Clay shooting
Some hunters are blessed with a natural born ability to hit birds without ever handling their shotguns in the off-season. In the past, shot gunners practiced by simply being out on the marshes filling the orders of upper class restaurants in the big cities. The sheer volume of shooting these market hunters did insured their skill was unsurpassed. The days of market hunting are long past and strict limits are now in place to protect the resource. For modern hunters and shooters, clay target shooting offers the next best thing to shooting live game if they want to get tuned up for the hunting season. There are three different dedications involved in clay shooting: trap: skeet; and sporting clays.
Trap shooting got its start in Britain around the year 1793 and originally involved shooting live pigeons released from machines called traps. These traps were metal or wooden containers, which held the pigeons. Attached to these containers was a long piece of cord that operated the trap doors. When the shooter would yell, “Pull” the trapper pulled the cord, releasing the pigeon. Some of the later traps also had a device that forced the bird upwards when the cord was pulled.
Quite often trap shoots would travel across the US attracting large crowds of people. Local gunners would compete against the travelling shooters and bet large stakes to see who the better shot was. In the later years, pigeons become scarce and the targets switched to glass balls filled with feathers to imitate a bird when hit. These glass balls, first introduced in England in 1866, lasted until the mid-1880s when clay targets were finally introduced.
Modern trap shooting utilizes a trap machine that throws clay targets that randomly oscillate. Groups of shooters stand in a semi-circle facing the trap machine. At the shooters call the target is thrown and until the target appears the shooter does not know at which angle the clay will come from. Because of the unknown angle, trap shooting teaches shooters to rapidly adjust to unexpected angles and tests reflexes.
Skeet shooting was invented in 1920s by Charles Davies, an avid grouse hunter. Davis sought to improve his shooting by duplicating the angles he encountered while grouse hunting. He developed a shooting sport originally called Clock Shooting. The course was originally a 25 yards radius circle with shooting positions measured off at each hour on the clock. The trap machine would be situated at the 12 o’clock position and at each hour position; the shooter would shoot two shots. The final shot would be taken from inside the centre of the circle as an incomer while the shooter faced the trap machine.
In 1923, the circle was cut in half because of a neighboring chicken farm was built close to the property and there was concern of shooting towards this property. To maintain all the shooting angles present in full circle, a second trap machine was added at the 6 o’clock position and elevated about 10 feet in the air. This was how modern skeet shooting was born. Skeet shooting covers many angles that a shooter can learn. Because the angles from each station never change, a shooter can work on specific angles. The benefit of skeet shooting is that it copies common wing shooting presentations, especially in waterfowling, and the shooter learns how to properly lead a bird. Interestingly, many military bases in Canada and the US have skeet ranges that teach gunners the art of leading a target.
Sporting clays is most often called, “Golf with a shotgun”. Of all the shotgun sports, it is the closest thing to actual wing shooting. Originally imported from Britain and introduced to the US in the early 1980's, a course includes different stations that a variety of sized and constructed clay targets are thrown from to emulate flushing grouse, running rabbits, springing teal, and decoying ducks. A typical sporting clays course also makes use of the natural landscape, adding challenge to the shoot. Participants will shoot over water, in wooded thickets, and rolling fields, which enhances the feeling of field shooting. In addition to single targets, following pairs (a second clay is released after the shooter fires the fires the first shot), and true pairs (two targets are thrown at the same time) are further added replicate game. Sporting clays are the fastest growing of all the shooting sports. They regularly attract hundreds of shooters at some of the bigger events and are one of the most enjoyable ways to get tuned up for the hunting season!
