Yesterday, a friend and myself traveled to Beaverhill Lodge to shoot sporting clays for the first time. I spoke with the owners for a bit before my friend arrived, and again after we finished shooting, and they were very friendly and helpful. As for the sporting clays, shooting it for the first time was a humbling experience. First of all, we didn't know the trajectories or directions of the targets , for the twenty varying stations, until we had thrown a few, and the various angles, trajectories, and target speeds take some getting used to. As well, I normally shoot gun up, and shooting gun down didn't help, as some of the targets are only visible for very short periods of time. There are a few stations with four machines each, so you can mix and match your doubles in many different ways. We shot one round, then took a break, and then the second round round was considerably easier, as we at least had some idea, as to what to expect the targets to do. I am sure of one thing, that being that next year, I will be purchasing a membership at Beaverhill. I highly recommend to anyone to get out and try sporting clays, if you haven't already.
Finally Got To Shoot Sporting Clays
- Thread starter stubblejumper
- Start date
I agree, if you think you are a fairly good shotgun shooter go shoot sporting clays. I have only shot sporting clays a few times and humbling is a nice way to put it. I shot the same course a few times but they change it up every so often.
Apparently they move things around at Beaverhill as well. I will purchase a membership next spring and take my 28 gauge next time, as it is the gun that I shoot for skeet the vast majority of the time.The second round I improved to about 75%(after a first round of barely above 50%), so with practice, I hope to be able to improve my shooting even more.
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My first time out I shot 51 out of 100 birds. Thought I had it all figured out and shot 58/100 the next time out. Last time out I think it was 77/100. I would shoot sporting clays a lot more but the only day they shoot it in my area is on Sunday which is my skeet day.
It's addictive. Skeet and trap are games of discipline and focus and the layouts are the same pretty much everywhere. Sporting clays is a game of analysis and execution. Every course is different and target setters are devious and creative at using terrain and background to confound and confuse us. I love it.
What he said !
Since first shooting sporting without a clue as to how to do more than move instinctivly to the target, observation of the flight paths, figuring out look, hold and break points has become a great part of the fun.
Tim
- Location
- Mid Vancouver Island
The description of FITASC on wikipedia gives me the impression that it's almost exactly the same game as what I've shot as sporting clays. What is the difference? (I've never heard of FITASC before).
In a nutshell:
1) In Sporting Clays you can shoot gun up. In FITASC you have to shoot gun down.
2) In Sporting Clays you shoot at several different stations; each with it's own throwers. In FITASC you shoot at the same set of target throwers from 3 different positions.
3) In Sporting Clays you shoot from a stand that physically limits gun movement. In FITASC you shoot from within a hoop on the ground with no physical gun movement restrictions.
fwow has some of the main points down, but personally what I enjoy is that you never take exactly the same shot twice. Sporting clays is great, but you will usually take 3-5 attempts at exactly the same target.
FITASC (old style) is like an expanded 5-Stand, each parcour has 5-7 traps and 3-4 shooting stations (hoops or "pegs"). The pegs are spaced out so that Target A at Peg 1 looks nothing like Target A from Peg 2. The order you shoot the targets in is also different: at Peg 1 you may get A-B-C-D-E as singles then A o/r C then True D-E. Then at Peg 2 you get Single B-C-E-A then B o/r A then D o/r C. Peg 3 would again be different. Then the next parcour is a whole new set of targets and presentations.
Apparentely at international FITASC they shoot new style, in which each Peg has its own traps. It requires a lot more machines, but you can get more shooters through in less time (needed when you have 1100 shooters). Bozeman this year, old style, could only accomodate 50 shooters/day (2 relays of 25 broken into 4 squads).
FITASC (old style) is like an expanded 5-Stand, each parcour has 5-7 traps and 3-4 shooting stations (hoops or "pegs"). The pegs are spaced out so that Target A at Peg 1 looks nothing like Target A from Peg 2. The order you shoot the targets in is also different: at Peg 1 you may get A-B-C-D-E as singles then A o/r C then True D-E. Then at Peg 2 you get Single B-C-E-A then B o/r A then D o/r C. Peg 3 would again be different. Then the next parcour is a whole new set of targets and presentations.
Apparentely at international FITASC they shoot new style, in which each Peg has its own traps. It requires a lot more machines, but you can get more shooters through in less time (needed when you have 1100 shooters). Bozeman this year, old style, could only accomodate 50 shooters/day (2 relays of 25 broken into 4 squads).
beretta boy
CGN Ultra frequent flyer
- Location
- Orillia, Ontario
Was a pretty active Skeet shooter 'til I discovered Sporting Clays in 1988. Too many shotguns later, I'm still at it !
FITASC, either old style or new is great to shoot, but a PITA for most Clubs to undertake. Too many traps, too many
hoops (if it's done right - fairly large property requirement) and tough to manage with comparatively little use.
Ranks right up there with International Trap for complexity of set-up.
Great shooting, don't get me wrong, but about zilch return for the amount of time and money to set up properly.
I think perhaps, that's why 5-Stand is so popular.
Either way, get at it. After nearly a quarter century, there are still target presentations I haven't seen, and I've
got an inventory of several hundred that I have ! Always something new and a different way to shoot it !!!
FITASC, either old style or new is great to shoot, but a PITA for most Clubs to undertake. Too many traps, too many
hoops (if it's done right - fairly large property requirement) and tough to manage with comparatively little use.
Ranks right up there with International Trap for complexity of set-up.
Great shooting, don't get me wrong, but about zilch return for the amount of time and money to set up properly.
I think perhaps, that's why 5-Stand is so popular.
Either way, get at it. After nearly a quarter century, there are still target presentations I haven't seen, and I've
got an inventory of several hundred that I have ! Always something new and a different way to shoot it !!!
The field that we shot at had 20 stations, with 2 to 4 traps at each station. We shot gun down, and we varied the selection, and the sequence of the doubles, to make the shooting as challenging as possible. Being that this is the only sporting clays that I have experienced, I have no idea of how it compares to other fields.
