Sporting clay

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Kenny

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Location
London Ont area
Sporting clay is certainly a changing sport. When it started it was sold as the hunter’s game. With targets over 35 yards not to be found. It now has become very competitive, and to make course harder they have stretched out the distances. Some of the bigger clubs now have 50% of their targets over 40 yards or over. This is certainly challenging, but does not represent hunting shots.
It is difficult to satisfy the top guns, with out making a course that will demoralize beginners. There are a lot of shooters that just want to break some clay on a Sunday afternoon. When they shoot a12 out of 50 they are not soon to come back.
I run a small sporting clay course for a club, and I like to think of it as hunter’s clay.
Nothing over 35 yards, and made challenging with the use of angels different sized birds and tree cover.
New shooters will score around 60 %, while most of our regular shooters will shoot between mid 60s and mid 70s. Our better shots will shoot in the mid 80s and I have seen it shot as high as 94.
I am not sure where I am going with this? I would just like to keep the fun in sporting clay and increase the interest in the sport
Any thoughts on this topic would be great
 
I don't know about that.

The first time I shot clay I hit maybe 8/60 clays, but I am still doing it today.

I think that it is not so much about getting the perfect score, it is about having fun. For me at least anyways.
 
I have been shooting Sporting since 1989. I have shot European Parcours de Chasse or for the NA market FITASC every year since 2000 in Europe. I have shot all over the Eastern NA coast from Florida to the Laurentians in Quebec. What I have seen is one change making the targets more challenging and less of a hunting type of target. A few clubs that think they are the holy grail of target setting whereby some from outside the club gets his but kicked big time. It is not only distance but curving and dropping targets that make a course difficult nevermind the numbnut that use eye test or short windows!

Meanwhile in Europe (the home of Sporting) except for England, they are going back in setting hunter style targets. Last year in Austria, we had targets in the woods with a very fair representation of close and far targets. We had some in quarries that where well, waaaayyyyy out there. Who has not shot that big Canada that dropped some 75 or more paces from the blind! But it was a very balanced course. The same can be said for the World in Cyprus, except that there was much to much repetition in the presentations.

Some target setters will do and use every trick to force the shooter to be out of his zone. They will make it impossible to shoot the target in your sweet spot. At some shoots, they will do this on every station in sporting or every peg in FITASC. They love to break the shooter.

The majority of us are not in to make money at shoots. We are there to be entertainned and not have to work our buts off so as not to be humiliated. We work for a living and need some entertainning targets. We need to have fun with a few stations to seperate the cream from the rest.

Regards,
Henry;)

http://www.sportingphotosshop.com

BTW: Martin, Yannick and Moi are going to Sandanona this weekend to shoot the Traveller Tough targets there. Pictures in my website, Monday night Eastern.
 
The more "interesting" you can make target presentations, the better. Try to avoid the static (and boring) single/following pair/ double time & time again repetition. No problem with one station being a 40 - 50 yard crosser " Skeet-in-the-Woods" wears pretty thin after a while. Strive for a complete course change every two to three weeks ( YES, I know it is volunteer/labour intensive) but if you want to maintain "fun" and grow your revenue ... that's how. And yes, 40 percent or more "specialty" targets, use creatively. Like Henry infers ... no "trick" shots or "eye tests" and very incomer/ outgoer, left/rights and crossers and target speeds. Good rabbitts, chondelles and battues properly thrown are intertaining. Nothing worse than an edgy battue at 40 yards that ducks behind cover BEFORE it develops ! Encourage your members to shoot 100's (their scores WILL improve) and I hope you are either all "wired" or use Trappers, nothing worse than having to take turns & trap for yourself ... I'd rather drive another
45 minutes and shoot 5-Stand instead !
 
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Sporting clays

I have been shooting sporting clays since 1989. When I started it was more for preparing myself for the hunting season. I started to compete in 1995 and got more into it as the years have gone by. I have shot in Quebec, Alberta, Washington State and British Columbia. I took lessons from different instructors who are well known such as Marty Fischer, Mike McAlpine, etc... Lots of them will tell you that the bread and butter of a gun club are the B class shooters and down. You can easily satisfy everybody by setting up 2 stands at each station, one for the average shooter the second one with a different angle (changing the presentation a bit) making it more challenging for the more advanced shooter. If you know how to use angles, background you can change the sweet spot. You can also set 2-3 stations out of 10 that are more challenging and the rest more adapted to beginners/intermediate shooters. Mike McAlpine, Marty Fischer would tell you that you don't need short windows, far ranging targets to make a presentation challenging. Everything is in reading targets. Mike McAlpine is avery knowledgeable fellow and offer a seminar on how to set targets that is very good.

Hopefully this help

jacpor
 
I think "Kenny's" initial observations hold true ... targets have gotten a little more range to them as the years have passed.

