I am going to the trap club next Sunday with a step ladder and my camera.  I would like to get some pics of clay birds breaking.    I plan on setting the ladder up even with the puller.  I plan on starting out using the auto mode then shifting to Tv then Av and finally manual. Would the Sports mode be better? I will start with the 18-55 mm lens then with to the 70-300mm lens.   I have a 1.4 power converter on it now.  After shooting trap for years I have found 90% of the shooters will pull the trigger right around the 1 second mark after saying PULL..  I Plan on starting the shot at that mark and shooting 2-3 shots with each pic.  What I am concerned with is focus.  I doubt auto focus will even work.  So I am planning on trying to set focus on the first few birds and then hope for the best.   Any suggestions will be appreciated.
I have a Canon EOS rebel T5

Are you wanting to just get the clay breaking or a whole image of the shooter, etc?  Because you'll have to pick one or the other to get right IMO.  I'd pick the 70-300 to use the whole time though, add a little distance to the shooter to compensate for the longer lens, but it'll let you get the reach for the clays.

I'd run shutter priority at a minimum you want 1/1250 or higher IMO.  If it were me, I'd set Auto ISO and run f/9 1/2000 with 3d or continual focus on, with spot metering for the clays.  Some lenses and cameras can track that, but I'm not a cannon guy, so I can't say for sure.  

I want to get the clay breaking.

That's a lot of challenges in one shot, you might get out on the web for tips for capturing birds in flight, that's the closest scenario that I can think of.

If it we're me I'd start in Tv because you are going to want to control movement of the exploding pigeons, I looked for pictures online (there aren't many) and IMO too high shutter speed will give you a boring picture of chunks hanging in the air; you really want to capture the blur of movement.

You'll be metering against the sky, you might try metering a pigeon beforehand and manually set exposure. Sunlight from behind will help but you can only control that slightly.

The short lens will be easier to capture the explosion in-frame, but if you go that route use your lowest ISO so you can crop without losing as much quality. I'd use a 50 1.8 over the small zoom because of image quality.

While you are there...pics of the gun discharging and of shell ejecting can make nice pics as well.

Just some ramblings, best of luck with your shoot!

I was able to get to the trap club to shoot some pics. To get above the shooters I was standing on a step ladder just to the right of the scorer. I started with the 18-55 mm Len, then changed lens because I just was not get enough of the birds.   I started with the TV mode then shift to the athletic mode.   This gave me multiple shots.  I started following every bird as it came out of the house but it was easier to just do straight away birds.  I will try and get some birds up this week.

If it was me, and my camera had a high enough frame rate, I'd go full manual, continuous focus, and start out with ISO400, f/11, 1/640 sec.

Adjust your exposure depending on how things turn out.

I'd shoot continuous high framerate (my body will do 10 fps) and just hammer away at shots.

Your biggest challenge is going to be getting and keeping the clay in the frame, and keeping it in focus in the frame.

Closest thing I've tried is getting the kill shot on live birds, and failed miserably.

Rooster Flush by FredMan, on Flickr

Rooster Kill by FredMan, on Flickr

ETA, had much better luck with frame grabs from the GoPro, but anything farther away than 20 feet is going to be tiny.

Rooster Action Shoot by FredMan, on Flickr