Sporting Clay Course Costings

Sporting Clay Course Costings:
A question I’m usually asked is:
“How much does a Sporting Clay Course Cost?”
My answer - “It depends!”
“Could be $30,000 - $120,000 for ‘run-off-the-mill’ – or – up to $4 - $5 million for prestige.”
Also…. Is it a Private Course or a Commercial Course?
First – How much land?
The general rule is:
300 yards safety in the direction of shot.
Let’s take a sample course layout shown here.
As can be seen to the right, the green area defines
the safety zone – approximately 700 yards across.
What about the design?
The design of a Sporting Clay Course depends on the choice of location and the area to work with..
If I’m given 25,000 acres, it could take a month to select an area, but if I’m told it has to be within - say
200 acres or near this road, or no further than a mile from the ranch etc, the choice and design can be a
lot quicker.
To design a course:
Stage 1: I usually spend around 2 – 6 days on site with 2 days back in the office formulating the design
with target trajectories superimposed on photographs of the chosen stations. There will usually be an
excess of stations planned, so the client can make a final selection. GPS coordinates will be listed and
station directions defined. A list of trap equipment required at each station will be produced.
Stage 2: The track or road is constructed by the client’s contractors then I return to finalize the exact
sighting of the shooting stations and any corrections that have to be made due to the alternative road or
track positioning. (There may have been a rock outcrop, or unstable hillside that precluded the track
from following the defined route.)
Stage 3: Is the ordering of the trap equipment and electronics and the building of the shooting stations
and trap-houses.
Stage 4: I return to install and place the traps and set and tune the target trajectories to the match the
design. At this stage, some of the traps will be relocated to facilitate ease of access and to overcome any
conflict of target sightings from neighboring stations.
A typical design – here we have a loop with
stations on the perimeter firing outwards.
Below, the course at Nemacolin
To the right, a Sporting Clay course
combined with Skeet and Trap.
Design costs are explained later in this document.
Now the land is acquired, let’s look at the basic breakdown of costs…..
Sporting Clay Courses now sport a minimum of 12 stations, a maximum of 36, and a norm of 18 -24.
(Private courses can be from 4 – 10 stations or more.)
Each station has a shooting cage or platform.
Each station has a gun rack, a seat / bench and barriers limiting shooter access to the target area.
Each station is accessed from a track or road.
Each station usually has TWO automatic trap throwers, occasionally THREE.
Each trap is housed in a trap-house, has a battery to power it, and electronic controls to release targets.
The course is controlled and managed from a clubhouse or similar building.
Equipment and targets are stored in a lockable building.
All of the above can greatly affect the cost of the establishment of the course.
Let’s look at individual items:
Traps… These are the main cost.. On a sporting clay course there must / should be a variety of
different types of targets, Standard 108mm (Skeet / Trap Targets), 90mm (Midi), 60mm (Mini), Rabbit,
Teal, Battue, Chondel. These traps vary from manufacturer to manufacturer, but the serious use traps
are basically priced the same amongst top trap manufacturers. The cheapest trap is the Standard
108mm. Luckily, this is the main trap and 70% would be these, 10% would be 90mm and 60mm, then
20% would be Rabbits, Teals and Chondels.
Standard 108mm Trap
$2500
90mm or 60mm Trap
$3200
Rabbit, Teal, Chondel
$3600
Laporte
108mm
$2,499
Promatic
108mm
$2,750
Laporte
Rabbit
$3,599
Promatic
Rabbit
$3,995
Laporte
Teal
$3,599
Laporte
Battue
$3,199
Let’s do the maths – Course 1.
A 12 station course would require 24 traps.
24 x 70% x $2500
24 x 10% x $3200
24 x 20% x $3600
=
=
=
Trap Cost
$ 42,000
$ 8,640
$ 17,280
$ 67,920
An 18 station course would be 36 traps.
36 x 70% x $2500
36 x 10% x $3200
36 x 20% x $3600
=
=
=
$ 63,000
$ 12,960
$ 25,920
Total Trap Cost
$101,880
See the formula?
Average station cost for 2 traps is $5,660
Now to make them work - the trap-house, battery and controls
Simple trap-house through “elegant” – can it be seen?
$150
Batteries… Deep Cycle Lead Acid
$450
$65
$600
OPTIMA Gel Batteries
$150
Controls:
Pull Cords supplied with traps $ 0
Remote Control $200
Target Counter System $800 *
So,
At the low end using a simple traphouse, Pull-cords and Deep Cycle batteries… add
$ 215 per trap
At the high end using Elegant houses, Target Counter System and OPTIMA batteries….$1550 per trap

The Target Control system is a method of allowing shooters to “pull” their own targets without having
to send a caddie with them. This greatly reduces the labor overhead while at the same time ensuring
the shooters pay for all the targets they PULL – no free birds. Although an expensive initial capital
cost, it pays for itself over and over again in low labor (caddie) costs.
