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Shotguns for Trap, Skeet and Sporting Clays


imschur

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Imagine shooting 3-4 hundred rounds daily thru a cheap shotgun. About a weeks worth of shooting and the action would be worn out. These guns actions and materials are superior to a normal shotgun. Longevity is usually superb. The old guns you see restored usually function quite well, just the stock and finish are gone....

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Trap guns are long barreled guns with a high rib and full choke that automatically places the shot load under the target so that they merge at the proper distance, since all shots are going away from you. They are only usefull for Trap.

Skeet guns are short barreled guns with a skeet choke (almost a cylinder bore choke) that allows the gun to swing fast for the up close crossing shots of Skeet. They also make fine upland game bird guns.

Sporting Clays though presents every kind of target you can imagine including rabbits running and bouncing across the ground and therefore are simply field guns.

Sporting clays guns will need screw in choke tubes to adapt to different stages and a speed wrench is helpful here.

Double barreled shotguns reign king in Sporting Clays because two chokes can be employed at the same time. I've owned one dedicated Sporting Clays gun, a Remington 11/87 Premier Sporting Clays that was basically stock except for a shorted fore stock that forced your hand a little further back making it swing faster and a special recoil pad that wouldn't hang up on your clothing since all stages begin with the the butt stock below your heart requiring you to mount the gun when the first bird is seen.

Sporting Clays guns make fine all around field guns.

Sporting Clays is the most difficult of these three disciplines making it the most fun IMO. I love Sporting Clays, especially the shortened version called Five Stand.

Nearly every Trap and Skeet tournament is won with a perfect score.

In the nearly 100 year history of Sporting Clays no tournament has ever been won with a perfect score.

You simply can't get bored with Sporting Clays.

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5 stand is what these guys are pushing me towards

I'd rather shoot 5 stand than eat.

I've shot 20 rounds of 5 stand in a single day many times, (that's 500 shells) and only stopped because it was closing time or I was broke.

My favorite 5 stand gun is my Browning Citori Field gun that I had the barrels ported, a Sporting Clays recoil pad installed and Briley extended choke tubes. It points naturally for me.

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Beginners should almost always start with a 12ga, simply because they put more lead in the air.

As you become more skilled and committed to the game you'll buy smaller gauged shotguns to challenge yourself.

The old timers, who are many times the most incredible shots I've ever seen, seem to prefer the diminutive 28ga., which can really challenge your skill level.

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  • 8 months later...

I should have read this thread before about a month ago... I hopelessly hooked..

Didn't get nothing fancy. Just a weatherby semi-auto made in Turkey. Since I finally got accepted in the gun club, and they got several shotgun ranges, I decided to just "Give it a try"...(Famous last words.)...

I haven't got my skill level up to the point where I participate in the matches they have on weekends, but I went out and bought a 3/4 cock thrower and a box of a clays, and a 100, 8 and half shot shells. ...Yeah...That's how it started...(God help me...LOL..)..

Me and my son went to range a couple of weeks ago, and have been about every other day since...God we can't get the grin off our faces...

Question...Before this goes on very much further, do you guys think I might need an intervention....

This is my shotgun pictured below...Not a fancy Bennelli, or the like, but it's making my start to think I might NEED a Benelli... ;D

post-751-144124385341_thumb.jpg

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There are no interventions in shotgunning, only preventions and you're past that point I fear. The needle's deep in your vein now.  God help your poor wife.

Of course you need a new Benelli.  How else are they going to stay in business if people don't buy new Benellis?

Think of all the families Benelli feeds. Buying a new Benelli is the moral and ethical thing to do. Hell, I'll go so far as to say that you don't have a hair on your ass if you don't go out and buy a new shotgun or two. ;D

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I still want to get involved in sporting clays just waiting till I get a decent over/under. My Mossberg 500 will work but it lacks the the versatility of an over/under. I used the 500 in the orientation my club offers , in watching others I realized I was working at least twice as hard as those with over/unders. Plus you have to load the first shell directly by hand into the breech when you step into the box/cage (don't know it that is everywhere or just a club rule), then of course you have to pump quickly on the doubles I've been looking seriously at a CZ CanvasBack which are under $800.

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