New Shooters To Sporting Clays Observations

There is actually a formula you can use to calculate the number of volunteers you will have available. Take the number of members or people that say they will help, divide by 2 and take the square root of that. That will be pretty close to the number of volunteers that show up to help at a work bee.
 
Our current club has 700 members for all disciplines , and six people do 90% of the work. Every single one of those six people is over 50. Actually most of our skeet shooters are over 50, the younger shooters tend to shoot restricted firearms.
 
My wife and I run a fairly large non profit organization would be the largest of its kind in western Canada. And I can tell you there is just some help you don’t want. And more importantly there are some you just don’t want in charge / control!

A volunteer bond is really the way to go but gun clubs honestly don’t have that much to do.

Been to dozens of shotgun gun clubs they all tend to run some.

The people make a club and where else do you get to shoot with or compete against a heart surgeon, or a electrician, farmer, NHL player, school teacher, we are an amazing bunch for the most part. But we just don’t need Uncle Tom to cut the grass and run the tractor into the trap house.
 
Falconflyer said:
The vast majority of the people that show up at our club for work bee's are farm people and you don't have to worry about them running into the trap house with a lawn mower!
Click to expand...

We had a fella wipe out all the cinder blocks from 16 yards to 27.

Every club even ones with farm people have issues. Once someone complained about the price of the roast beef! Like who does that? And then the roast beef cooker wasn’t going to do it anymore! Thank goodness at the AGM it was decided the roast cooker could spend and get the meat where ever he wants.
 
Last edited:
I have found that shooters relatively new to the sport of sporting benefit a great deal by having an 'old hand' on the squad. I am by no means a master class shooter but i can usually explain how to hit most targets. So when I have squad I often go first all the stations so that 1. they can all see each of the presentations and 2. I can show them and well as figure them out to pass on that knowledge to them when they get up for their turn. Of course, during a competition ... 'you are on your own'. But I do find that skeet is a wonderful place to teach the basic gun handling they will need at sporting, especially getting them to get used to a little 'gun down'
 
winruger said:
I have found that shooters relatively new to the sport of sporting benefit a great deal by having an 'old hand' on the squad. I am by no means a master class shooter but i can usually explain how to hit most targets. So when I have squad I often go first all the stations so that 1. they can all see each of the presentations and 2. I can show them and well as figure them out to pass on that knowledge to them when they get up for their turn. Of course, during a competition ... 'you are on your own'. But I do find that skeet is a wonderful place to teach the basic gun handling they will need at sporting, especially getting them to get used to a little 'gun down'
Click to expand...

A skeet field is a great place to practice Sporting.
 
Westward1 said:
A skeet field is a great place to practice Sporting.
Click to expand...

better place then trap for sure, but neither is really practice for sporting, the variation in presentations is what makes it challenging, the lack of variation is what makes both trap and skeet easier, yet incredibly difficult to master. I guess for learning shooting basics. 5 stand would be your best practice option.
 
What trap teaches you is how to be consistent in your movement when the target path is unknown. Trap is easier to learn that Skeet but harder to perfect. That's why why I normally prefer to start new shooters out on a trap field shooting wobble trap, get them comfortable with some targets before bringing to a skeet field. Private groups that have never shot, get started on our 5-stand.
 
We had our trap chair out to sporting clays today, and he enjoyed himself, but he did admit how humbling it was. He also shot a round of skeet, and it also didn't go as well as he had hoped. But we may have encouraged him to come out to skeet and sporting clays more often. Another person shooting more clays games is always a good thing.
 
Falconflyer said:
That's the beauty of sporting clay's, it's a constantly evolving and changing game, I shot 6 different courses in 2019 and the two of them that I shot the most were constantly changing! I don't mean to knock trap and skeet but it really is boring after you've shot sporting for a while, the repetitiveness of those two sports is what makes me want to fall asleep half way through a round of 25! Don't get me wrong, I've shot thousands of rounds at trap and skeet and the two disciplines are great for building fundamentals of shotgunning but they really do become a game of repeatability and lack the variety that sporting offers.
Click to expand...

And I'm the opposite. I find sporting clays boring. To me its like golfing with a gun and I can't stand golf, lol. I love shooting but if I'm going to walk a quarter section of land to shoot at targets I prefer they be feather covered and taste great oven roasted. LOL
 
I started out trap shooting. It was fun and I got to be reasonably good at it. I am a avid hunter most times over a good dog. When I tried sporting clay I was hooked. It is hands down the best practice for hunting that is available. I shoot every Sunday somewhere. I am lucky enough to have five clubs with in a hour of me. Variety of targets is what makes sporting clay what it is. So every new club is a new experience. I like 5 stand, however if you only have one 5 stand course, you spend more time waiting to shoot that shooting. I do make it out trap shooting three or four time a years. After sporting clay it is like watching paint dry. To each their own> A day shooting any clays is a good day.
 
the spank said:
And I'm the opposite. I find sporting clays boring. To me its like golfing with a gun and I can't stand golf, lol. I love shooting but if I'm going to walk a quarter section of land to shoot at targets I prefer they be feather covered and taste great oven roasted. LOL
Click to expand...

I enjoy all of the clays games, but I am also a hunter, and no clays game as closely resembles actual hunting situations as sporting clays. When hunting waterfowl over decoys for example, the birds are generally coming towards you and losing altitude, and you don't get that in trap or skeet.
 
Im just sitting here following this thread and shaking my head... as one who is finding it difficult to find ways to shoot sporting clays I’m honestly really surprised that there aren’t a lot of young guys who would want to be more active at their club and just do that for the sake of the club it sounds like a No brainer. Memberships and good shooting situations are tough to come by and your idea sounds like it should be more popular. Yeah, lifting them isn’t “fun”, but do people just not get how fun shooting those cases is or what ?
 
The cost of shooting Sporting Clays is more than many young shooters with families can stand.
100 birds at $50 and 4 boxes of shells at $30 is expensive for some people. Some places cost more, and a few cost a little less. Lots of events are 200 birds.
Secondly, many young shooters are intimidated by better shooters and difficult targets.
 
the spank said:
And I'm the opposite. I find sporting clays boring. To me its like golfing with a gun and I can't stand golf, lol. I love shooting but if I'm going to walk a quarter section of land to shoot at targets I prefer they be feather covered and taste great oven roasted. LOL
Click to expand...

If we were all the same Spank then life would be really boring! I guess maybe I have a short attention span but I love the variety that sporting clay's offers and I like to walk, even when I golfed I would sooner walk the course and leave the golf carts for the young guys and people who can't walk!
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom