shotguns, trap, skeet, sporting-claysI’m interested in getting a shotgun and shooting some clays. From what I can tell, the main “sports” (if that’s the right word) are Skeet, Trap, and Sporting Clays. What are the differences between these three?
In skeet shooting, there are two ‘houses’ (places from which clay targets are thrown) a ‘high house’ and a ‘low house’. There are 7 stations arranged in a semi-circle starting under the high house and rotating around to in front of the low house, with an eighth station centered between the houses. A shooter progresses from station to station. At each station you may be required to fire at single birds and doubles (one thrown from each house). The course finishes in between the houses firing one shot each at birds thrown one at a time from each of the two houses. A perfect score is 24. Because a box of shells is 25, it’s typical to allow a ‘mulligan’ - a single opportunity to re-try a shot at the shooters discretion once per round.
Trap is a game with a single house downrange of the shooter and five stations that the shooter rotates through. The stations are close together, so it’s a lot like shooting from the same spot. Bird can fly out at any angle, but due to the position of the house are always some ‘going away’ shot. People who shoot trap regularly get to the point where it becomes a competition to see who can stay awake the longest as round after round proceeds before anyone gets bored and misses. ;)
Sporting Clays is intended to simulate actual bird hunting. Typical Sporting Clays is run as either 5-stand or 10-stand. Each stand has a different shooting challenge and if you shoot at multiple clubs you will see tremendous variety. Stations may be named after the birds they emulate (Teal, grouse, etc.). You will shoot at clays fling toward you and over your head, straight up, straight across, but visible only between to trees, or a clay and a ‘rabbit’ (a special thick clay that is bounced along the ground), or a hen shoot (two orange clay targets and a white or yellow target all thrown together - the orange are targets the ‘hen’ is a penalty if you hit it) and many other imaginative stands. Due to the variety, sporting clays is easily the most challenging and humbling of the three, but also the most time and resource intensive.
If you enjoy shotgun shooting you should try all of them, as each offers something different.
Skeet shooting is where shooters attempt to break clay discs that are flung into the air. The shooter shoots from seven positions in a semicircle and two houses hold the traps.
Trap shooting is similar to skeet shooting, but the shooter only shoots from five positions and only one house holds the clays.
Sporting clays utilizes ten to fifteen shooting positions over acres of field.
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