Trap vs. Skeet

[huntfish]

Semi-autos are great, but those of us who shoot a lot of Trap hate the darn things! You are constantly getting whacked by shells when the guy next to you is shooting a semi! And when you politely suggest they consider using a shell catcher, they usually give you a dirty look? :confused:

Real men shoot skeet and sporting clays......::ke:::ke:

[Buck Henry]

Real men shoot skeet and sporting clays......::ke:::ke:

If you could see how well I have been shooting lately, you would not be calling me no sissy! :)

PS: Trap is a tough game, tougher than skeet IMHO. With skeet, the target will (by design) follow the same path everytime if the high and low house throwers are properly calibrated. Thus, it becomes an excercise in proper timing of the shot to consistantly hit skeet targets. Not so with Trap! Yeah, the targets are always moving away from you in Trap, but you never know at what angle they are going to leave the trap house.

[MariettaMike]

If you could see how well I have been shooting lately, you would not be calling me no sissy! :)

I think they have got you mixed up with Gatorbyte back when he got a boo boo on his arm. :bawl:

To keep from getting hit by the empties flying out of my Benelli you should let me shoot one of your Citoris. :D

[Architorture]

If you could see how well I have been shooting lately, you would not be calling me no sissy! :)

PS: Trap is a tough game, tougher than skeet IMHO. With skeet, the target will (by design) follow the same path everytime if the high and low house throwers are properly calibrated. Thus, it becomes an excercise in proper timing of the shot to consistantly hit skeet targets. Not so with Trap! Yeah, the targets are always moving away from you in Trap, but you never know at what angle they are going to leave the trap house.

Absolutely dead on about skeet. I have to say skeet shooters kind of annoy me and I've never been extremely impressed by them. I actually heard a lady one day say the high tower thrower was a little slow. She could tell it was slow because she was missing ahead of the bird. Skeet shooters don't shoot the bird, they shoot where they know the bird is supposed to be. It's all muscle memory at that point. Now don't get me wrong, I know plenty of people who can shoot lights out at skeet and can also shoot really well in the field. I'm just saying that proficiency at skeet doesn't necessarily indicate performance in the field. If clays games are supposed to mimic hunting situations, skeet is probably the worst at that.

Personally, I love 5 stand.

[cucarachafly]

Yeah, skeet reminds me of my basketball days when the coach would have us shoot 100 free throws in a row during practice. Once you got zoned in you could generally hit 20 or 30 in a row before missing. But put me in a game with a 1 and 1 and the score tied, you'd think I'd never shot a free throw in my life! Definitely sporting clays is the way to go.

As far as guns go, find some rich guy's mistake that he's willing to get rid of so he can buy him some new golf clubs. Don't go cheap!!!

[fredw]

Absolutely dead on about skeet. I have to say skeet shooters kind of annoy me and I've never been extremely impressed by them. I actually heard a lady one day say the high tower thrower was a little slow. She could tell it was slow because she was missing ahead of the bird. Skeet shooters don't shoot the bird, they shoot where they know the bird is supposed to be. It's all muscle memory at that point. Now don't get me wrong, I know plenty of people who can shoot lights out at skeet and can also shoot really well in the field. I'm just saying that proficiency at skeet doesn't necessarily indicate performance in the field. If clays games are supposed to mimic hunting situations, skeet is probably the worst at that.

Personally, I love 5 stand.I'll be the first to admit that timing is extremely important in skeet shooting but to say that a skeet shooter shoots where the bird is supposed to be is just wrong:yikes: After all, a skeet shooter shoots doubles as a part of the round and, if the 12 gauge gets too easy, you just step down to the 20, the 28 and the 410:)

In all seriousness, the toughest targets have to be sporting clays/five stand.

Dan Mitchell, a many time all american skeet shooter and former captain of the Navy skeet team (some of you who have been shooting for some time may remember Dan from his Wold Creek days), shared his thoughts on the relative difficulties of trap and skeet by saying that, for a new shooter, it is easier to become relatively proficient in trap than in skeet (relatively proficient being in his opionion breaking 20 plus clays per round) but that it is more difficult for an experienced shooter to run a hundred in trap than in skeet. I do believe it's easier for a skeet shooter to switch to trap and have some level of success than it is for a trap shooter to make the conversion.

