12 Volt Clay Target Throwers?

[EricW]

What's the best, portable, 12VDC clay target thrower out there?

Looking to pick up one or two to go set my own sporting clays on some BLM land.

[swede]

Eric,

My buddy bought the $500 "Outdoors Do-All thrower" from Cabella's. The first one worked fine for a few hours, and then promptly began shattering every pigeon we attempted to throw. He had to deal with the manufacturer on this, as they are shipped directly from them. The service was excellent, and they sent him a brand new unit even before he returned the old one. When he got the new one, same problem. After many hours of tweaking and diappointment, we discovered the throwing arm needed to be bent to a precise angle to work properly. It's worked almost flawlessly for thousands of pigeons. I'd stick as close to the $1000 range as possible to avoid aggrevation. Cabella's sells the Atlas thrower for $800, and while I haven't tried it, it looks a lot better designed in the launch pad area than the Do-All. Hopefully someone will reply with better info on throwers they have, I just wanted to alert you to problems with the lower end 12V units.

p.s. If you decide you want to try the Do-All or something similar and tweak it yourself, I think the last time I checked Cheaper Than Dirt, they had them for $400.

Swede

[AlamoShooter]

Cheep is no bargain, We use mostly the Laport traps. The controler/sercit bourd for the relay is the part of our probelm now.

[LPatterson]

Eric, we had a Doctor that came to the skeet club with a pair on wheels that were voice call activated but he has moved so I can't go look. I would recommend you go the the nearest sporting clays field and ask around.

[Jim Norman]

I have a Do-All electric thrower. So far it has worked great. EXCEPT for the last time out. Then it broke eery bird, UNTIL I bent the arm a bit. The arm on my unit is laminated and has separated. I Plan on putting a piece of vynil tube ofer the leading edge of the arm. It looks like this has been don on the newer units.

Next step is to build alow cart so I can move it around easier.

Jim

[P.E. Kelley]

http://www.cabelas.com/spod-1/0018843.shtml

My research and my money would go to the Atlas brand machines.

Got some of the locals interested in 5 stand that we have cobbled together using

the skeet houses one trap house and two Lincoln manual traps. Will probably

spring for the Atlas unit/s this fall.

Patrick

[Tangram]

Will any of the traps throw rabbit, teal, or chondelle presentations? Switch easily between battue, midi, or mini targets. Wobble? Pairs? I suspect the answer is no. However if the trap works the more flexibility the better. We get a lot of practice from a less flexible combination of manual and very basic electric but I wish I had though a little more deeply before I went "inexpensive."

No recommendation implied:

http://www.championtarget.com/products/tra...canSporter.aspx

http://www.championtarget.com/products/tra...80_Sporter.aspx

[TwoShot]

If you want something that will last and work every time, look at the Lincoln Traps. I was lead shotgun instructor for the National 4-H Shooting Sports program for many years. We used alot of manual and a few auto's. Lincolns's aren't cheap but they are worth every penny. Do a web search on Lincoln Traps.

AS2002-320

Infinity Automatic Sporter Automatic clay pigeon trap machine with 320 target capacity and stainless steel magazine plate, launch plate and drop pad $2,620.00 retail

[Doggorloader]

Eric:

Our club is on the final stages of converting from a mix of manual and auto's to a complete auto trap course complete with counter/controllers to the tune of $50K plus.

I have been in charge of calling/researching/quoting/whatever for over 6 months. The general overall feeling among the top clubs is that you can't beat Lincoln both for quality and their excellent service. We are about to purchase 18 of them. They are available in that quantity for $2227 each. It is possible that we could piggy back extra traps on to the order and drop ship them at that price from the factory to you which is quantity discounted if you were interested.

We also will have at least 3 Promatic traps for sale when this goes thru at a fraction of new cost. They are the "Junior" models which are 90 target single stackers. They are at work every week at our club now we are just sick of restocking them (as in getting teen age trappers to do it).

I also know from my research of at least 3 clubs that are buying new Lincoln's now and have their old (3 year old) one's for sale at what I believe was in the $1200 range each.

We looked very hard at that option two before going for the new one's. Let me know if you want contact names. I still have them.

Tom

[Jim Norman]

I suppose what matters here is how much you will use the thrower and how much you can afford to spend.

I have a Do-All thrower. Not perfect. The arm is a laminated piece and in my unit it separated. I have glued it back together and added a piece of vynil tubing to the front edge.

The big improvement was to take the legs off and build a small frame with wheels so that I can roll the unit around on the shotgun field. Next step is an adjustable handle that will allow me to elevate or depress the angle of launch without tools. This will also incorporate a rack to wrap up the cords on. I may get really crazy and see if I can put together a radio remote so I don't need the cords.

The next unit up the line, the Atlas costs nearly twice what I paid. I would certainly consider it if I were doing this again, but not without firsthand knowledge. I want to see it work!

I had the same problem with shattering the birds. I fixed the arm and added the vynil tube. The only problem I have now is the last bird desn't always drop down. I can live with that. I am looking at doubling the magazine capacity. Looks like Do-All offers this as an option now, they also have a "wobbler" available. I like the idea, but not sure I want to spend the bucks.

Jim

[RiggerJJ]

anyone have any leads/recommendations on a MANUAL rabbit thrower?

thanks!

jj

[EricW]

OK, back from the dead.

Anyone else have some trigger time behind an Atlas trap? I'm down to either an Atlas or a Promatic. I know that Promatic is a great machine, maybe way better than the Atlas, but there's a lot of ticks against it just comparing apples to apples. The shipping costs are much more, the recycle time is more, the warranty is 1/5 of Atlas (5 years vs. 1). Then there's the issue of Atlas being pretty much an off the shelf trap where the Promatic is not. I know that the Promatic will do a lot better with cold, wet targets, but I don't *think* that I'm going to be leaving the trap outside. Most likely, it will get trailed somewhere, then stored inside somewhere cozy.

I do know that the Atlas traps tend to throw a lot of broken birds, whereas the old Westerns at the skeet range virtually *never* throw a broken bird - so there's something to be said for buying something built like a tank.

The final upshot with the Atlas is that I can buy from Cabelas locally, who has a great return policy if it turns out to be a fiasco.

I'm hoping the trap/skeet club will let me store/use them at their range in exchange for letting select members practice with them. We'll see...

[sandrooney]

My WheelyBird works great. Mine has a remote control with an adjustable delay.