Trap/Skeet Shooter Numbers

I started trap shooting about three years ago, and it has been an awesome experience thanks to the "regulars" and staff at my club (MDRGC). Great advice, help, and encouragement have guided me through bad technique, wrong choice of gun, ammo, and many other bonehead rookie mistakes.
"If you can't hit it with 440 pellets, what are you doing!??" (lol)
Now I'm completely hooked on beraking clays, and proud to be a member!
 
Our numbers have been stable this year, however our shoots have been more successful than in previous years. Guest numbers are up slightly over last year. They are never where I would like to see them but at least they are still going in the right direction.
 
I would say numbers at most clubs I shoot at are about the same. But the pal and hunting courses seems to fill up fast. Interest must be there. This is a expensive hobby, for a young guy with family and a mortgage. I had to give up clays for a while when kids were young bills were high. Now kids are gone. I changed all the locks on the doors, getting ready for retirement. I shoot at least 100 rounds a week
 
Kenny said:
I would say numbers at most clubs I shoot at are about the same. But the pal and hunting courses seems to fill up fast. Interest must be there. This is a expensive hobby, for a young guy with family and a mortgage. I had to give up clays for a while when kids were young bills were high. Now kids are gone. I changed all the locks on the doors, getting ready for retirement. I shoot at least 100 rounds a week
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Yes the PAL courses are full, but at the ranges that I shoot at. the largest number of new shooters, are the ones shooting ARs, SKSs, and handguns. Next would be long range rifles, and then tactical shotguns. The numbers of new shooters choosing trap and skeet are the smallest group by far.
 
When I teach a PAL course and ask what firearms people are interested in, only about 1 in 10 say they're taking the course to shoot skeet/trap/sporting clays. Most are looking to do IPSC/IDPA or rifle shooting.

On the American sites most people are saying numbers are down in the past several years.
 
My buds would rather play John Wick or sniper then come out and actually shoot trap or skeet, they can how ever be convinced to shoot sporting clays. Going to a 3-day trap shoot is expensive it’s about like grabbing a cooper rifle and throwing it over the trap house at the end of a weekend. Its easier for a new shooter to be less embarrassed at sporting clays then the other two games unfortunately they seem to think old shooters actually care about new shooters scores.

Not a lot of 18-30 year old’s shooting much trap competitively it is how ever live and well and a very enjoyable sport I would encourage anyone to give it an honest effort and stick with it.



We need to look to at what sporting clays is doing with promotions. Scott is a fine premotor


This one of the better looks at what a big trap shoot is like wouldn't surprise me if Bill had a little help from Scott.
 
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We had a successful year at my university. Definitely seeing growth and more interest, to the point where we plan on having independent skeet and trap teams.

We plan on hosting more events this coming year to get new people out to the range to try it and see what it's all about. We did one last year that ended up being great fun for everyone.
 
Alon said:
As a younger shooter myself, I coughed up $2800 on a Beretta 686 Silver Pigeon, then it's a 1.5 hour drive (gas), ammo (if on special) is $79 for 250 shells on a good day, a single round (25 shells) is $8 at the Oshawa Skeet and Trap club... So for a lot of younger shooters, the cost of shooting really puts a dent on the wallet.
This sport is a pleasure to experience, however.
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Shooting can be prohibitively expensive for many youngsters and their parents. The Mossleigh club is fortunate to have some sponsors who help out with the junior program every year, therefore we're able to supply some ammo or targets as well as shooting vests and protective eye wear to help ease the pain for the parents. We do ask that the kids do some sort of work in exchange for that such as clean up at shoots etc. The work doesn't hurt them either. It's also worthy to note that some of our juniors and former juniors have done very well at the provincial trap meets.
We've also had the same guy running the junior program for about 7 years and he puts in a lot of time at it and his efforts are largely to credit for the success of the program. It's always the same with any volunteer organization, a handful of folks do all the work and the bulk of the members come out, shoot and leave a mess for the volunteers to clean up as if it's their god given right. The parents of the juniors are lobbied to donate a bit of time as well but the majority of them don't want to be involved any more than driving their kids to and from, kinda sad really. At the end of the day, the only way this sport continues is to get young people interested in shooting. Most will stop as they enter college or get married and have kids but hopefully some day a few of them will remember how much fun they had and come back to it.
 
My first experience with club shooting was when I was x years old in the seventies. I had just bought a brand spanking new BL3 from an after school job at a gun shop.
A very nice gentleman introduced me to trap at a gun club on the west end of Sherwood Park. No instruction, shot shells that went 1400 fps that severely beat my shoulder , and a gun that did not fit me every way to hell. And a bunch of geezers on the trap line that looked at me like I was a POS!! What at horrible experience. Now that I am a geezer I went to the relocated range on a couple of Sundays. I sat and watched. Nothing has changed.
That is why golf clubs win and gun clubs loose in dollars to operate a business.


