How many clay shooters?

kooman

Member
How many clay shooters do we have here? I just got done with spring trap league and now it’s skeet league, I love shooting sporting clays as well, I have been improving the last few years but I wish I could get better (don’t we all), it’s great fun and I get to hear and use a lot of new cuss words.
 
I shoot at a local club. I have slacked off and haven't shot one of the leagues in several years. It is a matter of time for me. I do enjoy skeet, sporting clays and five stand. Trap shooting just doesn't interest me all that much for whatever reason.
 
Started shooting trap with my dad before I had a driver's license. Then to sporting clays. I love to shoot this stuff it's a ton of fun. Now if I could get my kids to reload for me it would be even better lol
 
I try shooting skeet but I'm not very good. We have wobble trap also and its a lot of fun. I'm considerably better at than. We have colored bird shoots on the skeet fields and the wobble trap field. The colored bird shoots are a lot of fun and usually brings out a lot of shooters.
 
I started shooting bar league trap in high school as soon as I got my license to drive, wore out a High Standard pump before I went in the service.

I shot International trap(bunker) with the military team in Taiwan, did pretty well. I dabbled in International skeet also.

After returning to the states my ex-wife, her dad & mom and I shot league trap at a couple different clubs and was on our home clubs traveling team. We also shot skeet a couple days a week.

After the divorce and a move to WA I got into International skeet more, shot in the state shoot a couple times until I had cataract surgery and ended up with double vision for a couple years. A couple years away from the game and advancing age I'd lost the edge shooting fast birds from the low gun position. Working 70-90hr/wk didn't help.

Now I play at clay games. I shoot skeet, five stand an sporting clays for fun, testing guns and I shoot fund raiser tournaments.

Now that I'm down in NM I'm going to see if I can find some vintage/sxs tournaments.

I did do some shooting for bird dog trials also, not a clay game but challenging. Shoot them too close and the judge doesn't get to see the quality of the dog work, ride them too far and miss and you just cost the club money as the dog gets another bird and it can get very frustrating for the dog and handle especially on hot days.
 
I started shooting Trap in 1968 when I was in high school. I got a job at the local sporting good store just so I could have the money to shoot some Trap.

I have been shooting Trap, Skeet and Sporting Clays off and on ever since then. In 2002 I bought a Sporting Clays gun and have shot more Sporting Clays than Trap and Skeet ever since then.

A few years ago we put a Skeet Range in over our club's single Trap range. I have been running our Skeet Range on Thursday afternoons ever since we put it in. We only have 4 to 8 Skeet shooters show up to shoot Skeet. We have 7 to 12 Trap shooters show up after we are done shooting Skeet.
IMG_6574 by [/url], on Flickr
I took the above pictur of my neighbor at the State Trap shoot. The Skeet shooting pictures below I took at our club's little Skeet Range.
[url=https://flic.kr/p/GxBcnG t=_blank]2016-05-11 16.23.49-5 - Copy by [/url], on Flickr
[url=https://flic.kr/p/GxBbpu t=_blank]2016-05-11 16.23.49-6 by [/url], on Flickr
[url=https://flic.kr/p/23AyDhS t=_blank]2016-05-11 16.22.16-5 by [/url], on Flickr
[url=https://flic.kr/p/GxBfyb t=_blank]2016-05-11 16.22.16-6 by https://www.flickr.com/photos/156463377@N08/, on Flickr
 
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I used to trap shoot two leagues a week.

My nephew was 142nd in the state last year for high school trap. Was 110th in doubles this year. 46th in handicap. 5000 kids shoot high school trap in Iowa at the tournament.
 
I am only shooting a couple rounds of Sporting/trap a year. Cataracts in both eyes now, the horizontal clays are tough. 30/50 sporting clays 2 weekends ago. Still great fun.
 
Had never shot a shotgun much at all till this spring.
Been shooting skeet and trap for about 3 months and it's a blast.
Meet some real nice people also.

the county just opened a nice skeet/trap range about 15 minutes from the house.
I am getting concerned that I might go broke at this.I would shoot every day if I could.

There is a 14yo boy shooting trap at the local trap club through the 4H.
He just broke 400 straight this past weekend.Boy his Dad is spending some money taking him to shoots and entry fees and such.
 
There are a lot of young shooters at our club as well, it’s great to see the young people interested in shooting, I wish I would have started a lot earlier in life, before the eyes and the reflexes got old. Lol
 
There is one little boy I think about 12 years old that is shooting trap with the 4H. He is small even for his age. When he rests his barrel on the pad between shots the stock sticks up past his shoulder.
He is breaking 47/48 of 50 and is so much fun to watch.
I think the shooting sports needs to be part of a young persons education for many reasons.
I guess in many parts of the country that would be impossible. Shame.
 
I did shoot a lot, but my interests have swung to coyotes. So sporting clays took a big hit. When I started it was affordable, about 40 dollars a week, now you can buy a good thermal scope for the price of a years worth of sporting clays. 65 Dollars for a round of sporting clays at Stonewall Jackson Lake plus gas & shells.
 
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Man that sounds high for a round of sporting clays. I don't shoot sporting clays but $65 per round would sure put me out of the game. Our club charges members $3 for a round of skeet or wobble trap and $5 for non members.
 
I shot trap and skeet religiously for many years. On average I'd say 8 rounds a week. When I stopped (25yrs ago) it cost me right at 5bucks a round. 2.50 for the fee and 2.50 to reload 25 shells.
What's it cost to reload a box of 12g
1 1/8 hard lead shot today?





 
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Its cheaper to buy loaded shot shells than it is to reload if you figure in your time.At least 12 gauge. 28 gauge might save some money reloading as they are pricey.
 
It cost me close to 4.80 a box to reload. Walmart here gun club is about 5.60 or so.
I like to reload though and i like to think my loads are better than walmarts cheapest. maybe so maybe not.

The big expense is shot.And gas back and forth. It all adds up.

Then of course there's the shotguns....
 
There are no really decent deals on shot here. Sometimes I can get recycled shot reasonable but not very often. Wally World usually has two or three brands for sale in the $5.25 a box range so I just go that way.
 
I've been loading 11/16 oz of 9's for skeet shooting in my 12ga, it breaks clay with authority on the skeet field and it stretches a pound of shot a long way. I was digging through a box of
 
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I go and embarrass myself once a week or so at trap. We just started a shooting five stand and that is more fun for me. I never really got interested enough in trap or skeet to get really good. Right now fishing is getting in the way.
 
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