I've too have shot a number of courses Marty Fisher has designed, (mostly in the east) set targets on and shot a few competition courses he's set. I think one needs to differentiate between what is typically shot at the "Club" level, week-in/week-out, and what should perhaps be set for a competition ... and what type of competition it is - whether it's say a "Fun Shoot" i.e. for a charity ... or a Provincial or National Championship. Certainly the degree of difficulty should increase as the stakes get higher, with, at least IMHO, a National FITASC Chamionship being the most challenging, with the same in Sporting not too far behind.

No matter, try to please the majority of your shooters ... that's how you keep your facility fun and active. In the end, the "cream will rise to the top" ... the best shooters will still enevitably post the highest scores - even on a relatively "easy/short" course.
"A', "B" and even "C" Stations for differing degrees of shooting skill are not hard to set, and changing the course frequently with a little imagination will stop good shooters from
getting "grooved" to particular presentations.
 
Like Kenny, I run a small Sporting Clays course for our club. I will sometimes set long crossers or a distant Teal but the majority of targets are inside of 40yds. Specialty targets and different spring tensions on the various machines combined with use of trees and shrubs to hide the target flight lends a hunting feel to our course. I won't say our targets are easy but most shooters can bag 70% regularly.I like to see happy faces come off the range, and nothing satisfies more than busting clays.:)
 
It doesn't matter how a couse is set up. The best shooters will dominate. But if a course is reasonable like the one Kenny has laid out then the middling and new shooters will come back more often.

A good rule of thumb for any layout is 50 per cent of the stations reasonable for anyone with even modest shooting experience, 30 per cent technical targets that require some thought with the remaining 20 per cent the targets that separate the best from the average.

A course that is too tough will take the fun out of it for most shooters. Once that happens they will seek their entertainment elsewhere.
 
Once organized a couple of "mini-shoots" for a few guys having problems with certain presentations. 100 "High Towers" one day, from incomers to outgoers, quartering in and out and relatively short & relatively long crossers from both directions. Same with 100"Rabbitts" another day and 100 Spring Teal, singles, following pairs and doubles, high & low & fast & slow from half a dozen distances. Keeps some fun inthe game and an element of learning how to "read" targets you may not have seen before.
 
I had a good friend take me to my first sport clay shoot late last year. Was a total blast, can't remember what I shot but don't really care either.

My full choke 1187 wasn't good for it so he lent me his "Way outta my price range" Beretta.

I'll be back multiple times this year for sure. I didn't care about how hard or easy the course was, it was just fun being out with the guys doin something that everyone there liked.

The plus was the ocassional "heckler" making the "lost laughing duck" on the missed shots "quack, quack, quack"...too funny.
 
Due to Quebec labour laws, we can't pay the trapper a set amount. They get paid by the hour!

As for how much per 100? I don't know because I pay what ever the bill is and I don't shoot much of any practice at the two clubs that I am a member of. I rather choose some good events and shoot them.

Regards,
Henry;)
 
CB and Bat,
You guys are getting a good deal on clay. Silver Willow north of Calgary charges $58.00/100:(, unless you pay a yearly membership of around $150.00:( and pre pay at least 500 targets.:( Last year that worked out to $39.00/100 after membership was paid.
The Brooks clay range charges even more. I usually do not shoot practice targets at either place. A few smaller clubs in our area put on registered sporting shoots cheaper than practice at these places and feed you at half time.:D
 
Covey Ridge our club is a very small operation run by volunteers. We keep the cost of birds as low as possible to encourage participation by non competitive shooters. Often we don't have a trap boy lined up and we take turns running the machines. Because our profit is so low we can only afford 3/4 #### handset launchers. Fortunately we have a very good bunch of shotgunners who share up the work fairly well.
 
CR, the price I quoted is for members and guests (limit of three visits.) Annual membership for the club and clays section is around $250 per year. Non-member rate is $45 per 100 as I recall.

The club uses automatic throwers and we pull the targets ourselves.
 
SW has auto equipment, but for non shoot events shooters pull for each other. One of the small clubs I shoot at has two registered shoots per year. For the shoots trap help is hired but shooters pull for each other. $105.00 for 200 registered targets, good prizes and lunch is provided. Club has lots of equipment but only open for skeet and trap from spring to fall. Skeet and trap is $3.00/25.
 
CB,
The $3.00/25 is only at one of our smaller clubs. The a.h.e.i.a range charges $5.00 or $5.50/25 for trap, skeet, trench or 5 stand for members. Members save $.50/25 if they pre pay a dozen rounds. The 5 stand and trench are only on certain days when there is paid help. Other than paying the big $$price$$ at places like Silver Willow, there are no reasonable priced sporting ranges in southern Alberta.
 
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