As a young shooter, I tried trap and skeet shooting. I went bird hunting since childhood, so I figured it would be useful. It was, though I wasn’t particularly good at it. I didn’t stay with it because at 23 I became a law enforcement firearms instructor, and clay discs hurtling across the sky didn’t seem relevant: I figured that if I started seeing small flying criminals, I wanted someone to take my shotgun away from me.
Sporting Clays is a sport that came along much later, when I was committed to other shooting disciplines. Looking back, I wish it had existed when I was in my teens: I would have loved it.
I just finished reading “Shooting Sporting Clays” by Mark Brannon and Tom Hanrahan, and I can’t imagine a better introduction to this challenging gun sport.
How challenging? In his introduction, multiple time national champion of the game writes, “This is the only book to my knowledge that explores all facets of sporting clays. The complexity and dynamic of sporting clays can be a bit overwhelming for new shooters, but this book will surely help.”
It seems to me that Sporting Clays is to trap and skeet as practical shooting/combat shooting sports are to traditional pistol matches: the shooter faces scenarios relevant to real life use of guns, dynamically, in this case in the hunting fields.
Scenarios are field-related, from very high “birds” to “rabbits” skipping across the ground. There are multiple sizes of clay targets that have to be busted by the birdshot charge, coming from unpredictable angles.
If I found “Shooting Sporting Clays” fascinating reading as a shooter not in the game, I can only imagine how useful it would be for someone starting out in this challenging sport.
Great reading for sport shooters! You should be able to find it on Amazon.com.
I love shooting at moving targets. Lots of fun, and it teaches me to reload fast. In the past, my range did not allow fast shooting. Well, self-defense shooting can be fast, so I found I could practice pumping (or sliding) my shotgun fast by shooting at clay pigeons. Often I just shoot twice, or three times, even if I hit the disc on my first shot. Just pick out the largest piece, and hit it again. I believe it is relevant for self-defense. If I can hit a moving target, fast, then a near-stationary target should be easier (center of chest).
Here’s a good place for sporting clays; https://hudsonfarmnj.com/
Back in the 1980’s I shot both skeet and trap. Sporting clays was just getting started. I shot skeet and sporting clays for fun and always shot with a lowered gun at the ready position. That was good practice for hunting season. The only clay sport I shot with a shouldered gun was trap which I shot competitively. I spent lots of time and money on trap (buying ammo by the case), and yes, I went through the reloading phase with 12 gauge shells. I quite shooting trap when I started to flinch. I was not going to move onto a release trigger which was the next step for high volume shooters because that would interfere with my hunting associated muscle memory.
Therefore, I continued with skeet and sporting clays for fun and practice for hunting season. Those were always shot with a lowered gun in ready position. I eventually went to to 20 gauge for those sports as well as hunting. I was enthralled with side-by-side and over-unders, and the 20 gauge variations were so much more graceful than 12 gauge. I never had any interest in 28 and .410 gauges.
One thing I did to get ready for quail season was to go to the trap field during a weekday and have one of the pullers work with me on the trap field (no other shooters). I stood about 10 yards behind the the trap (I was using a 20 gauge) and walked back and forth perpendicular to the trap. While I did so, the puller could launch the bird whenever he pleased. The sound of the trap would be my signal to face the trap, find the bird (since the trap can throw multiple angles), shoulder my gun, gain a lead, and then fire. This practice was necessary since I did not use dogs to point and hunt quail. All my quail hunting was poor boy style, which was walking up and flushing quail which was always a surprise with out a dog for pointing.
I surely loved those days on the shooting range, but the money spent was more than what a family man should allocate. In the end, the time spent didn’t do my marriage any good, as well.