I now shoot clays at Poverty Acres Sporting Clays.
 
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bluelynx said:
My first experience with club shooting was when I was x years old in the seventies. I had just bought a brand spanking new BL3 from an after school job at a gun shop.
A very nice gentleman introduced me to trap at a gun club on the west end of Sherwood Park. No instruction, shot shells that went 1400 fps that severely beat my shoulder , and a gun that did not fit me every way to hell. And a bunch of geezers on the trap line that looked at me like I was a POS!! What at horrible experience. Now that I am a geezer I went to the relocated range on a couple of Sundays. I sat and watched. Nothing has changed.
That is why golf clubs win and gun clubs loose in dollars to operate a business.


I now shoot clays at Poverty Acres Sporting Clays.
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Wow, what a horrible experience!
I think that if your seeing the same thing happening at trap ranges these days then your visiting the wrong trap ranges because I don't see that happening anywhere I go. I mean, there are still lots of old grouchy guys shooting trap but most clubs have some people that only want to make your experience better and get more people involved.
And "Poverty Acres Sporting Clays"? I can't tell if your joking or not.
 
Falconflyer said:
Wow, what a horrible experience!
I think that if your seeing the same thing happening at trap ranges these days then your visiting the wrong trap ranges because I don't see that happening anywhere I go. I mean, there are still lots of old grouchy guys shooting trap but most clubs have some people that only want to make your experience better and get more people involved.
And "Poverty Acres Sporting Clays"? I can't tell if your joking or not.
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We had a husband and wife show up to try skeet last night. This morning the wife sent me a message telling us what a great time they had, and how welcome they were made to feel by the members.
 
Had a batchelor party out shooting trap this afternoon. A bunch of guys that had never shot trap before. They were going to play golf but they figured this way if they missed at least they were still shooting guns. Everybody had a blast and might have a few new members. They thought it would be expensive until I pointed out the price of the other "manly" pursuits, golf, hockey, skiing, motorcycles and of course, fast cars.
 
bdft said:
Had a batchelor party out shooting trap this afternoon. A bunch of guys that had never shot trap before. They were going to play golf but they figured this way if they missed at least they were still shooting guns. Everybody had a blast and might have a few new members. They thought it would be expensive until I pointed out the price of the other "manly" pursuits, golf, hockey, skiing, motorcycles and of course, fast cars.
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You missed "women" in your list of expensive manly pursuits.
 
I love dealing guests & groups, they are out for a whole different reason than those of us who are competitive are. Some are there to have fun and bust a few birds, the score doesn't really concern them, some are there to hone their skills for bird season, all we have to do is treat them nice, feed them targets and help where they want it. Sometimes they even come back and become members. Bachelor/bachelorette parties and youth groups are the best to deal with.
 
Falconflyer said:
Wow, what a horrible experience!
I think that if your seeing the same thing happening at trap ranges these days then your visiting the wrong trap ranges because I don't see that happening anywhere I go. I mean, there are still lots of old grouchy guys shooting trap but most clubs have some people that only want to make your experience better and get more people involved.
And "Poverty Acres Sporting Clays"? I can't tell if your joking or not.
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Instant success rarely comes fast at shooting meeting new people is much the same. It takes an honest effort with dedication.
 
Maritime Storm said:
I love dealing guests & groups, they are out for a whole different reason than those of us who are competitive are. Some are there to have fun and bust a few birds, the score doesn't really concern them, some are there to hone their skills for bird season, all we have to do is treat them nice, feed them targets and help where they want it. Sometimes they even come back and become members. Bachelor/bachelorette parties and youth groups are the best to deal with.
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The couple that I had out for skeet, are members of our local NAVHDA chapter. We have several members that purchased hunting dogs, but that have no real hunting background, so they want help getting set up with a gun, and with their shooting. Some of our members didn't even own any firearms or have a PAL, when they got their pup. Being able to try the club members firearms before they purchase their own, is another benefit for these people to come out.
 
I run the the skeet in Chatham,Ontario. My club is the Kent Cloverleaf. I have had a big drop in Shooters this summer.I rarely have new shooters that are under thirty let alone kids.We are a small club,but I used to have 2 or 3 squads. I also used to get a lot more people wanting to try skeet for the first time.I try to be welcoming and make it fun. Even my regulars are getting older and starting to get health problems.It is sad. The sport is expensive.
 
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