Now the Shooting Station….
$50
Then add gun racks……….
Again… Do we want a shooter’s cage or a shooting platform…
$400
$30
Seating, benches……….
$20
$1800
$100
$250
$80
$200
Guns and Buggies:
Rental guns for shooters :
Stock - say 24 at an average cost of $1000
Will there be buggies / golf carts for shooters to rent?
15 x Reconditioned $2300
$24,000
$34,500
High Targets – Towers….
The designer must incorporate high targets. This depends upon the topography of the
land, these can be from traps mounted on hills, or by placing the shooting station in a
valley or dip. Alternatively, towers may need to be constructed to launch the targets.
Here again, towers vary in shape, size and design. Getting targets to the top is a
consideration, as is servicing the traps.
Shown below are various tower designs and constructions on Mike Davey’s courses.
Some are very basic, but cheap to construct e.g. the ones shown below
Towers Continued….
Others have class and are built as a feature to the course……
40’ towers holding 12 traps
Idaho and Abu Dhabi
The short tower to
left is built into the
shooting station
Clubhouse and Service Facility.
This is not an easy answer…. If this is a new club, there needs to be a clubhouse constructed. This
could be a portable building or a fixed construction.
The clubhouse has to handle shooter registration,
pro-shop and shooter’s comforts i.e. sitting areas,
lunches, restrooms. Some include accommodation.,
If the shooting range is attached to a resort, it may
suffice to use a resort building.
Road / track access..
This has to be priced by local contractor.
Can we use existing (part) logging tracks?
OR
Do we have to clear trees and excavate road?
What about road surface?
Bark mulch lined with felled trees, compressed stone / gravel, existing tracks or Tarmac.
The expertise of the course designer will affect the costs of the roads etc, He can use the topography to
its best advantage, while also trying to ease the burden of access to the shooting stations and traps.
In one extreme the course is designed in the desert – the roads are simple, the hills and berms are created
to suit the trajectories desired. In other cases the woodlands are dense and the stations and tracks are
planned in unison with limited tree / vegetation removal. Access to service the trap throwers must also
be planned, and, can the workers service one station while others are being shot.
Here is a desert course in Phoenix, AZ – a preservation order states “No plants, cacti or earth to be
moved”
In Abu Dhabi, the land is reclaimed from the sea… The stations are planned then the earth to build the
berms and hills is brought in by thousands of truck loads...
Rough berm and hill forming before
vegetation planting.
In woodlands, the path is usually the main consideration, but always in the mind of the designer are the
dips, valleys, hills and escarpments that are there naturally and can give great target presentations.
The above photographs are from ranges designed by
Mike Davey, some prior to commencment of work.
Summery:
Rough costing for a complete Sporting Clay Course using 18 stations.:
Traps
Traphouses and controls
Shooting Stations
Ancillary equipment
$101,880
$ 7,740 - $ 55,800
$
900 - $ 18,000
$ 3,600
Track and road
Station preparation
Tree felling and clearing for target flight
Earth moving for safety berms
Towers
Guns / golfcarts
$
Clubhouse
$
- $
Shooting Academy Design Fee
$
5,000 - $ 10,000
Shooting Academy return visits
Oversee Station Install & Target Setting
$
3,000 - $ ??
5,000 - $ 50,000
$ 1,000 - $ 40,000
$ 2,000 - $ 50,000
$ 30,000 - $ 60,000
NOTE: If equipment, namely traps, is purchased throuth the Shooting Academy, then the design fee can
be reduced.
The services of an experienced Course Designer can greatly affect the costs of the construction of the
course and the access. Costs can be reduced by his use of natural topography and limited earth
movement together with limited tree removal.
I hope the above iformation can be used to get a “ball-park” figure for the costings involved.
Sample Start Course with Compak Clays.
Course 2.
The figures to the right are a rough costing
for a typical “Training Facility” to include
6 Sporting Stations with 2 traps at each
and a Compak Clays Deck.
A 6 station course with Compak Clay Area / Deck
Sporting:
Compak:
8 x $2500 = $20,000
4 x $2500 = $10,000
2 x $3200 = $ 6,400
1 x $3200 = $ 3,200
2 x $3600 = $ 7,200
1 x $3600 = $ 3,600
There are additions to the Compak deck to
facilitate Corporate Entertainment.
Depending upon the level of
sophistication, this could add another
$30,000.
Trap Cost
Controls
Training Facility (Approx)
$33,600
$ 2,400
$16,800
$ 1,800
Cages / Decks
/ Racks etc
$ 3.000
$ 3.000
Design
Total
$ 1,500
$37,500
$ 3.500
$42,500
April 10th, 2012
Mike Davey – Shooting Academy
www.shooting-academy.com
602 432 7878