Shooting Clays

NickK

NickK

NickK

Soldato
Joined
13 Jan 2003
Posts
24,185
I normally sea fish, and prefer a hobby that gets me out and about socially but a mate has decided to take this up due to the weather being so bad we never get out in the Channel!

I've shot 12 and 20 gauge before on a number of targets - winning the office event and comments from a stag do asked if I shot regularly as I was hitting the clays centre.

Just wondered if there's anyone that shot clays here?
 
Yup, shot sporting clays, skeet and all the trap disciplines over the years. Gave it up a while back due to not having the time and money to put in the practice needed to improve further.

A surprising number of people with good hand/eye coordination who’ve never shot before do well on their first try at clays. Mainly because they haven’t learnt any bad habits from target shooting.
 
I think the local place is Sporting Clays. Literally 20mins drive and shoots a couple of times a month.

Will have to see how prices stack up - it may be a easy hobby but I have too many according to the Mrs!
 
Don’t rush into spending lots of money on a gun until you’ve tried a few different brands and styles. Even then, the gun market is really flat at the moment, so you should be able to get a good deal on a mint condition secondhand gun.

Essential starter kit:

- Eye protection. Get some ballistic rated shooting glasses. Yellow or red for dull/hazy days and smoke tint for sunny days. Unless it’s super bright, regular sunglasses are too dark and offer no protection (unless they’re Wiley/ESS). Some people like the sets where you can swap lenses in a frame, but I found them too much of a faff and just had a yellow pair and a smoke pair.

- Hearing protection. You’ll have to figure out if you prefer earplugs or ear defenders. The disposable foam earplugs are rubbish. Get a good reusable set from a gunsmiths if you prefer plugs. With eardefenders, get them from a gunsmiths as the regular industrial ones are too bulky and will hit the stock of the shotgun when you have head in the correct shooting position. The top end lectronic ear defenders allow to have normal conversations whilst completely protecting you from gunfire noise.

- Clothing. A baseball hat or similar to protest your head from falling clay debris. Clay pigeon fragments aren’t heavy, but they can be razor sharp. Get a good shooting vest with big pockets that can hold a whole box of cartridges. A vest should have a gripping surface over your shooting shoulder and no exposed metal fasteners to scratch your shotgun. I prefer an adjustable/elasticated vest to a thicker shooting jacket so I can wear it over a t-shirt in the summer and layer up on colder days. You can get away with a fleece for the moment, just make sure it doesn’t have metal zippers.

Avoid the leather cartridge belts - not only with you scratch up the stock of your gun on the rims of the cartridges, but removing cartridges from their loops is far too fiddly and slow.

Gloves - forget the expensive branded shooting gloves and get down to you local discount golf shop. Go for a ventilated, lightweight leather pair or two that are a snug fit. I used to keep an old pair of skiing gloves in my shooting bag and pop them over the top of my shooting gloves when waiting to shoot on cold days.

- A small range bag to carry 2 boxes of cartridges, shooting glasses (and cleaner), spare ear protection and a bottle of water with you when you move round the various stands on a spread out sporting shoot.
 
Terminal_Boy said:
Don’t rush into spending lots of money on a gun until you’ve tried a few different brands and styles. Even then, the gun market is really flat at the moment, so you should be able to get a good deal on a mint condition secondhand gun.

Essential starter kit:

- Eye protection. Get some ballistic rated shooting glasses. Yellow or red for dull/hazy days and smoke tint for sunny days. Unless it’s super bright, regular sunglasses are too dark and offer no protection (unless they’re Wiley/ESS). Some people like the sets where you can swap lenses in a frame, but I found them too much of a faff and just had a yellow pair and a smoke pair.

- Hearing protection. You’ll have to figure out if you prefer earplugs or ear defenders. The disposable foam earplugs are rubbish. Get a good reusable set from a gunsmiths if you prefer plugs. With eardefenders, get them from a gunsmiths as the regular industrial ones are too bulky and will hit the stock of the shotgun when you have head in the correct shooting position. The top end lectronic ear defenders allow to have normal conversations whilst completely protecting you from gunfire noise.

