Sporting Clays Course Choices.

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.
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.
3
1
2
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
2
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.
My use of the site’s topographical features contributes to a great course.
Two targets from atop a hill.
Thick ground cover can simulate driven pheasants.
Driven pheasants from an alternate station
Two shooting butts facing high incoming birds.
An incoming high from the right hillside.
Two opposing rabbits.
A distant hill launches high overhead 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
March 14th, 2012
Mike Davey – Shooting Academy
www.shooting-academy.com
602 432 7878