken on my pro 2A views.
And it has lead to getting more-n-more co-workers to see the light. And I've gotten a few of them to the range to shoot handguns and rifles.

A few months ago I got a few co-workers interested in the possibility of shooting Sporting Clays
But due to various responsibilities each of us had. We never found a free day; until this week.

This past Tues I once again asked everyone who was interested and who was available for this Saturday (ie yesterday).
I was able to get one current co-worker, one ex-co-worker, and brother-inlaw of the ex-co-worker.
I'm 54, co-worker is ~60, ex-co-worker and his brother inlaw are around 30.

Before planning this. I had in mind to use my Stevens SxS 12 gauge, that I inherited from dad, who may have even gotten it from his dad (my grandpa).
In the past; it was becoming difficult to break-open after shooting. So I had it repaired + cleaned a couple months ago; but had never fired it.
So on Friday I went to local gun shops to buy a backup shotgun.
And I found a newer version; but still used; of my Stevens SxS 12 gauge.

So that was our shotguns yesterday; two Stevens SxS 12 gauges.

Good thing I had bought that 2nd shotgun on Friday.
Because the repair + cleaning did not work.
Not only did was the gun still hard to break open after each shot. Have to break it open across my knee.
But now it also tended to misfire with lite primer strikes on the second shot.

So we switched to the gun I just bought on Friday.
It functioned flawlessly; at first.
After a few rounds. It too began to misfire with lite primer strikes on the second shot.
AND it's safety began to not engage when breaking open the gun.

Anyway; misfire issues aside. And even though we are horrible shots. None of us made it past the 50% hit rate.
And that was the beginner course !
I had the best hit rate of 49% and was the first to hit all six clays at a station.
The other hit rates in our group were 47%, 45%, and 35%.
We still had lots of fun.

At each station; we mostly had the clays thrown out one at a time.
But half way through the course; I started having the clays both thrown at the same time.
That lead to a couple of the other guys to try that a few times.

And I'm very happy to say. That through out the entire time.
All of these newbies followed the gun safety rules perfectly.

We are now considering doing this a couple more times before Fall.
Keeping fingers crossed that I get even more people out next time.