chp5 Posted March 27, 2006 Share Posted March 27, 2006 Last weekend I attended a wedding in South Caroliina. Instead of the usual golfing outing, the guys shot sporting clays the day before the ceremony I've never shot sporting clays before. In fact, I’ve never shot trap, skeet or sporting clays. My only shotgun experience is three gun matches. I used by friend’s Browning “Light Twelve.” I really liked that gun. The round was fun, but humbling. I started catching on later in the round, but only hit 51. I could see how this could be an addictive sport. I have too many hobbies . . . Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
EricW Posted March 27, 2006 Share Posted March 27, 2006 Addictive and expensive. Was yakking with one of the top guys around these parts on Saturday. 1000 rounds a week at about $55/100 with ammo just to be competitive. Nothing like a $2200/month in consumables before you buy the $20,000 shotgun and golf cart...and a single plane ticket. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bruce Posted March 27, 2006 Share Posted March 27, 2006 What EricW said. I love to shoot it, but geez, it can make a gambling habit look like a real savings plan. Buddy of mine is hooked, bad. Has sold his pistols, and high power comp stuff...and is now making his own shot??? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
EricW Posted March 27, 2006 Share Posted March 27, 2006 The only way you can shoot clays, be competitive, and not go broke is to build your own range. If you have the property, you can easily buy 10 machines and a truckload of targets and come out ahead in a few months. 7 cents a target is doable. 35 cents + is simply out of reach for everyone except at an exceptional income / sponsorship level. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AlamoShooter Posted March 27, 2006 Share Posted March 27, 2006 OK Ok now combine the handgun and the Sporting ...mix in some 22 rifle and you have the most fun with your clothes on. "Sportsman's Team Challenge" Yep Sporting Clays cost as much as playing Golf. No reasone to break in to the savings. With good instruction the learning curv can be helped alot. A good instructor will teach you how to learn from the targets and every shot. Jamie Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dan Sierpina Posted March 28, 2006 Share Posted March 28, 2006 Around here a round of Sporting Clays is normally 50 birds. Breaking 51 is amazing!!!!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tightloop Posted March 28, 2006 Share Posted March 28, 2006 Dan That was harsh....a round in Houston is 100...51 is a good score for a beginner...and like they said, 35 cents per bird is lots of $$...I don'[t shoot it as hard as I used to, but 10 yrs ago, I easily spent 20k a year going to shoots, practice, ammo, lessons...it is big dollars, but you do get a pin showing how many thousand registered targets you shot...Big Whoop...Lots of fun, but you aren't going to beat the big dawgs there either...same dozen win all the HOA...you might win your class, but it will take a lights out day due to all the sandbagging... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JD45 Posted March 28, 2006 Share Posted March 28, 2006 Ya'll need to head south. Our club charges 25.00 per 100 to non-members, and 20.00 for members. One weekend a month we have a price of 15.00 per 100 for everyone. There are ways to cut your costs. First, to win in sporting you can't miss easy targets. So, if you are trying to learn to hit a 25yd. crosser, don't go broke paying for rounds of sporting clays for training. Go to the skeet field. We charge members 2.50 per 25. One hundred practice targets for 10.00 isn't so bad. Move around on the skeet field. Back up, change angle slightly. Use it to your advantage for training. Then go pick four sporting clays stations that you need to work on and shoot 25-50 birds on each every now and then. But I have to agree. Tournament shooting is costly. Entry fees can be nuts. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AlamoShooter Posted March 28, 2006 Share Posted March 28, 2006 Dan I easily spent 20k a year going to shoots, practice, ammo, lessons...it is big dollars, but you do get a pin showing how many thousand registered targets you shot...Big Whoop...Lots of fun, Man! what we should do is put our "Pins" on Ebay what do you think a few (4,000 target) pins would bring ? Ya know that may not seam all that bad an Idea Jamie Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
uscbigdawg Posted March 28, 2006 Share Posted March 28, 2006 I started shooting Trap & Skeet more seriously when my buddy Blake was getting burned out from IPSC. We both were frankly. So we just started blasting away with the scatterguns. Needless to say, the addiction has gotten silly (especially when I picked up my Mec reloader and I'm now whoring the range for AA hulls). I had done sporting clays and am okay at it, but I'll tell what's worse than that (as for as addictive). 5 Stand. Holy crap! It's IPSC with a shotgun. Remembering what trap does what at what angle you're at relative to it. It's awesome. I think I had perma-grin for like 3 weeks after my first day (that started with only doing 3 rounds and ended being 20). SPC Richard A. White, Senior Medic 249th MP Detachment (EACF) Camp Humphreys, ROK Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chp5 Posted March 28, 2006 Author Share Posted March 28, 2006 Around here a round of Sporting Clays is normally 50 birds. Breaking 51 is amazing!!!!! Yeah - not bad for a beginner! I score clays like I score my golf game - very liberally It was a 100 round course BTW Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Irishlad Posted March 28, 2006 Share Posted March 28, 2006 For a non-shotgun shooter to hit half of the targets in sporting, that's very good IMO....trust me. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dan Sierpina Posted March 28, 2006 Share Posted March 28, 2006 Yikes! I'm sorry guys. I didn't really expect Cy's round to have been 50 birds. A friend of mine jokes about shooting 26 in a round of trap, that's why my blurb about 51 being amazing. I'm not much with a shotgun, so, I'd be happy with 51 out of 100. Dan Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