[Architorture]

I'll be the first to admit that timing is extremely important in skeet shooting but to say that a skeet shooter shoots where the bird is supposed to be is just wrong:yikes: After all, a skeet shooter shoots doubles as a part of the round and, if the 12 gauge gets too easy, you just step down to the 20, the 28 and the 410:)



When a woman says the skeet is moving too slow because she's shooting in front of it, that means she is shooting where the clay was supposed to be on a well-calibrated thrower.

I'm just saying that since the bird take the same path every time, it becomes much more memorizable and its not as much a reaction to the bird each time.

I'd even bet that most top skeet shooters break clays at almost the same place in their flight everytime and the time elapsed from when they say "pull" to the time they squeeze the trigger is probably very close.

Not to diminish skeet shooting because its still pretty difficult and I'm certainly not that great at it. I'd just give up if I had to do it with a .410, too. :)

[TroutSniper]

All of you who just shoot clays are sissy's. You think trap or skeet can be tough, try hittin a small duck flyin 70+ bout a foot and a half off the water while pitchin and dippin. That junk is hard as heck and not to mention frustratin.

[Trout8myfly]

Moved from O/U Advice thread since the topic is taking on a life of its own. :)

[Buck Henry]

All of you who just shoot clays are sissy's. You think trap or skeet can be tough, try hittin a small duck flyin 70+ bout a foot and a half off the water while pitchin and dippin. That junk is hard as heck and not to mention frustratin.

There you go calling me a sissy again! :) It is not that I do not want to hunt, it is that I do not have access to any good land to hunt on. These days you either own some good land to hunt on, you lease good land to hunt on, or you take your freakin chances hunting on public land! Shooting clays is not a bad option for us urban outdoorsmen!

PS: sorry to the OP for having taken this so far off the original topic, but again I am enjoying this thread immensely! ;)

[Architorture]

These days you either own some good land to hunt on, you lease good land to hunt on, or you take your freakin chances hunting on public land!

you need better friends! :D

dove hunting can be done relatively cheaply. (cheaper than planting your own field, at least.) some of the WMA's have good shoots and some of them are even quota hunts. opening day can be a little hairy on public land but it drops off dramatically after that.

so where do you guys shoot? Im sure some at Tom Lowe. Ever shoot Blalock Lakes? We should get a trip up and go to Etowah Valley. Nice place up there in Dawsonville.

[Buck Henry]

you need better friends! :D



LOL, is that ever the truth! :)

I shoot quite a bit down at Tom Lowe's, and we have been shooting up at Noontootla Creek Farms sporting clays course too. I have not been to the Etowah Valley location yet but have been meaning to check it out.

PS: we did a group shoot up at the NCF place a month or so back. Maybe we can do another one soon as it was a ton of fun!

[Ted]

Go shoot a round or two of sporting clays for a fun day in the field/woods. And do it south of Wolf Creek ::ke:

Preferably south of Macon/I-16 or at least south of Forsyth (town not County).

5-stand, trap, skeet? "My, I am getting all hot and sweltery. Mind if we take a break on the picnic table in the shade and have some fine lemonade, tea or a coke? I have some right over there in a cooler in my giant SUV/pickup. Or I'll ring up the club house on my cell phone and have that pretty girl that I can see through the window right there bring us something out".

Sporting clays? Pick a nice, sultry day like...um..today and walk or bounce your butt around in a golf cart on hot, dusty, sand or clay roads/ruts in the doghaired pine trees while the guy (or lady) next to you dances a circular jig while waving their gun around avoiding mosquitoes, horse flies, vultures and/or snakes.

But I have no opinion on the sissyness of anything :D

TH

[S.Trutta]

REAL men shoot ruffed grouse and leave those silly orange birds alone! ;)


rich

[Architorture]

REAL men shoot ruffed grouse and leave those silly orange birds alone! ;)


rich

real men TRY to shoot ruffed grouse in Georgia.

real gentlemen hunt quail over setters, pointers, and brittanies.

