Holy crap !!, If someone thinks its easy, go for it. I can shoot Bench all day long, hit quarters at 100yrds, yada yada yada.. But fuck if I could hit a clay pigeon flying thru the air yards away. But it was a Blast , no pun intended. We shot 125 rds with an old Mossburg pump 12gauge.

Proabably hit 10-15%, this was the first time any of us ever shot skeet. We plan to go back and use one of the "club" guns, Beretta semi auto 20gauge, doubt itll help but be fun to try a different style gun.

We really enjoyed it and was a great time. Dont think ill get crazy with it, but wouldnt mind getting a lil better. Id like atleast a 50% hit ratio, lol.

Skeet is a difficult game to learn but an easy game to master.   Trap is just the opposite, easy to learn but hard to master.  Sporting clays is just plain hard.  

I work the t & s range at my club. Most beginners start with trap.

I enjoy the Clays games.  I'm a cheap bastard so I used my ancient Browning BPS (Pump) until last weekend when I finally bought an Over/Under.





I'll say this about the pump, if you can cycle the action without messing up, as in it's second nature, you likely won't see any improved scores simply by switching action types...
The key to the games is having a proper mount, and proper gun fit.  After that it's practice to train your hands & eyes to coordinate the trigger, muzzle, and clay target.  I usually shoot in the upper 80's (out of 100) on sporting clays and switching to the Over/Under has actually hurt my scores until I can get my gun fit tweaked...





 

Sporting Clays is awesome.

I look at clays as practice for killing birds, and Sporting Clays does that best, IMO.

Tried it once, only nicked one of five.


It's definitely harder than people think

Hey man, I'm sorry.

I'm sorry that all your other shooting is now going to bore you. I'm sorry that you'll start hanging around with old men. I'm sorry that you'll spend every available dime on shotguns, shot, powder, primers and/or shells. But hey, there's worse things your wife could lose you to than the skeet field . . .

Skeet is my game of choice.  I haven't shot much over the last 3 years, but getting back into it a little.

Look for Todd benders cheat sheet.   I think its on the shotgun world forums somewhere.  The format was all fouled up for a while, I don't know if someone has fixed it or not.

Skeet is mostly shot with sustained lead these days as opposed to swing through.   Start your swing and stay ahead of the target, bleed off lead, when your on board computer says shoot, shoot. Ideally you want to break the target about 10' before center stake.

For starters, assuming you're a righty, point your belly button to the low house window.  Your hold point should be 1/3 of the way from the house to the center stake.  Look for the flash when the target clears the house.  Opposite of handguns, do not look at the bead, focus on the target.  Move at your knees, not your arms.

It's not as hard as people think, if you spend some time just watching other people shoot and track the targets with your eyes you will start to slow down the targets in your mind and it will become easier

I got married at Rose Hill Plantation in NC, which happens to have a sporting clays facility.

I've been sporting clay shooting quite a few times and thought I was pretty good (usually shoot around 40 to 45 out of 50). My buddy who is a avid duck hunter had never been, he cleaned house missing only 1 out of 50.

It is an absolute blast though. I wish it was cheaper to do and I would go a lot more often. We ended up spending easily $40-50 every time we go (for maybe an hour or so). I can go to the regular range and shoot targets all day for $15-20 worth of pistol/rifle ammo (reloader), but just can not afford dropping $100 on a weekend for a few hours of sporting clays...

That ain't no shit.
It gets worse than that. I am shotgun poor for sure.
The old guys at my club love their old sxs and now I love them too. FML.
It is good practice for me for real birds and a great venue to test shotguns for fit after sometime spent on the pattern board. I always shoot with a low gun on sporting clays and the skeet field even on station 8.

My buddy had to get in on my original picture of my birds. He said that picture wouldn't look right without that model 21 in it.



A little schooling on the skeet field.
She was using her glasses to keep the hair out of her face and couldn't get her to wear a hat.

Nice!  Model 21 is my dream gun.   My grandfather had one back in the 50's, as I understand it it was special ordered with 2 or 3 others that were for friends of his.   My dad had no use for it and sold it for peanuts sometime in the late 60's after grampa passed.  

Next time the lady wants to shoot skeet without glasses - tell her to check out the embedded clay target fragments in the house behind her.  My skeet gun (DT-10) has a hell of ding in the stock from a target fragment.   I have had blood drawn on more than one occasion getting hit by chips.  Station 7 seems to be the worst, but you can find target chips on any station.