- Clothing. A baseball hat or similar to protest your head from falling clay debris. Clay pigeon fragments aren’t heavy, but they can be razor sharp. Get a good shooting vest with big pockets that can hold a whole box of cartridges. A vest should have a gripping surface over your shooting shoulder and no exposed metal fasteners to scratch your shotgun. I prefer an adjustable/elasticated vest to a thicker shooting jacket so I can wear it over a t-shirt in the summer and layer up on colder days. You can get away with a fleece for the moment, just make sure it doesn’t have metal zippers.

Avoid the leather cartridge belts - not only with you scratch up the stock of your gun on the rims of the cartridges, but removing cartridges from their loops is far too fiddly and slow.

Gloves - forget the expensive branded shooting gloves and get down to you local discount golf shop. Go for a ventilated, lightweight leather pair or two that are a snug fit. I used to keep an old pair of skiing gloves in my shooting bag and pop them over the top of my shooting gloves when waiting to shoot on cold days.

- A small range bag to carry 2 boxes of cartridges, shooting glasses (and cleaner), spare ear protection and a bottle of water with you when you move round the various stands on a spread out sporting shoot.
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Agreed - went out today with the mate to the local place. 50 cartridges each and a club hired Beretta Pigeon Silver Sporting 28".

A number of traps setup we did:
* right-to-left and a left to right on first shot (we did this once on the way out and once on the return)
* two simultaneous launched from under the tower - effectively shooting down/level
* above trees vertical - two launched with timing between - one front to back right over the top and other with a little left to right with about a 30-40deg range. Clays appeared at the tree canopy line.
* rabbit and pigeon - pigeon right to mid rising then falling, the rabbit after ran right to left straight across skipping across the ground.

Other traps were there but we'd only gone for a 50 rather than 100.

Managed to hit quite a few - the vertical needed a lead by 1 meter, fast without much distance perspective and short time to shoot.

Will take the mrs next time, but not planning a purchase just yet!
 
I have a lads day out at Bisley around Christmas and that gets it out of my system. I did initially think I could get into it in a big way but one or two times a year is OK for me.
 
NickK said:
Agreed - went out today with the mate to the local place. 50 cartridges each and a club hired Beretta Pigeon Silver Sporting 28".

A number of traps setup we did:
* right-to-left and a left to right on first shot (we did this once on the way out and once on the return)
* two simultaneous launched from under the tower - effectively shooting down/level
* above trees vertical - two launched with timing between - one front to back right over the top and other with a little left to right with about a 30-40deg range. Clays appeared at the tree canopy line.
* rabbit and pigeon - pigeon right to mid rising then falling, the rabbit after ran right to left straight across skipping across the ground.

Other traps were there but we'd only gone for a 50 rather than 100.

Managed to hit quite a few - the vertical needed a lead by 1 meter, fast without much distance perspective and short time to shoot.

Will take the mrs next time, but not planning a purchase just yet!
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Sounds like your local knows how to put on a good sporting shoot with a lot of varied clays. I can’t hit rabbit clays to save my life as anything on the ground puts my brain into target mode and I forget to lead the clay at all.

Those Silver Pigeons are nice. Be sure to try a Browning with the same length barrels at some point as you’ll find that one make just feels way more “right” compared to the other. Getting the Long Haired Finance Minister on-side before spending a few bob on a gun is very good idea. The only danger is that she’ll get hooked and you’ll be buying 2 guns...
 
Skidder said:
I have a lads day out at Bisley around Christmas and that gets it out of my system. I did initially think I could get into it in a big way but one or two times a year is OK for me.
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Very sensible as I’ve yet to meet anyone who got into clays that didn’t end up with at least 2 good shotguns and a load of gear. Great if you have the time and money to put into, not so much if you don’t.
 
Terminal_Boy said:
Very sensible as I’ve yet to meet anyone who got into clays that didn’t end up with at least 2 good shotguns and a load of gear. Great if you have the time and money to put into, not so much if you don’t.
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I'm sure I could have gone that way. I already have about 15 hobbies/sports with the requisite gear :)
 
Terminal_Boy said:
Most impressive. Apart from PC gaming, I’m a serial hobbyist. Motorcycles gave way to clay shooting which got the elbow to make way for airsofting which was deposed by photography.
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Snowboarding/Wakeboarding/Onewheel/longboarding/stand up paddle boarding/kayaking/weightlifting/radio control/3d printing/gaming and VR/watchmaking (mostly stopped that) are the ones I am most keen on ;)

My poor wife.
 
