Sporting clays with pump Action?.

I don't understand the issue people have with pumps. How do you forget to rack it? I have never owned a pump and immediately after pulling the trigger I am already pumping it, I can easily shoot doubles with a pump. Personally I wouldn't choose to use one but its not that hard.
 
I don't understand the issue people have with pumps. How do you forget to rack it? I have never owned a pump and immediately after pulling the trigger I am already pumping it, I can easily shoot doubles with a pump. Personally I wouldn't choose to use one but its not that hard.

I shoot sporting clays for 5 years with a pump , can easily hit 70% with it... however i never tried a o/u or semi auto so i cant tell if its easier
 
I don't understand the issue people have with pumps. How do you forget to rack it? I have never owned a pump and immediately after pulling the trigger I am already pumping it, I can easily shoot doubles with a pump. Personally I wouldn't choose to use one but its not that hard.
I have that problem ,forgetting to pump. It would likely go away if I shot pump all the time. Shoot most with o/u. Sometimes as a group we take pumps just for a laugh. One guy that shoots in our group shoots just about as well with pump as o/u. However I don't
 
although i bring semis, o/us and pump guns to the range, i usually shoot clays, skeet and 5 stand with a few old mag fed bolt action stevens/savages


I am that guy at my club

im going to give this a try once the trap range opens up here got a bunch of challenger target loads looking to be turned into empty hulls
 
A good shooter with a well tuned model twelve can be very competitive it is second nature to them. A poor shooter won't score well with any gun I witnessed a guy with a $20.000 Beretta strut around saying how he liked to intimated shooters with his expensive gun then he got his butt get kicked by a kid with $300 Mossberg pump gun.
 
Many years ago 30 +, I was a young fellow. I only owned one gun. 870 Wing, 1953 DOM. It was my waterfowl, upland, rabbit, deer, and backyard critters gun. It racked up many miles. A buddy of mine convinced me to come to his club for the Sunday fun shoot. Showed up with my 1992 Tercel to a parking lot full of fancy stuff in the yard, and guys wearing vests, boots, gloves and funny hats. All their guns came in shiny leather briefcases, covered in felt and brass. I yanked off the old mud covered sleeve, and propped up the ole Wing, with a proud polychoke, upon the rack. NO ####, time stopped. I seen dudes swing their necks round like an owl, one old British gent even cross himself. Apparently shorts and sandals are not the shooting togs of choice, however they did let me shoot. Now just to be straight, I am not a rock star shot, I have always been a strong 60% plus shooter, BUT that day the moons were lined up, the horseshoe was chaffing bad, but every thing turned to dust for me, I know, I still don't believe it. If you think them old dudes scorned and looked down on the fat kid with a pump gun, by the end of the round, they full on hated me.... I accepted my coffee cup and hat for Top Guest Score, and only one guy clapped. So yes, you can totally shoot sporting clays/trap, skeet with a pump...
 
A good shooter with a well tuned model twelve can be very competitive it is second nature to them. A poor shooter won't score well with any gun I witnessed a guy with a $20.000 Beretta strut around saying how he liked to intimated shooters with his expensive gun then he got his butt get kicked by a kid with $300 Mossberg pump gun.

same with camera or any other tools. a tool is a tool: the end user makes the differences.
 
As far as targets I started in 66 with 870 wingmaster pumps in 12 and 20ga for trap and skeet. In 69?? added a 28ga and 410 matched set so was shooting them in the 4 gauges then. Put them away for the semi's, O/U 's for many many years
My guess 25 years ago returned back to them exact same guns and never looked back. Way more fun when not shooting serious a pump is and yes I am not as good as I was but not bad LOL
I remember watching guys back in the day with their model 31's and model 12's in awe thinking man can they ever shoot a pump. It was a pleasure to watch
Been a lot if years since I witnessed that again. Many today think they are great with them but not even close and how can they be many of these guys were putting 15-25,000 rounds though them a year
Take care
 
I have been taking my autos to the clay course, exactly for the reasons stated, good practice with my preferred hunting gun. The only thing I notice, is the ejected shells travel quite a distance. I know many people are more a#al about the "proper etiquette" at the line and feel a little guilty about the shells interfering with their game. I am considering taking some pumps out just because I have more control over the ejection, and in my mind controlled ejection would make me more neighborly.

How would shells ejected from a shotgun pump or otherwise interfere on a spring clays course? It's one shooter at a time?
 
Many years ago 30 +, I was a young fellow. I only owned one gun. 870 Wing, 1953 DOM. It was my waterfowl, upland, rabbit, deer, and backyard critters gun. It racked up many miles. A buddy of mine convinced me to come to his club for the Sunday fun shoot. Showed up with my 1992 Tercel to a parking lot full of fancy stuff in the yard, and guys wearing vests, boots, gloves and funny hats. All their guns came in shiny leather briefcases, covered in felt and brass. I yanked off the old mud covered sleeve, and propped up the ole Wing, with a proud polychoke, upon the rack. NO ####, time stopped. I seen dudes swing their necks round like an owl, one old British gent even cross himself. Apparently shorts and sandals are not the shooting togs of choice, however they did let me shoot. Now just to be straight, I am not a rock star shot, I have always been a strong 60% plus shooter, BUT that day the moons were lined up, the horseshoe was chaffing bad, but every thing turned to dust for me, I know, I still don't believe it. If you think them old dudes scorned and looked down on the fat kid with a pump gun, by the end of the round, they full on hated me.... I accepted my coffee cup and hat for Top Guest Score, and only one guy clapped. So yes, you can totally shoot sporting clays/trap, skeet with a pump...