My buddy owns 4 21s two in 12ga one a Trap model the other cut down to 26 and briley thin walled after someone else destroyed the end of the barrel and split the rib also 16ga and a 20ga. The 20ga is in the picture with the NID and Citiori he had just restocked it and had to shoot it before he got it checkered. He does awesome stock work.

There is a high learning curve, but once you are there you will run straight 25's on a regular basis.  You'll be pissed when you drop one or two clays per game.  

I like skeet, but can't stand trap for some reason.  

I prefer sporting clays over both skeet and trap.  Sporting clays is like golf with guns.

I've tried it & loved it but I suck, I'm left eye dominat & shoot right handed, I've have no problem with scoped rifles, and have learned how to deal with pistols, but I'll be damned if I can hit those little clay bastareds

Yep, except WAY faster paced and way more fun...

I'm no expert at any of the disciplines but Sporting Clays is just plain fun/challenging, a great 'equalizer' plus a lot of the best trap/skeet shooters aren't even close to perfect until they can "master" the shot timing.  (Then there's the ability to alter the course... )

Make no doubt a few visits to a Skeet, Trap range or Sporting Clays course will intimidate and also make you a better shot-gunner in short order... As Old_Painless is fond of saying "Shooting stuff is fun"!  

2 options:

1.  learn to shoot left handed.

2. Scotch tape.  Put a piece of scotch tape on your left lens that obscures the front bead of the bbl.  This will force you're right eye to be the master eye.   Spend any time at a skeet range and you'll see any number of folks with a dot of some sort on their left lens.  While you should never focus on the front bead, it's there in your sight picture.  Make it only available to your right eye.

It took about a year before I could hit thrown clay pidgeons better than 50%.  It took another year before I could hit doves at about 25%.  It takes time, lots of practice, and good technique to get where you are hitting what you are aiming at with 50% or better hits.  I shoot occasionally with a friend who is practically 100% at clay pidgeons.  She has stressed good technique and that helped me enormously.  Not sure how she would do on doves but I bet pretty good.

I love skeet.  I like sporting clays, and I will shoot trap if that's all there is or that's the only squadding left.

I've shot pumps, autos and o/u's.  The O/U's rule for skeet as far as I'm concerned.  The auto is just as good if you're a sponsored shooter and don't want your hulls.

I've been out of it for a few years but need to get back into it.  yep, having lunch bbq and shooting with old men on a Wednesday is a fun thing.

Skeet is very learnable with the maintained lead shooting.  Years ago the beginner's bible was a Remington book by D.Lee Braun, a Remington sponsored shooter.  His book taught pass through, maintained lead, and pull away styles but he pretty much recommended the maintained lead.  It's the way I still shoot.  I'm not the best and it took me quite a few years to get 25's with any regularity.   I've never shot a 100 straight but have done 75 and 50 straight often enough.  When I was at that point (shooting 2x a week, 6 to 10 rounds a day) I was pretty close to getting it all together.  Really once you're at that point the only thing that burns you is goofy winds that push your bird off track and you missed the change or you just plain choked.  Shooting skeet doubles is pretty easy too once you just get a rhythm.   Not just the normal pair in the air, the whole 50 birds in pairs shot from the back stations.

ETA- I find trap much harder for me, because I miss call the slight angles, the hard left and rights I generally nail.  I have much less enjoyment on the trap field.  

Sporting clays is fun as hell.  years ago i was a member of a club just starting out with some guys building a sporting clays range.  That was fun as heck, especially with the old guys doing the course design and I'd get to do some "research" testing with them and discussing changes on our weekday practice day.    I had a lot more misses in Sporting clays but that's what makes it cool.  In skeet and trap the game is usually decided in shootoffs because all the top guys have perfect scores.  Not so in Sporting clays. Everybody missed some.  Sporting clays is the best hunting teacher but skeet and trap are great skills foundation blocks to build from.  IMHO.  The only thing where all the clays games fail at is nearly all the clay birds slow down when thrown a live bird when it detects you throws on the afterburner to accelerate.

