Sporting Clays

[t.r.]

This afternoon was an all expense paid outing for two of us to represent our employer at an informal shooting event. I was a bit nervous before the event since I've NEVER shot sporting clays before and I do not own a 12 gauge automatic nor over and under shotgun. I brought my older Western Field pump action and two choke tubes: MOD and IMP CYL.

The course of fire was 100 shots at 17 stations. Of the hundred or so shooters, I was the only guy with a pump action shotgun! Yet I shot a 42 score which was better than my co-workers score of 27 and he had a spendy Browning over and under with special choke tubes. So I feel pretty good about my score. The pump action is fast and reliable but slows pointing for the second shot. So it goes.

My shotgun has a slip on LimbSaver recoil pad that made the shooting quite comfortable, indeed.

One of the guys had a really ugly shotgun: a square backed Browning automatic with huge poly-choke on the muzzle end. But he shot quite well with it. Just goes to show that looks are not everything! Some of the guys had really fancy guns with gold line engraving and select walnut stocks. Not my choice in guns but somebody likes 'em.

I'll probably shoot another round of this sport before the summer's end with my Western Field (Mossberg). I had a great time today!

Anybody else ever try sporting clays?

TR

[6pt-sika]

Glad you liked Sporting Clays !

I like shooting it a couple times a year as well . Especially the rabbit targets !

Sporting can be a tough pill to swallow for some , especially if they had a past filled with ALOT of skeet or trap . Shooting Sporting and getting a decent score of say 70-80 or so out of 100 is hard to swallow for a seasoned skeet or trap shooter thats used to going 100 straight .

When I shot competitively I used golf as a way to blow off steam , then later I started shooting Sporting some to blow off steam as well .

Now I enjoy it quite a bit as long as I do it in moderation .

Hope you continue to shoot Sporting and enjoy it !

[TedH]

That's pretty respectable for your first time out. I shot weekly on a league for a while, it's definitely one of those things that can get addicting. First round I shot, I had a score about like yours, something in the mid 40's. By the time I got out of it, I was mid 80's. Too many other shooting sports interested me, and I haven't shot sporting clays for several years now.

[RIHMFIRE]

that sport can be addictive...and a bit expensive too...
but i love it...

the thing that suprises me is the 17 stations...6 shots per station...
which is not a good coarse for the beginner....
not enough shots per station to learn anything.
The most stations I have seen is 14....but to me the max should be 10 to 12 stations..

glad you had a good time...

and using a pump is real challenge....

back in the day, i shot a few tourneys with world class shooters.....
unbelievable what those guys can do with a shotgun..
these guy would shoot more in one day than most do all year...

[Blaine]

I haven't done that for a long time....I seem to be good at the short, snap shot/rabbits, but the high ones needing a proper lead not so much I can usually get about 55 or so....it's great fun, even though I use the "wrong shotgun" according to the clay snobs.. (a 12 Baikal SxS) Wait till the next time when I show up with the 20ga Hammer Overland SxS

[Gunnin'Wreck]

Sporting clays are a blast to shoot. Your starting score was quite respectable. Listening to you talk about having a great time missing more than you hit was very refreshing. That was the way it was when the game first came to this country.

Then the scores became more important than the game.As someone posted earlier, the scores in sporting clays bruise the egos of trap and skeet shooters mightily. Don't get me wrong, I shot trap for quite a while competitively, and enjoyed it immensely. Unfortunately, the bruised egos forced changes in the game of sporting clays as it is shot in the U.S. Most of the world competes under F.I.T.A.S.C. rules, which are much more demanding. The U.S. version has been made much easier so that the scores shot in events now are much higher than they were when the sport first became popular. Let me give a few examples:

- Originally you had to start with a "low gun" (top of buttstock had to be below the top of the hip). Now you start with the gun fully mounted.

- Under the old rules the target could come out up to 3 seconds after the shooter called for it. Now it comes out on command.

- Years ago, the courses were laid out to make the shooting scenarios different and difficult.

- The number of different types of targets (bigger, smaller, flatter), made distance judgement much more difficult. Most layouts now only have a couple of different targets (rabbits and standard). The mini, midi, and battue targets have become increasingly rare.

- In those days even the shooting platforms were unstable (boat on springs, etc.)

- Further diversity was inserted into the game through having to shoot singles, reverse pairs, flurries, poison birds, etc.). Most courses just have you shoot the same two pairs over and over.

The complaints about the courses being "unfair" poured in, and the game was dummied down to raise the scores. The situation went from being very competitive if you could shoot in the 80's, to where 95 might get you honorable mention in a medium size shoot.

In my view, it is a real shame. Sporting clays was truly a challenging game that simulated hunting as well as any game I have seen when it started out in this country. It still is in those countries that shoot under the international rules. The rest of the world seems to be secure enough to engage in much more challenging games than Americans. I have never understood this, especially from a country that regularly produces more and better shooters than any other nation in the world. We seem to do this with all our shotgun games, just compare the international versions of skeet and trap to the American equivalents. I do not know for sure if the rifle and handgun disciplines suffer from the same thing, but I suspect they do (witness the lowering of the power floor in IPSC competition).

Maybe folks on this site could provide insight into why this is, I surely do not understand it.

[6pt-sika]

I haven't done that for a long time....I seem to be good at the short, snap shot/rabbits, but the high ones needing a proper lead not so much I can usually get about 55 or so....it's great fun, even though I use the "wrong shotgun" according to the clay snobs.. (a 12 Baikal SxS) Wait till the next time when I show up with the 20ga Hammer Overland SxS

The place I go to has a NSCA shoot every month , but those that don't wanna shoot registered can shoot as well . Anyway I went to one last year and took my old W&C Scott damascus SxS 10 gauge 2 7/8" gun . Shot the whole course with my usual upper 70's low 80's score . Walked off and the guy that owns the place asked me about my gun (now I wasn't shooting for the prize etc) and he about had a cow when he figured out it was a 10 gauge . But not because he thought I was cheating (which I wasn't) . But rather because the board of supervisors in his county only gave him an allowance for 12 gauge or smaller . Now when i go there I take a 12 or 16 ! Wish I still had my Krieghoff K-32 that would be more better !

Incidently I have a friend thats a pretty decent Sporting shooter . sometimes when he goes with us he takes a little old Citori 410 . I've seen him hit the ground all around a rabbit target and knock it over without breaking it with that 410 LOL's !

[stew71]

Anybody else ever try sporting clays?

TR

Sporting clays is my crack cocaine of the shotgun sports. I can easily spend more time on the range than my wallet will allow. It was also the perfect excuse to buy my Ruger O/U and a pristine Browning A-5.

"But honey, I can also use these on the clays range AND in the field...."