Life, What the hell is going on?

One of the things I've always wanted to try ever since seeing it demonstrated at a country fair when I was about five is skeet shooting.

Now that I actually own a shotgun, I found myself thinking "Why Not?"

Unfortunately, shotguns come in all shapes and sizes and I had no idea if my Mossberg would work for shooting skeet. You see, my shotgun is essentially a riot gun. A short 20" barrel with no choke whatsoever. It's a shotgun designed for defense, meaning it's set up to hit a man-sized target at no further than 25-30 yards. There's no point going to a shotgun range and shooting at skeet if the shot is going to have spread out too much by the time it gets to the clay.

I did a lot of research and found myself more confused than ever. In the end I bit the bullet and registered for a shooting forum and just asked whether my shotgun set up the way it is would be any use for a beginner wanting to try out the sport.

I'll be completely honest and say that I didn't expect much.

You see, over my lifetime I've joined probably well over a hundred forums on various topics from computers to antique books. Every single time I've asked a question I've gotten one or more of the following replies:

1. A reponse basically laughing at me for asking such a 'stupid' question.
   
2. A flame telling me to use the search function, despite the fact I spent an hour doing just that and didn't find anything.
   
3. A 'my dick's bigger than your dick' response (OMG, you're running an X100? ROFL Get a real doohickey like my X9000, it only costs infinity dollars).
   
4. Some anal retentive asshole telling me my post should be in a different forum, because my question about Shakespeare should be in Old English Playwrights, not Old English Authors or Old English Writers.
   
5. Multiple responses from idiots who have no clue what they're talking about and only write posts because everyone in their real lives learned to ignore them long ago. (A Katana can cut through a freaking tank, I saw it on Inuyasha!)
   
6. A response from the local drama queen who takes every single post, no matter how simple and innocuous they are, and claims they're racist, sexist, ageist or a personal attack on him or her.
   

Anyway, I went to the shotgunworld.com forums, put in my question, said I understood that my Mossberg isn't the perfect skeet gun, or even a very good skeet gun. I just asked whether it would 'do' for a newbie wanting to try out skeet shooting to see if I like it before spending any real money on a good skeet gun.

A day later I braced myself and logged back in.

I was honestly shocked. I'd gotten six responses and they were all intelligently written, polite, informative and useful.

Aren't hunters and gun owners supposed to be violent redneck racists? It honestly makes me laugh a little that a group of people who are so vilified by so many people are polite and helpful, when so many other groups that are supposed to be intelligent and open minded turn everything into a pissing contest.