EricW Posted March 28, 2006 Share Posted March 28, 2006 It's all relative. I shot 86 on my first round of sporting clays ever. Then I went to a tournament course and broke low 60's. Then...they took the tournament course, moved all the traps out so that no bird started closer than 25 yards, cranked up the traps that the birds literally SCREAMED out of the trap (you could hear the birds clearly through your ear protection)............and..................... ....there I was talking with a gunsmith, who happened to be a really hot clays shooter about shooting at <******> the weekend before. "So, did you break 50?" Me: "Nope"' I now have INFINITELY more respect for shooters who "only" rack up a 75 at major sporting clays tournaments. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tightloop Posted March 28, 2006 Share Posted March 28, 2006 Eric I know what you mean..I can shoot during the week and average 84 or so, but when I have to shoot a tourney my average goes down to about 75...Yes, they can make a 9 bird difference in the way the traps are set, speed and angle without pushing them way back... Although I have seen 63 yard springing teal, an honest report pair at 63 and 70 yards, and chandels at 48 yards, mini pairs off a tower 90 feet in the air (they looked like BB's), settling mallards at 48 yds, they can make it almost unhitable, if they want to...If you have shot overseas, their standard setup is much harder than ours and their FITASC is really tough.... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chp5 Posted March 30, 2006 Author Share Posted March 30, 2006 (edited) EricW - 86 on your first round!! That's huge! You must be an experienced trap or skeet shooter. I shoot 3 gun, but I've never shot any trap, skeet or clays. 3 gun has mostly stationary targets and it's very different shooting than clays - at least for me. If those damn birds would just hold still, I'd hammer 'em fast Edited March 30, 2006 by chp5 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
EricW Posted March 30, 2006 Share Posted March 30, 2006 (edited) EricW - 86 on your first round!! That's huge!You must be an experienced trap or skeet shooter. I shoot 3 gun, but I've never shot any trap, skeet or clays. 3 gun has mostly stationary targets and it's very different shooting than clays - at least for me. If those damn birds would just hold still, I'd hammer 'em fast I'm a terrible clays shooter. I got very lucky on a very easy course. That's not false humility, it's the honest truth. The trick to Sporting is to see the *true leading edge* of every bird. It's not always intuitive and course designers love to use visual tricks to fool you into leading the trailing edge of the bird. One of the local masters holds his outstretched hand verticallly and uses that as a fixed point of reference to gage bird movement. It can be a very powerful technique for knowing what you need to see before you step into the stand. Edited March 30, 2006 by EricW Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dan Sierpina Posted March 30, 2006 Share Posted March 30, 2006 Eric, Easy course or not, 86 on the first try is impressive. I on the other hand really am a terrible clays shooter. For me to get 86....I'd need about 150 birds....okay..175 I guess I just can't get over the incosistent lack of follow through. Not to mention leading about double the amount I think I should. However, I do enjoy it, far more than trap. So, I'll shoot when I can, and try to pick up a few more birds. I'm like Cy, tooo darn many interests! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AlamoShooter Posted March 30, 2006 Share Posted March 30, 2006 One Mental trick for your lead on longer targets is to place the shot ahead of the clay target so that it has to 'Wait' on the target to arrive at the meeting place. = Ask the shot to arrive early. part of the game with your brain to be able to 'miss' in front of the target Jamie Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JD45 Posted March 31, 2006 Share Posted March 31, 2006 EricW, Go shoot 50 trap targets, and 50 skeet targets, and come back and tell us what you shot. That 86 is making me feel bad, even if it was easy. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AlamoShooter Posted March 31, 2006 Share Posted March 31, 2006 EricI know what you mean..I can shoot during the week and average 84 or so, but when I have to shoot a tourney my average goes down to about 75...Yes, they can make a 9 bird difference in the way the traps are set, speed and angle without pushing them way back... Although I have seen 63 yard springing teal, an honest report pair at 63 and 70 yards, and chandels at 48 yards, mini pairs off a tower 90 feet in the air (they looked like BB's), settling mallards at 48 yds, they can make it almost unhitable, if they want to...If you have shot overseas, their standard setup is much harder than ours and their FITASC is really tough.... Did You shoot Nationals is ??98 ?? the year the Targets Won not the shooters. I heard many shooters crying about it being Too hard. Now look You can go to a sporting shoot and never touch a mod choke. Jamie Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tightloop Posted March 31, 2006 Share Posted March 31, 2006 Yes, I did and that is the tourney I was speaking about...shot 63 the first day...damn...Watched Joh Kruger go 1 for 10 on the long report pair I mentioned...all I could say was WOW...I also went 1 for 10....tough day...shot 71 the next day and did not feel any better about it...finished 134 about 39th in B class. I think Scott Robertson won it with a 184 or something like that...I was only 50 birds from winning it.. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
EricW Posted March 31, 2006 Share Posted March 31, 2006 (edited) EricW, Go shoot 50 trap targets, and 50 skeet targets, and come back and tell us what you shot. That 86 is making me feel bad, even if it was easy. I don't need to. I'd be lucky to break 70. It was a VERY easy course. Lots of incomers, straightaways, and slowly floating targets. The 86 was with a pump shotgun too. The course was at a hunting club - and was designed to flatter people with very little scattergun experience (read: moi). It's also the most geologically spectacular course I've ever shot. On a true, tournament course, I literally am struggling to break 50% - which was always with the Beretta. It'll be interesting to see how I fare now that I have a gun that fits. I've got a standing invite to go shoot with one of the local hotshots, so I may have to do that soon. Anyway, my point was that your score is HIGHLY dependent on course design, so to get elated over a 86 or totally bummed over a 46 isn't really a meaningful use of emotional energy. It's all relative. Edited March 31, 2006 by EricW Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chp5 Posted March 31, 2006 Author Share Posted March 31, 2006 I forgot to mention that my mother-in-law's 70 year old boyfriend (that term seems weird for 70 year olds) beat me by 2 clays. He was shooting a pump too! I was impressed. He's hunted birds since he was 12 and has shot some trap and skeet in his time. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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