Get some Winchester TrAAker shells for practice.  They have a very large, visible wad that opens up with wings that let you see where your shot column is going.  This will quickly tell you whether you are shooting behind the clay, over it or such.  They are sort of pricey, but can really help in the beginning to understand what you are doing wrong.

http://www.winchester.com/Products/shotshell-ammunition/Advanced/AA-TrAAcker/Pages/default.aspx

About 15 years ago plus I did a short stint of shooting trap regularly.   I liked it.  It did beat my shoulder up though.  It was summer and I just wore t shirts.   I think the best I ever got was a 17/25.  And in my defense I was using a Mossberg "slugster" that had a smooth bore 24" barrel with no choke, IC and rifle sights. 12 gauge of course.   I think the stock was a bit long for me too.  But there is something really satisfying about smashing them.  Especially when you get a more direct hit and it breaks them up real good.

Skeet fun  trap so so .They take it to  serious .
Try sporting clays it takes a lot longer to shoot a round .
More  sociable game .  And you don't have to worry about a perfect score .
It just does not happen in sorting clays .

I shoot league sporting clays with handicaps like a golf league . Nows that's fun when you get or have to give birds .

I read the difference between Skeet, Trap and sporting clays.

This course we ran has ALL of them.




The way they setup the 14 stations, you go to the station and there are 2 "targets", someone pushes #1 and then #2. You never know where they are going to go or come from (not hard to figure out based on the pile of clays on some of the stations). Each station had a mix of clays coming right at us, crossing over, flying away from us, being lobed up high, etc. If you pushed just the #1 or #2, thats the only single clay you got, if you pushed the Yellow button on the controller, it sent both clays flying.

Hopefully that all makes sense, lol.

Hook, line, sinker.

I used to shoot a lot of rifle and pistol and no trap and skeet.  

Every since I started trap and skeet, I have not gone to shoot rifle or pistol.  In fact, i haven't been to the rifle and pistol range this year.

Skeet is easier than Trap.  I had a difficult time with trap, but with practice (up to 10k rounds), you'll get the hang of it.  In trap, a lot of it is mental and requires concentration.

2 years ago, I was hitting 11 and 12 out of 25.  I am now averaging around 23 and 24.  I have not shot a perfect score yet.

here's a piece of advise.  

If you are starting out, start shooting Trap or Skeet with both eyes open.  practice with it, it's hard at first but you will get used to it, no eye fatigue keeping your other eyes closed and your field of vision will be wider, you'll thank me later..
If you have been used to shooting rifle and pistol, you will need to transition to shotgun shooting, what does that mean?  you never look at the sight(beads) and always locus and look at the pigeon, your brain will automatically point your shotgun to the pigeon.  It took me some to transition to focus on the pigeon only.

For Trap, keep your head down(on the stock) and follow through, you will begin to hit more.

For Skeet, again keep you head down.  Skeet is all about the lead distance ahead of the pigeon and 3rd important thing is the follow through.

Go to youtube and google todd bender skeet and watch the entire series, you're score will improve.

If you get serious about the sport, pick yourself up a decent over/under.  I would look at the Beretta 680 seies or the Browning BT-99.  these are great beginner O/Us.  Forget the CZ, Ruger Red Label..  they just don't hold up over time.
Once you get good with trap and skeet you can upgrade to Kriegoff, Perazzi...

If ever there was a comment that merited a "YMMV" disclaimer, this is it. Most people find trap easier since they're all going away.




BT-99 is a single barrel trap gun, not an over/under

BT-99 is a single shot trap gun, but it is a over/under design, at least the action breaks open just like O/U

Hard to shoot skeet with, though. The doubles are a real bitch . . .

You mean you aren't fast enough to open that action fast enough to put a second round in there for the second skeet shot?  

Seriously, you'll likely end up with 2 shotguns, one for skeet and one for trap.  The trap gun requires a longer barrel and different LOP, skeet guns are shorter barrel between 28" to 32" pending your body size and weght.  very difficult to have one shotgun for both sport.  You might get away with a sporting O/U gun with 30" barrel and different chokes.
Besides in typical Ar-15 fashing, get both, besides all the cool kids have both type of shotguns.  The skeet gun can be used for sporting clay.  but trap is totally different.

Two shotguns? Yeah, right . . . What are you, some sort of slacker?

