{"id":36598,"date":"2015-05-07T12:55:17","date_gmt":"2015-05-07T16:55:17","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.gunsamerica.com\/blog\/?p=36598"},"modified":"2015-05-07T12:55:17","modified_gmt":"2023-08-18T16:56:38","slug":"why-sporting-clays-is-one-of-americas-fastest-growing-sports","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/gunsamerica.com\/digest\/why-sporting-clays-is-one-of-americas-fastest-growing-sports\/","title":{"rendered":"why Sporting Clays is one of America\u2019s fastest growing sports."},"content":{"rendered":"
\"The<\/a>

The Vernon National Shooting Preserve is set among meadows, woodlands, and varied terrain to provide an exceptional Sporting Clays experience.<\/p><\/div>\n

Grab your shotgun and come with me. I just shot my first round of Sporting Clays and I\u2019m hooked. The sport is fast, challenging, and more fun than is normally legal. Now that the weather has warmed up, it is a great way to get outside, and it isn’t too expensive.<\/p>\n

It all started with an invitation from a friend to shoot a round of Sporting Clays at the Vernon National Shooting Preserve (VNSP) in Central New York State (www.vernonnational.com<\/a>). It\u2019s a lush 500 acres of rolling hills, standing timber, open fields and hedgerows. The attached photos don\u2019t do it justice; you really have to see it for yourself to appreciate what a find it is. For those of you who think of New York City when you hear the words New York, be advised that NYC makes up less than 1% of the geographical area of the state. Most of the remaining 54,250 square miles is primarily rural. It\u2019s one of the most beautiful states in the Union made up of woodlands, mountains, streams, lakes, rivers, and meadows. The summer weather is gorgeous, a welcome reprieve from the blistering heat of Dallas. The people are genuinely friendly and guns are welcome!<\/p>\n

\"A<\/a>

A typical station, this is the \u201cbox\u201d from which you shoot.<\/p><\/div>\n

The Vernon National Shooting Preserve Sporting Clays course, set up by Owner and Hunt Manager, Ron Acee, is state-of-the-art. Each of the 14 stations has a remote control for launching the clays. If you get a prepaid card for the clay targets, you can shoot anytime, day or night. They even have a delay that can be set on your card so if you\u2019re shooting alone you have time to push the button and get your gun ready before the birds launch. In addition, there\u2019s a 600 yard rifle range, pistol range, live pheasant hunts (no hunting license required, bring your dog), and a clubhouse. It\u2019s for members only, but the membership fee is only $100. In other words, it\u2019s a steal.<\/p>\n

So what should you expect on a Sporting Clays course?<\/h2>\n

A course is comprised of a series of shooting stations equipped with one or two traps to launch the round clay targets. They\u2019re the same targets that are used in skeet and trap shooting, but the presentation is much different. First of all, you shoot in a uniquely different setting for each station. One may be in a field, while another has you shooting into the woods, over a ravine, or across a pond. Besides making the course more interesting, it also makes it more difficult to judge distance and the speed of the targets or \u201cbirds.\u201d<\/p>\n

\":<\/a>

: This trap is mounted on a lift to simulate a bird coming out of a tree. It\u2019s launched behind the shooter and flies directly over your head for a straight-away shot.<\/p><\/div>\n

Secondly, the traps are set up to launch the clays in a number of different trajectories. You\u2019ll see quartering birds that fly away from you at various angles\u2026or towards you. There are crossers that fly straight across from one side to the other. One of the most challenging is battues or chandelles that fly a high arc and turn over in flight. You\u2019ll see these basic presentations at various distances and speeds which makes it necessary to vary your gun speed and leads just as you\u2019d have to do shooting live birds in the field. In fact, sporting clays is the closest to actual field shooting of any shotgun sport, and the naturally varied terrain and flight paths of the birds is great practice to prepare for bird season.<\/p>\n

The third element that makes sporting clays so much fun is that you generally shoot birds in pairs. There are what\u2019s called \u201creport pairs\u201d and \u201ctrue pairs.\u201d When you\u2019re shooting a report pair, the second bird isn\u2019t launched until you make your shot at the first bird. In a true pair, both birds are launched simultaneously. You have to decide which bird to shoot first and you have to be quick to get them both.<\/p>\n

In the presentation of true pairs you\u2019ll find one bird stacked on top of another, or one bird in front of another, or birds that diverge. That\u2019s the setup that gave me the most problems.<\/p>\n

\"Rita<\/a>

Rita shows how it\u2019s done by powdering the black rabbit. She got the orange one on her second shot.<\/p><\/div>\n

Finally, there are rabbits and squirrels. Oh yeah, not all of the birds are launched into the air. Rabbits are clays that roll past you similar to quartering birds or crossers, but on the ground. And when they hit a mogul or bump, they jump! Squirrels are the same as rabbits except they\u2019re aimed at a tree so they run up the trunk before you break them or gravity wins out and they drop to the ground.<\/p>\n

Because sporting clays courses are all different, shooters travel from course-to-course to experience the full diversity the sport has to offer, similar to why dedicated golfers like playing on different courses. But, unlike golf, sporting clays courses regularly change the setup of their stations to provide shooters with a new experience without having to travel. At the Vernon National Shooting Preserve, Ron confided that he tries to keep a balance between being challenging enough for the more experience shooters, while not being so hard that it would discourage new entrants to the sport. In my humble opinion, he does a fabulous job.<\/p>\n

\"These<\/a>

These are the two guns we shot. Rita\u2019s A400 and a sweet shooting Beretta 682 Limited she brought for me to use.<\/p><\/div>\n

Equipment and costs<\/h2>\n

My host, Rita Scharman, a local businesswoman and regional sporting clays competitor, not only hosted my shoot, but provided some valuable instruction for this newbee, including what it takes to get started in the sport:<\/p>\n