Sporting Clays
Bartlesville Sportsmen's Club has an area on the west end of the club where sporting clays is shot using primarily manual traps and pullers to challenge the shooters. We typically set up 5 or 6 stations. Some represent quail , one station is springing teal , different shots are set each week to provide a variety of practice on varied angles. The course is fairly short range so a person can use a skeet choked gun and have success. We are presently considering a 5 stand set up which will upgrade the sporting clays opportunities. Several of our clays shooters are involved in NSCA competition and are happy to answer questions about this aspect of sport shooting.
Description:
Sporting Clays had its origins in the United Kingdom more than 60 years ago where it was first developed as a teaching and practice layout for developing wing shooting skills. Introduced to the United States in the early 1980s, Sporting Clays is the fastest growing of all the shotgun sports. The diversity of the targets presents the field shooters with wing shooting practice that is difficult to get by hunting alone. Most sporting clays layouts are changed frequently so each time out is a new challenge. Because of these course changes Sporting Clays is sometimes referred to as, "Golf with a shotgun."
Courses are laid out in natural surroundings and typically include five or 10 shooting "stations" with shooters moving from one station to the next to complete the course. Each station presents shooters with a different type of shot. At a "grouse station", for example, shooters might face flushing "birds" that zip in and out of the trees. At a "decoying duck" station, incoming targets may float in toward the shooter. Most courses make use of natural features such as woods and ponds to create a realistic setting for each type of shot. At any station, targets may be thrown as singles, simultaneous pairs, following pairs (one target right after the other), or report pairs (the second target launched at the sound of the gun being fired at the first). To further challenge shooters, target size may vary from the standard trap/skeet clay bird to the smaller "midi" and "mini" targets, or a flat disc shaped "battue" target. There are even special "rabbit" targets that are thrown on end and skitter across the ground.
A full round of Sporting Clays usually consists of 50 or 100 targets (depending on the number of stations) with 10 targets normally thrown at each station. When shooting in squads, shooters typically rotate turns from station to station. At most stations, shooters call for each target(s) which may be released with up to a 3-second delay.
Firearms
Sporting Clays is essentially a field game and an upland gun is well suited to this shooting sport. The most popular guns for this game, especially on the competition side, are 12 gauge autoloaders and over/unders. Hunters who prefer the 20 gauge may certainly use their smaller gauge guns on the Sporting Clays course. Sporting Clays courses occasionally sponsor 20 gauge shoots. Skeet, improved cylinder and modified, are the chokes most often used in this game. It's not uncommon for the avid Sporting Clays shooter to use interchangeable choke tubes to accommodate different stations during a round.
Ammunition
Trap and skeet shotshells (shot sizes #9, #8, and #7-1/2) are the appropriate loads for Sporting Clays. Rules prohibit the use of shot sizes larger than #7-1/2, more than 1-1/8 ounces of shot or a powder charge in excess of 3-1/4 dram equivalent.
For comments or questions please email: webmaster@bartlesvillesportsmensclub.org