Our club is in the process of setting up a new sporting clay range.So far we have looked at mec,Laporte and promatic machines. We have a budget of about $20,000.00. Any help or suggestions would be much appreciated. Thanks. Brian We already have a rabbit thrower.
machines for setting up new sporting clay range
- Thread starter muckletufti
- Start date
I have seen most of them and fixed a lot of them, in my humble opinion Promatic is one of the better ones, very reliable , very durable and easy to set up. Lincoln ranks up there. I have recently seen some Mec throwers around they
are still very new ,, but they look solid. good luck with your choice
are still very new ,, but they look solid. good luck with your choice
- Location
- Next door to my neighbour
We have had 32 Mec machines in operation for 3 seasons. I would recommend them with ease. Very low breakage, almost none that can be blamed on the thrower. Likely staff dropping stacks of targets in the carousel. Easily adjusted and low maintenance.
If your looking at setting up a 10 or 12 station sporting clay course, $20,000.00 is not going to be nearly enough to get you started. On the very low end of sporting machine pricing, your looking to spend minimum $2,000.00 a machine. Now you will also need to purchase controllers, transmitters and batteries for starters. You also should take into account all these purchases we be in American dollars.
As far as type of machines to look at the top three brands are all good to start with.I don't know of any clubs that run Mec trap machines. I'm sure they are fine. If your looking for reliability and quick service? Promatic Traps is the way to go. We have 90 of them spread out around our club ( Oshawa Clay & Target Club). 4 trap machines,10 skeet machines and 76 sporting clay machines. we have been using them for the last 7 years and they have been great.
Promatics service and technical help is the best out there. Great company that stands behind their products. You should give them a look also.
As far as type of machines to look at the top three brands are all good to start with.I don't know of any clubs that run Mec trap machines. I'm sure they are fine. If your looking for reliability and quick service? Promatic Traps is the way to go. We have 90 of them spread out around our club ( Oshawa Clay & Target Club). 4 trap machines,10 skeet machines and 76 sporting clay machines. we have been using them for the last 7 years and they have been great.
Promatics service and technical help is the best out there. Great company that stands behind their products. You should give them a look also.
Another vote for Promatic. We have about 40 automatic machines with 25 of them being Promatic. Simple design which is always a plus and rarely do we have any problems with them.
You also need to consider your long term goals. If you plan on holding competitions the 400 target carousel is a bonus. Nothing worse than running out of targets before you finish a session. A 400 target carousel will accommodate something like 80 shooters without refilling. Our preferred machine is the Promatic Matrix 8, which is a good solid machine with a 400 target carousel. It costs about $3500 CAD with duty, freight and taxes so will eat up your budget fast.
If you are in Western Canada, might be worthwhile to contact TA Ferguson and Associates. He sometimes has demo units at a discount or might know where you could buy used machines.
Good luck.
You also need to consider your long term goals. If you plan on holding competitions the 400 target carousel is a bonus. Nothing worse than running out of targets before you finish a session. A 400 target carousel will accommodate something like 80 shooters without refilling. Our preferred machine is the Promatic Matrix 8, which is a good solid machine with a 400 target carousel. It costs about $3500 CAD with duty, freight and taxes so will eat up your budget fast.
If you are in Western Canada, might be worthwhile to contact TA Ferguson and Associates. He sometimes has demo units at a discount or might know where you could buy used machines.
Good luck.
Thanks guys for all the help and advice. I should have been more specific in my original post. We are a small club in southeastern B.C. (castlegar) and have been around since 1964 with one interruption in 1979 to relocate. We have been shooting sporting clays for a while now with crappy equipment (atlas) and are ready to update We are planning to add 3 or 4 new machines that will give us lots of shooting variations We have a rabbit thrower. Also are there any machine retailers in western Canada? Might save some freight cost! Thanks again. Brian.
Falconflyer
CGN Ultra frequent flyer
Our club has been slowly changing out our old machines for new Promatics over the last 10 or 15 years now and the Promatics are working well. I also belong to two other clubs that run Promatic almost exclusively.
Tom at TA Ferguson and Associates Inc is the western Canada dealer for Promatic.
Tom at TA Ferguson and Associates Inc is the western Canada dealer for Promatic.
By "Castlegar", I assume you are talking about Silver City. My wife and I shot there on a couple of occasions several years ago. Interesting terrain to work with. Tried to encourage your club to hold CNSCA registered shoots without any luck.
Anyway, TA Ferguson delivers machines to you door, no obvious charge for freight but it must be buried in the cost somewhere. He also delivers targets (White Flyer) and ammo, (Challenger or Clever). The other thing to remember about Promatic machines is that you have a full selection of machines types: regular, rabbit, midi, mini, 70mm and battue. Also chondel-rabbit and teal machines.
Yes . You are right, it is the silver city trap club. We had 3 or 4 sporting clays shoots a few years ago. Over the last few years we had to completely rebuild the club due to the govt. We moved 1000s of yards of gravel and completely reversed our shooting direction.We spent a lot of money that we didn't have but failure was not an option.Come visit again and thanks for the info. Brian