I started shooting skeet about three years ago. At the time, all my shotguns were home defense guns. I currently have 11 shotguns, NOT counting tactical/home defense guns -- and quite a few more have passed through my hands in that time. Honestly, for trap I just use an 870TB. All the rest get used for either sporting clays or skeet.

Touche!

I have 1 ex police Remy 870 HD, a Beretta 680 for trap, a Browning BT-99 for Trap.  I sold a Caesar Guerini 30" Summit Limited sporting gun for a Beretta DT-10 for Skeet, and now I'm looking at a Beretta S680 for skeet.  It never ends.

One thing I've learned is get a shotgun you REALLY want, then you don't end up in a cycle of upgrading and etc.  This is the reason I went ahead and purchased a DT-10.  Now I don't have to ever worry about upgrading.  I'm just not a fan of Kriegoff or Perazzi.

the remy 870TB is a fine shotgun for trap, but I like my shottys heavy to reduce the recoil especially if you shoot a lot.  I find that there is difference in recoil between lighter guns like the 870TB vs a Kriegoff.  They balance differently and over the long run, you will find that the 870TB and even the BT-99 tend to beat you up more vs the heavier guns.  The 870TB and the BT-99 tend to jump up more, whereas the Kriegoff and my Beretta 680 tend to push/sholve your shoulder.  Different recoil charactistics.

now I'm thinking I need to sell a few of my rifles to acquire more Shottys

I hardly ever shoot trap . . .

Come to the dark side!  

Trap is more challenging and frustrating at times.  

I like the social aspects of skeet and sporting clays. I think it's boring to stand in a line and yell "Pull." I enjoy shooting the shit with the squad. Plus it's much easier to justify buying shotguns for skeet . . .

I shoot a LOT of skeet... Currently shooting a Kolar Max Skeet with a 687 EELL as backup. Looking to add the new A400 Multitarget in as a doubles/12 gun.

I am not a 'shotgun' guy, but we sponsor a young lady the is and shots very well.  While trap, skeet and clays can be a challenge, she tells me to try 'Bunker trap"!  From what I have been told, the birds come out for trap, skeet and clays at about 30+ mile an hour.  It seems that the birds come out in bunker trap at between 60-70mile an hour!!
My hat is off to all the shotgun shooters, but this old man will stick with his pistols and rifles.

AMERICAN skeet birds should be about 50mph

With bunker trap.  yes, the pigeon flies faster however, you get 2 shot of shooting it.  Hence you see many trap guns that are sold as combo.  one barrel for american trap.  a second set of barrel where you will utilize top and bottom barrel.

Many of the international bunker trap shooter will often laugh at American Trap, saying it too easy.  

What part of FL was this?

Manatee county

Called Ancient Oaks thing or another...................very nice "new" facility, the owners/managers are super cool, they explain how their course runs and off you go. They have a "pro" shop, they sell ammo, rent shotguns, shirts, etc and they have coolers with ice water along the course and can rent golf carts or bring your own cooler, etc. You can go fully kitted up and just pay for the targers .45 a peice whether you hit them or not. they give you a card that you use at each station.

Bunker, international trap or olympic trap targets are thrown at 62mph vs 40mph for ATA(American trap). The clay in international is technically bigger by 2mm.
As far as unsingle/double combos don't forget there is doubles trap.

My neighbor introduced me to skeet shooting about a year ago and my first trip didn't go so well.....I believe I hit 3 on my first go around. I was hooked though, and we went a good bit that summer and I got to where I could consistently hit 10 or so each round. The only shotgun I had was my home defense Mossberg pump with a 28" barrel. Around the end of that summer I put a 18" barrel on it and used it for some more "tactical" oriented training and knew it would be more useful for home defense with the shorter barrel too.

Thing is I shot skeet with it a few times at a buddy's place after that with his thrower, and I seem to hit skeet much better with the shorter barrel. Is this common? Could it be the pattern of the barrel or just the shorter length making it more mobile? The range we go to doesn't allow anything less than 26" so the short barrel is a no go, but I hope to get back into shooting skeet this summer once work slows down a little.

The short barrel was probably cylinder choke while you probably had more constriction on the 28.

This . . .

Also, a big difference may have been the throwers. Proper skeet birds are supposed to launch at 50 mph. No back-40 hand thrower or hand-set spring trap is going to hurl them that fast.

oh well, it made me feel better blasting them with the short barrel

It's always more fun to connect.