After many years of our skeet/trap fee being $5 per round, we had to increase the price to $7 this month. We hadn't purchased targets in two years, and the price has increased about 30%. When you add in the cost of shotshells, that puts the average cost per round in the $19 range, from the $12 range of two years ago. So for the average shooter that shoots 100 targets per day, the cost is up to $76 from $48, not including the cost to fuel to get to the range. We will see how this effects our turnouts, but we have already lost some shooters due to the increased cost of ammunition.
Target Price Increases
- Thread starter stubblejumper
- Start date
- Location
- Planet Earth Wearing My Tinfoil Hat
Pricing is killing us. This past summer I switched primarily from clay targets each week to shooting pigeons at the farms we hunt instead. It's a win-win. The farmers appreciate it, it gives us land to hunt other species afterward and they are great practice at $0 per 25 targets.
.30/06 FTW
CGN Ultra frequent flyer
- Location
- Thunder Bay, Ontario
My club is increasing membership fees to offset the target costs. I think they're trying to hold out as long as possible until they have to charge $10 because nobody wants to deal with loonies and toonies, and the mostly old guys don't want to deal with punch cards or any more modern methods of dealing with it.
We aren't going to increase memberships to subsidize targets, our memberships are for a multidiscipline range, so memberships pay for the facilities and maintenance, not to subsidize extra costs for a specific discipline. If trap/skeet shooters want to shoot, they will have to pay for their targets.
- Location
- Planet Earth Wearing My Tinfoil Hat
I like these free pigeons and their is an endless supply around every bin yard.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-fsKhQwSvQA
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-fsKhQwSvQA
.30/06 FTW
CGN Ultra frequent flyer
- Location
- Thunder Bay, Ontario
Ours is trap/skeet/sporting clays only.
Falconflyer
CGN Ultra frequent flyer
Nice video Frank!
I've shot lots of pigeons around the grain bins but never over decoys, their erratic flight paths make for some challenging shooting! Will they keep coming into the decoys or do they get smart and stay away after shooting a few of them?
I've shot lots of pigeons around the grain bins but never over decoys, their erratic flight paths make for some challenging shooting! Will they keep coming into the decoys or do they get smart and stay away after shooting a few of them?
- Location
- Planet Earth Wearing My Tinfoil Hat
1 dozen Big Al's pigeon silos and a lucky duck. PM me if you want to know where to order some from a dealer in AB with good prices and always quoted in Canadian dollars and he has them in stock.
I've been shooting that bin yard since August a couple times a month. I'm good for a few hours each time. There is lots and there is always birds willing to come around for a close enough look to get shooting. My buddy and I went this morning for an hour and a half or so...and yes they are challenging targets the way they can light the afterburners and turn 180 degrees on a dime! Since going to a few decoys and spinner my average kill per outing has increased 9x from an average of 3.5 per outing just walking around and/or waiting for shots around the bins to 30.5 per outing shooting them over the decoys. I'm up to 152 in 5 outings shooting them over the decoy spread. The lucky duck is really the key but the pigeon silos help alot too.
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Galt Sportsman's Club in Ontario resolved that issue by breaking the club down into sections. A basic membership for shared facilities and separate sub-memberships based on the specific discipline. That way no one discipline dominates the entire club and people aren't paying for something they aren't interested in.
Our prices are going up too but so far it hasn't seemed to have hurt turnout at the major events. We may see some decline in our winter trap leagues this year.
We are volunteer run, so we need to keep things simple, and not create more memberships to maintain and monitor. Our turnouts did fall off a bit with much higher ammunition prices, but given that target costs are now substantially smaller than ammunition costs, I doubt that the increase will have as much effect as higher ammunition prices.
Falconflyer
CGN Ultra frequent flyer
I'm assuming that you need to be concealed in some manner too. Your "Lucky Duck" may be the secret weapon in your arsenal, I've used rotor ducks in goose sets and they work very well! In some of George Digweed's video's he uses dead pigeons in his set after luring a few in on his artificial ones and it seems to work well. He has a way of propping them up with a small stick through the head to keep it up instead of flopping down as if dead... which they are.
Falconflyer
CGN Ultra frequent flyer
too, to, two
- Location
- Planet Earth Wearing My Tinfoil Hat
Not concealed at all. I sit under the outside edge of the last bin at the end of the row on a folding swivel stool and just keep still. I rarely even stand to shoot. I keep my gun mount smooth and slow instead of snapping it fast to my shoulder causing them to see a quick movement and flare. That is why in the videos I posted you don't see the birds flaring until after the first shot and by then it's often too late for the one I'm tracking.
Falconflyer
CGN Ultra frequent flyer
Not concealed at all. I sit under the outside edge of the last bin at the end of the row on a folding swivel stool and just keep still. I rarely even stand to shoot. I keep my gun mount smooth and slow instead of snapping it fast to my shoulder causing them to see a quick movement and flare. That is why in the videos I posted you don't see the birds flaring until after the first shot and by then it's often too late for the one I'm tracking.
That's interesting, I may have to give this a try!
Shame Shame.
So many shotgun owners abound in Alberta, and they are pissed on by the like of the above posts.
Keep it up boys. Justin loves your kind....even shotgun owners.
How do you spell losers. or is it loosers, or Dumb Fxxk!!
So many shotgun owners abound in Alberta, and they are pissed on by the like of the above posts.
Keep it up boys. Justin loves your kind....even shotgun owners.
How do you spell losers. or is it loosers, or Dumb Fxxk!!
So who is pissing on shooters? I simply stated that we have been forced to increase our target prices, and due to increased ammunition and target prices, it is now much more expensive to shoot, than it was only a couple of years ago. We are still shooting, and the guys that are shooting pigeons , are still enjoying shooting. I just loaded 4000 28 gauge hulls, and 3000 410 hulls for skeet, and just purchased an extra 2500 12 gauge for sporting clays, and I will continue to shoot skeet/sporting clays, as long as I can. And myself and a few other posters , actually run the skeet/trap fields for our clubs, so we are promoting the sport, rather than pissing on anyone.
