If you enjoy swinging a shotgun, chances are you've had a go at sporting clays, the game in which clay targets are released through the woods, over water, and from high places in such a way as to simulate field shooting.
Surveys from the National Shooting Sports Foundation boast that well over one half million shooters now log over 25 days a year sampling targets called "minis," "midis," "battues," "springing teal," and "rabbits" from sporting's testy menu.
In fact, growth of this exciting game has been so dramatic that a newcomer, eager for a first taste of sporting clays, can easily feel a bit daunted by all the in-group stuff and nonesuch: hard-core target sharks who break amazing scores and spout the most dazzling ballistic jargon; sporting-specific guns with innovative stocks, locks, and barrels; an incredible array of new target ammunition; the inevitable ephemerata of fashionable clothing and accessories ranging from electric-choke tube wrenches to the latest in leather-trimmed vests and luxury golf carts.
Not to worry. The beauty of the game lies in its tremendous flexibility. It is, at once, the perfect tool for introducing the novice to wingshooting and the consummate test of the competitive shotgunner's skill.
In sporting, the bird hunter finds an off-season reason to shoot his pet smoothbore; others simply enjoy the "hunt" from stand to stand, each clay target a bloodless parallel to catch-and-release angling.
Savvy promoters have struck a chord with sporting as alternative corporate entertainment. More than any other target activity, the game serves as an appetizer to the wingshooter's smorgasbord of fine firearms, good gun dogs, and wild game in pretty country.
Really all we need to begin enjoying the game of sporting clays are (1) a mechanically sound shotgun that will cycle two shots in rapid succession and (2) a clear understanding that everyone, everyone , misses sporting clays targets.
Check your ego at the door, fill your pockets with shotshells, and come join the fun!
Grand Beginning
To understand sporting clays, we ought to begin at the beginning, over 100 years ago, on shooting grounds maintained by the best gunmakers in Great Britain. Never forget that this game began as the gunfitter's test track and an important teaching tool for better game shooting.
As early as 1835, London gun makers used a special firearm called a try gun with jointed fixtures for shaping gun stocks to a customer's dimensions. Under the watchful eye of a master gun fitter, a client would fire this try gun at a specific point on a thick metal shield called a patterning plate. Where the shot printed relative to an aiming spot was noted before an assistant whitewashed the metal backstop for another round.
Since the gun stock aligns the shooter's eye with the barrels, adjustments to stock dimensions, even as little as 1/16 of an inch, alter shot placement. As the client continued to shoot at the patterning plate, the gun fitter would manipulate the try gun's stock until shots consistently hit where the shooter was looking. Since how the client mounted the gun influenced where the pattern struck the plate, the gun fitter also offered tips on technique as he worked the try gun into the configuration that gave the most consistent results.
From the try gun template, the gunmaker would fashion a custom-fitted firearm. After the gun was finished, the best British houses made certain that the client was thoroughly schooled in a safe, effective wingshooting method. Suitable targets were always a problem.
Nineteenth-century marks were pigeons, sparrows, starlings, or tower-flown pheasants. Given the expense, hassle, and capricious flight of live game, any number of manufactured "birds" (including feather-filled glass balls) were tried before an enterprising American invented the clay target disc. Gun fitters and wingshooting instructors could then efficiently design releases miming driven red grouse, bolting hares, high pheasants, or courses which kept clients on the move while surprise clays were tripped from every conceivable angle.
That competition would grow out of these school courses was inevitable. The first British Sporting Clays Championship was held in 1925. The Orvis Company's Houston facility hosted the first U.S. championship some 60 years later. Entries in the current National Sporting Clays Association championship will total over 1,000 shooters!
The Game
Whether it be the national title course at San Antonio or a small public range outside of Anytown, U.S.A., expect sporting's ever-popular "golf with a shotgun" analogy to hold true. A "round" is generally comprised of 50 targets distributed over any number of stations.
Like golf, each course takes on the character of the terrain, or tradition, in a particular area. Also like golf, where tee or pin placement has a great deal to do with a hole╒s degree of difficulty, the arrangement of the shooting stand relative to where the clay is launched and obstacles such as foliage or brush piles determine how tough a particular shot can be.
Clay targets and machines to throw them have been ingeniously modified for these simulations. Tiny targets called mini's hurtle high overhead, representing fleet doves. Thin, flat battues whirl away like little Frisbees, slowly turn, then drop like wood ducks careening in to feed. Resilient rabbit clays scuttle and bound along rubber mats, while targets tossed at extreme, vertical heights produce what the trade calls springing teal.
Clays can be released up to three seconds after the shooter calls "Pull!," and can be thrown in any combination, from singles to a simultaneous covey of several birds, from which the shooter must bag two. Some covey stations include an off-color target as a poison or hen bird; break that one by mistake, and a target is deducted from the score!
One club owner highlights what he calls a coot scoot, a target thrown top-side down across a pond so that it skips like a stone. Another range has their trappers feed a clay target into a wooden chute set on a hillside. The resulting skidding, sliding target is called a groundhog. Presentations are limited only by safety and the course designer╒s imagination.
Gunners generally walk, or ride, the course in squads, shooting in rotation so that nobody has to be first to shoot every station. On the carry, firearms are always empty and actions open; loading is strictly limited to two shells once the shooter is positioned within the safety cage.
Besides the aforementioned shotgun, a jacket or vest with a slick, unlined gun pad and pockets to hold just enough shells for one station is a convenience. A shoulder bag to carry remaining ammunition, empty hulls, a water bottle, a towel, and a scoring clipboard is another nicety.
Nearly all ranges require ear and eye protection for participants and spectators; those that don't, should. Buy a good pair of glasses designed for shooting and either learn to properly insert ear plugs, or purchase a tight-fitting pair of muffs. Better yet, put muffs on over the plugs for maximum protection.
Tomorrow in Part Two, Randy discusses the shotguns used to shoot sporting clays.
Copyright (c) 1997 Randy Lawrence. All rights reserved.
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