Most of my hobbies before I met the wife;
Astronomy (wifey drew the line after camping for a week in -15, icicles on the car and frozen water in the kettle), not social hours.
Snowboarding (wifey doesn’t snowboard)
Mountain biking (wifey doesn’t mountain bike)
Drums (noisy for neighbours)
Cinema (kit disappeared after too many speakers etc)
Fish pond (wifey tolerates but doesn’t like me spending money for repairs/upkeep)
Fishing (wifey questions every purchase but also says I don’t use it enough, weather dependent but as her dad fishes she sees it as being “ok”)

To be honest I keep being told no, then told i don’t do anything.. so that is a particular bug bear atm. I try to be too compromising sometimes.

So i’m loathed to put money into this.. got to sort the Wife’s car out first. However if it seems to be easy to get to, a couple of hours out of the house that we both enjoy then maybe. It is literally 20 minutes drive though and she does seem genuinely interested.
 
Used to go semi-regular. 20 gauge is my preference, 12 was a bit much personally.

Was considering taking it up, but its a bit boring solo and none of my local mates are interested.
 
NickK said:
Most of my hobbies before I met the wife;
Astronomy (wifey drew the line after camping for a week in -15, icicles on the car and frozen water in the kettle), not social hours.
Snowboarding (wifey doesn’t snowboard)
Mountain biking (wifey doesn’t mountain bike)
Drums (noisy for neighbours)
Cinema (kit disappeared after too many speakers etc)
Fish pond (wifey tolerates but doesn’t like me spending money for repairs/upkeep)
Fishing (wifey questions every purchase but also says I don’t use it enough, weather dependent but as her dad fishes she sees it as being “ok”)

To be honest I keep being told no, then told i don’t do anything.. so that is a particular bug bear atm. I try to be too compromising sometimes.

So i’m loathed to put money into this.. got to sort the Wife’s car out first. However if it seems to be easy to get to, a couple of hours out of the house that we both enjoy then maybe. It is literally 20 minutes drive though and she does seem genuinely interested.
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Your wife seems like she can be quite annoying. Maybe a hobby that allows 24hr access to a shotgun might not be the safest choice :p
 
I liked it as a sport - like sea fishing on a boat - it’s very zen as you’re focused on the immediate thing at hand. The fact that you’re wait outside watching others, then shooting etc is like golf (heard it termed golf with a shotgun) but also sea fishing.

I love sea fishing on a boat in any weather - the feeling through the rod and the continuous attention to the task. You can start to recognise the feeling of the sea floor with just the feeling coming back up the line. Very much like meditation when you see the clay.
 
This thread is good timing. I applied for my Shotgun Certificate from TVP this morning :)

First used a shotgun at a country fair when I was about 12 and too weak to even hold the thing up :p around 8-9 years ago for a friends birthday we did a group-shoot which was so-so. Had a stag this weekend and did relatively well, 9/10 at the first gate :cool:

A few colleagues have been shooting for quite some time (20-30 years) so have been eyeing up the essentials and chatting with them today. Most of my hobbies are fitness & exercise based, predominantly road cycling though that's taking a bit of a backseat to rekindle the barbell (powerlifting) which leaves me bucket loads of time to spare and I enjoy being outdoors. It's nice around these parts in Bucks too with plenty of stomping ground to choose from.

Knocking on 30 with no SWMBO so the world is my oyster in terms of kit :o Quite liked the Beretta (686 Pigeon?) we were using, shameless plug:

 
BennyC said:
This thread is good timing. I applied for my Shotgun Certificate from TVP this morning :)
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You'll be waiting a while :D:D

My father and friends have put in their renewals with ample time for them to process and have still ended up over running by 5-6months.

I've been out of the clay scene for a little while and haven't had to buy cartridges for some time; managed to get 12k rounds for cheap last time round. Can't believe how expensive slabs are now! I really should get back out to the clay ground.
 
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