Sporting Clays Course Choices. This document is follow-on from my previous paper Why choose Sporting Clays over Skeet Sporting Clay shooting is the most entertaining and enjoyable of all the clay shooting disciplines. For private shotgun shooting ranges, Sporting Clays beats Skeet and Trap hands down. With Skeet and Trap, the shooting layout is defined under very strict rules and regulations with target flight (trajectories) strongly controlled. All Skeet and Trap layouts throughout the US, even throughout the world are the same. The shooting direction must be NNE with a clear view of the field in front. The targets are released from exactly placed traps and the targets must fly at precise speeds, heights and directions, and be released from the trap under exact timing regulations. If you shoot Skeet in Atlanta, San Francisco, Athens, Paris, Tel Aviv, Sydney, the size of field and target presentations will be the same to within a few inches of each other. (i.e. The center line of facing Skeet houses must be 133 7½ apart that s what I call regulated!!) Below, 4 skeet / trap layouts Below, a simple diagram for a skeet field With Sporting Clays (sometimes called Hunter s Clays), no two courses, not even two stations on the same course, are the same every station is a new challenge. The target trajectories are totally random and set to suit the topography of the land where the course is built. As the name suggests, the game is meant to simulate hunting conditions and to present target flights similar to the game that would be found in the course / station setting. Normally, a course will have 10 36 stations, each presenting 2 targets. Shooters will gather in groups of 2 5 and walk around a half mile to a mile course shooting about 100 targets each. The excitement and entertainment value of a Sporting Clay course is determined by the imagination and experience of the course designer presenting interesting challenges. Although there are accepted presentations (crossing, incoming, away, overhead, teal, rabbit), the beauty and challenge of a Sporting Clay course will clearly be shown by the design differences of a good Sporting Clay course designer or that of an exceptional one.
Poorly designed courses with lame targets (easy to fit in), give the shooter a boring experience. On the contrary, a professionally designed course where targets follow contours, emerge from behind berms or tree clusters, float into a pond from behind, or rise like a driven pheasant, are signs of a course designed by a top designer making use of the land topography and vegetation and giving the shooters a memorable experience.. Targets below, come in from the traps in the middle of the photo. The traps are positioned in such a way to give incoming, delta curved targets. -- Simulating ducks coming into land on the pond. The photographs shown above are from one of my Super Sporting Courses, The Shooting Academy at Nemacolin Woodlands Resort and Spa in Farmington, PA., designed and completed in 2001. This course was voted Best Sporting Clay Course in the USA, possibly the World. Course designers from around the country visited this course for ideas and a new standard was set.
A variation of Sporting Clays is a game I developed in England, back in 1982, called Compact Sporting. (Today, a regulated version of this exists, called Compak Clays under the supervision of FITASC, the world governing body of Sporting Clays competitions.) Compact Sporting takes an area of land, the rougher the better, and places several traps throwing targets in front of 1 to 5 shooters standing relatively close to each other. Sometimes called Lazy Man s Sporting, this game allows the shooter(s) to stay in one area and shoot multiple combinations of different targets. For corporate entertainment and private parties, Compact Sporting is a great way to take a cross mix of novice and experienced shooters and have a great day of shooting. Shooters stand on a deck, similar to this.
Private Sporting Clay Course Options. When a private client wants their own Sporting Clay Course, there are various options to consider. Obviously, the first question is How much land is available and does this allow for the required safety zones? The International safety regulation is 300 yards in the direction of shot. This number is also recognized by the insurance companies before they will issue a policy or provide additional insurance to the farm, ranch etc. Most ammunition used for sporting will only be 7½ to 9 which only travels around 125 150 yards, but this 300 yards is the norm. Next question is neighbors.. these can either be shooting enthusiasts or a real pain! Although a commercial range will have much larger problems, due to volume, a private range can face objections, even unfounded from non enthusiastic neighbors. Local regulation (county) will have rules defining the closest a shot can be discharged from a building. This can vary between 50 to 150 even 200 yards. Your neighbor may have a building 100 yards from the boundary fence, but if he moves a mobile trailer home 6 feet away from the boundary, that counts. Also noise some counties have Health and Safety rules on noise levels, and the increase of impact noise over ambient background noise levels. If you are near a freeway, the traffic noise creates great ambient noise levels, but if you can hear a cuckoo at 300 feet that could pose a problem Let s assume none of the above exist. A sporting clay course can be designed in two ways depending upon the USE of the course. Normally, stations will be laid out to allow concurrent use of the stations, i.e. 12 groups of shooters can use 12 unique stations without interfering with each other, and everyone is safe from neighboring station s shot fallout. The other way is to economize on traps by having multiple stations using the same traps, but these stations cannot be used simultaneously, i.e. the two traps giving station (1) going-away targets, would also give station (2) crossing targets, and station (3) incoming shots. 1 2 3 A question would be Do I intent to hold any charity / corporate entertainment events? This second option would seriously affect the number of shooters I could entertain.
The example shown below is for a private course where the client and his two sons were the only users of the course. In the above diagram, the area shaded pink is station 2a and 2b. The shaded area below is an expansion clearly showing how only one station can be shot at a time using the same traps. NOTE: Even though not using the same traps, stations 2a and 2b could not be used whilst station 7 was in use as there is no 300 yard safety distance from 7 s shot..
The photographs below show some of the various stations used at the Glencoe Sporting Course.
The photographs on the next two pages show a private course for a client in north Idaho where I designed a Compact Sporting Station with 6 supporting Sporting Clay Stations. Two Sporting stations (1 & 2) are served by traps in the distance behind the berms 1 Below, two opposite rabbits, one along the ground, the other along the raised berm. A third target emerges from the trees and flies over the crossing rabbits. 2
My use of the site s topographical features contributes to a great course. Two targets from atop a hill. An incoming high from the right hillside. Thick ground cover can simulate driven pheasants. Two opposing rabbits. Driven pheasants from an alternate station A distant hill launches high overhead birds Two shooting butts facing high incoming birds.
The photo below shows one of the Compact Sporting stations with 15 traps providing a multitude of target trajectories. This area, to the left of the Compact above, was originally 2 Sporting Stations, but was changed into a second Compact Sporting Clays station this photo was taken from the tower shown in the next illustration the tall tower to the far right..
This photo is looking back towards the tower. Referring to the previous photo, it was taken from the position marked 4. You can see the original shooting station (with the green roof) was replaced with the large shooting deck. These photos show the cabin of the first Compact Sporting Station shown earlier. Costs: (Rough guidelines) For greater depth, see my other document - Sporting Clay Course Costings. Sporting Traps vary in target handling and cost. Standard 108mm, Midi 90mm, Mini 60mm, Teal, Rabbit, Wobble. Standard traps cost around $2400 Teal and Rabbit around $3400 each station utilizes 2 traps. Average cost per station on Sporting Clays is $8000 per station (Traps, Deck / Shooting cage /Landscaping) A Compact Sporting setup will use 6 7 traps, and a large shooting deck - $24,000. Design fees vary according to size of course and complexity of land figure $5,000 - $15,000 Mike Davey Shooting Academy March 14 th, 2012 www.shooting-academy.com 602 432 7878