Are you the guy who wrote the mall ninja series, great bit of reading, same style as this.
 
Many years ago 30 +, I was a young fellow. I only owned one gun. 870 Wing, 1953 DOM. It was my waterfowl, upland, rabbit, deer, and backyard critters gun. It racked up many miles. A buddy of mine convinced me to come to his club for the Sunday fun shoot. Showed up with my 1992 Tercel to a parking lot full of fancy stuff in the yard, and guys wearing vests, boots, gloves and funny hats. All their guns came in shiny leather briefcases, covered in felt and brass. I yanked off the old mud covered sleeve, and propped up the ole Wing, with a proud polychoke, upon the rack. NO ####, time stopped. I seen dudes swing their necks round like an owl, one old British gent even cross himself. Apparently shorts and sandals are not the shooting togs of choice, however they did let me shoot. Now just to be straight, I am not a rock star shot, I have always been a strong 60% plus shooter, BUT that day the moons were lined up, the horseshoe was chaffing bad, but every thing turned to dust for me, I know, I still don't believe it. If you think them old dudes scorned and looked down on the fat kid with a pump gun, by the end of the round, they full on hated me.... I accepted my coffee cup and hat for Top Guest Score, and only one guy clapped. So yes, you can totally shoot sporting clays/trap, skeet with a pump...
What club was this? I have never experienced anything like that at a sporting clays shoot. People are very friendly for the most part and care very little what you shoot, just that you keep the action open when not loaded. If a guy shoots well with a pump, there would be compliments all around and lots of back slapping. I’ve shot my 16ga model 12 a few times and people congratulate me for getting it out for a round.
 
I love shooting my pump guns for skeet and sporting clays. Relative to my O/Us, I don’t find my wingmaster to be much of a disadvantage at all. The most important fundamentals are all the same: break point, hold point, eye position, eye focus....breath, call, move + mount, smash!, PUMP and look, move, smash!

The only extra step is the pump...I need to get all the other steps right for it to go well and I find the pump almost looks after itself relative to all the other stuff.

Good luck!

Brobee
 
I suppose there could be a slight advantage depending on the target presentation in having two barrels and two distinctly different chokes. That, and a pump requires the shooter to cycle an action with the forward grip of the gun throwing off the sight picture...that’s about it.
 
What club was this? I have never experienced anything like that at a sporting clays shoot. People are very friendly for the most part and care very little what you shoot, just that you keep the action open when not loaded. If a guy shoots well with a pump, there would be compliments all around and lots of back slapping. I’ve shot my 16ga model 12 a few times and people congratulate me for getting it out for a round.
Same here with trap. I've shot competitions with an 870 and the guys with the Kreighoffs don't bat an eye. They are trying just as hard to hit the clays as I am. It's a prevailing myth about clay shooting sports that guys with expensive guns are uppity and look down their noses at new guys. Nothing could be further from the truth.
 
Agreed most clubs are friendly and welcoming but not all not going to name any but some have their head stuck so far up their backside they can't breath . The group at our clays shoot are shooters that own pricey guns but a few shoot model 12 and 870 pumps . When I want a laugh I shoot my Simmons built model 42 pump and the 410 is a deal breaker.
 
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Oh there are a few of those in the sporting clays circles down here unfortunately, if I know that crowd is going to a shoot, then bringing a slide-action is the perfect excuse to get them riled up. I was once told by one of the more famous ones down here that until I could afford a Krieghoff I shouldn't attend his shoots, because it is a gentlemen's game. One club down would allow you to shoot unless you have an O/U, I might a point of not attending his shoots. At least these spoiled children are few and far between, the vast majority of competitive shooters in the Maritimes are great and humble people. I make a point of never discouraging from shooting, I get tactical types when they come down to shoot skeet, we've even converted the occasional one by letting them realize that a KSG just isn't a skeet gun.
 
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I've known several guys who shoot pump guns at sporting clays and although they were never winning events they still turned in higher than average scores so there is no question that it can be done. It just takes practice and a gun that fits!

Lots of people love to tell of a time when some unknown guy shows up in a beat up old car and whips all the K gun owners at their own game and is hated for it. While these type of things may indeed happen, in my experience it's pretty rare. The closest thing I've seen to that was one time a farm kid showed up at a turkey shoot we were holding with an old side by side and proceeded to clean up, no one hated him, no one shunned him or whispered behind his back, it was all good fun! Years ago I was in Idaho for a weekend and decided to check out a Turkey shoot at a local club on the Sunday. I didn't have any shooting gear or gun and nobody knew me but I rented a gun and got a box of shells and won 3 or 4 Turkeys at five stand. It's not that I'm a great shooter but I just had one of those days when I could seemingly do no wrong with a gun in my hands. I got a lot of looks from the locals but they weren't looks of hatred or disdain but just curiosity wondering who the heck I was!
When you show up as an unknown at a shoot with an old beat up gun, it's easy to imagine that everyone is looking down their noses at you but from what I've seen it's rarely true.
 
I haven't seen many guys at my club run pump guns, but have seen it a few times here and there. It's completely possible to use one as long as you have enough practice in to get quick on the follow up while swinging on the second clay. I watched one fella shoot a pretty good round (20+) of skeet with one that surprised the hell out of me. I still personally prefer my Browning Citori 525 O/U but may bring out the ol Mossberg pump someday to change things up a bit and see if I can still hit anything.
 
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