Shotgun Games... What's your Fav?

THelms

Administrator
Staff member
What's your favorite shotgun game? By game I mean practice/competition/etc. Skeet?, Trap?, Five-stand?, Sporting Clays?...

While I've never been a big fan of Five-Stand I enjoy Sporting Clays courses. I admire the repetitive focus required to master trap but I absolutely love Skeet! To be specific, International Skeet. There is just something about it that clicks in my brain and if there was only one game to play for me it would be Skeet.

Now for these below zero temps to recede so I can go hit the club and burn some powder!

As a side note, Annie Oakley is another less formal shotgun game that I enjoy playing.
 

mallardsx2

Veteran member
Jul 8, 2015
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Sporting clays hands down for me. More specifically, new sporting clays courses that I have never shot. I wish they made you run in between stations. I would be be hard to beat. Lol


Skeet is just mathmatics. Not much to shooting it if you ask me. Still fun but it doesn?t help you become a better shooter like sporting clays does.


Any way you skin it across the spectrum of shooting clays, I shoot my .410 citori with full/full chokes. I average around 80 on sporting clays.

I shot a round with my old man and shot his 12gauge...it was depressing how easy the game was with 3x as many bbs...
 
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Colorado Cowboy

Super Moderator
Jun 8, 2011
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Dolores, Colorado
Used to shoot a lot of ATA Trap and some skeet and sporting clays. I have also done some live pigeon shooting in Mexico. I like to shoot just for fun and practice. When I shot ATA years ago things got too serious and stopped being fun! Same with live pigeon shooting, lots of $$$ being bet and in purses, not my bag.
 

Gr8bawana

Veteran member
Aug 14, 2014
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Nevada
I enjoy shooting sporting clays with my son. The only bad thing is I have to drive about 90 miles each way.
 

ScottR

Eastmans' Staff / Moderator
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Feb 3, 2014
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I shot a TON of Trap this past summer with one of the guys that I regularly hunt the river with. I am hoping that Todd and I get to spend a little bit of time at the range and get prepped for next fall.
 

Team Kabob

Very Active Member
May 9, 2014
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Sporting clays and five stand with the wife. Turkeys are fun too


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 

Hilltop

Veteran member
Feb 25, 2014
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Eastern Nebraska
Sporting clays and annie oakley and my two favorites. I'm not great but shoot ok. On sporting clays I average 80-85 with 12 gauge and win the occasional annie oakley.
 

CoHiCntry

Veteran member
Mar 31, 2011
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Colorado Mountains
I think I’ve bird hunted once or maybe twice in my life. Looking to change that as it sounds like fun. So what’s the difference between skeet, trap and sporting clays? I thought they were all the same thing :confused:
 

Hilltop

Veteran member
Feb 25, 2014
3,796
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Eastern Nebraska
I think I’ve bird hunted once or maybe twice in my life. Looking to change that as it sounds like fun. So what’s the difference between skeet, trap and sporting clays? I thought they were all the same thing :confused:
Lots and lots of frustration... trap is the easiest as targets rise and fly away from the shooter making it easy to get on target. Skeet has a lot of crossing shots and some doubles. Sporting clays tries to duplicate real world hunting situations. Targets fly all directions, some cross, some falling, some bouncing on the ground through cover... tight windows for shots etc. I regularly see trap shooters fail to hit half their targets on sporting clays during a round of 100.
 

mallardsx2

Veteran member
Jul 8, 2015
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Sporting Clays - Mini Targets - with a .410.

If you master that the rest of the games are pretty easy.

I have no mastered it BTW but I do good. lol
 

87TT

Very Active Member
Apr 23, 2013
593
1,052
Idaho
Shoot trap with my wife and a bunch of guys at the local club every Thursday. We shoot when ever the weather permits. Only not shoot if snowing or raining too hard. We dig out the lanes and trap house when it has snowed. Shoot all year. No I'm not all that good and no one keeps score. We have guys that shoot the big ATA shoots and noobies that are learning. I just use my 870 field gun that is camo and has a sling. We also shoot wobble trap. Then I start with the gun at port arms and the safety on.
 

taskswap

Very Active Member
Jul 9, 2018
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Colorado
I love sporting clays, but I do a lot of trap mostly for cost reasons. I have a cheap hand-thrower, and when we go shooting at open ranges (like Pawnee, and yes, we clean up our brass/shells!) my buddy and I like to throw some clays out while we're waiting for our rifle barrels to cool. It makes for a good half-day session: shoot a mag or two of rifle, then take turns throwing some clays, then switch to pistol as we walk out to the targets to change them. By the time that's done the rifle barrels have cooled and are ready for another couple of groups.

It's fun doing it that way because even though the clays don't get out as far as a machine would throw them, we mis-throw often enough that it feels like sporting clays. You'll get a few that accidentally end up way lower or higher than you'd expect. Neither of us hunts waterfowl, this is for upland game, and it's great practice for reacting to flushing a grouse.