[Ted]

REAL men shoot ruffed grouse and leave those silly orange birds alone! ;)


rich

Do Real Men have to use the term Real Men? ;)

And is it really smart for me to bust the stones of people in a thread ABOUT SHOOTING? :nervs: I'm sorry. I got a lot more polite when my wife got her first shotgun (a semiauto Beretta) and got really proficient with it. :nervs: :nervs: :nervs: :nervs:

OK, I guess skeet, trap, 5-stand and even sporting clays are to wildland hunting like flyfishing a private trophy water is like commericial fishing on the North Sea.

I like busting clays though. I don't have to clean them and don't feel bad leaving them dead or wounded on the ground. Sometimes I choose to leave them unscathed. Just scare them a little with some warning shots.

TH

[Architorture]

I like busting clays though. I don't have to clean them and don't feel bad leaving them dead or wounded on the ground. Sometimes I choose to leave them unscathed. Just scare them a little with some warning shots.

TH

cant fry them and eat them, either, though.

[Buck Henry]

I think that we can all agree that shooting at a moving target with a shotgun is just plain fun! And I was not disparaging skeet either; it is great fun to do too. I just think that Trap is a bit more challenging due to the reasons previously stated.

PS: I use to hunt for Grouse up in the mountains of north Georgia when I had my Gordon Setter. The grouse are there, but in very sparse numbers. But it was still fun to get up there with a good upland dog and trounce around the woods for a few hours!

[VPW001]

Then there is International trap. IIRC, Three traps with varying elevations and angles and 2 shots per pull.

[Architorture]

PS: we did a group shoot up at the NCF place a month or so back. Maybe we can do another one soon as it was a ton of fun!

I'd be up for it as a warm up to hunting season, especially as the weather cools.

[S.Trutta]

real men TRY to shoot ruffed grouse in Georgia.

real gentlemen hunt quail over setters, pointers, and brittanies.

I dont live in Georgia anymore....now I call west Michigan home where there are plenty of grouse. And yet....I still spend alot more time trying to shoot them than actually hitting them :cheers:



rich

[Architorture]

I dont live in Georgia anymore....now I call west Michigan home where there are plenty of grouse. And yet....I still spend alot more time trying to shoot them than actually hitting them :cheers:



rich

they are freakishly fast...

[KnotSlippin']

they are freakishly fast...

The little hungarian partridge that I try to shoot move pretty durn fast, too. They seem to explode out of cover all at once, too; 20 tiny brown and gray birds moving at the speed of light. Crap. Hard to pick one out of the cloud to point at let alone drop one!

I haven't shot skeet or five stand, but they sound like good sporting games. Mainly, when I shoot trap, it's as a warm up for bird season. The club I belong to has five or six trap boxes and hosts shoots on Sundays and Thursdays. Maybe I oughta take my 870 Express and try to blast a few clays?

I'm already white trash; perhaps taking a pump to an O/U party would just prove that I'm a redneck, too?

Steven

[Architorture]

I'm already white trash; perhaps taking a pump to an O/U party would just prove that I'm a redneck, too?

Steven

absolutely! Outshoot them and drink all their beer, too. :cheers:

[TroutSniper]

Another duck hunter that also shots clays and upland birds back me up. I can be fairly lethal to all birds (except a turkey, can get all that lovin talk down) pheasants, ducks, quail, dove chucker etc etc but if yall really wanna test your shootin skills try and find yourself some where to go teal hunting. Them jokers are blazin fast, fun as heck to try and shoot and tasty. It can be difficult seeing as how most teal migrate bout the same time bow season opens up and the temp can be 100 or there abouts in early September, but give it a chance if you can.

Also one of the best places to teal hunt is in south TX, most guides/outiftters will throw half day cast and blast for red's or sea trout in the afternoon. Get some shootin and fishin in on a trip.

[Architorture]

the trick to teal is wait for your buddy to take the first shot, then all of the birds go straight up.

they are indeed fun and difficult to shoot. they look a lot faster than they are because of their size, roughly about the same as a pigeon, but not nearly as bulky.

waterfowl is a game of its own. like stonewall jackson said about tobacco... "I don't do too much of it for fear I'd like it too much."

[TroutSniper]

the trick to teal is wait for your buddy to take the first shot, then all of the birds go straight up.

they are indeed fun and difficult to shoot. they look a lot faster than they are because of their size, roughly about the same as a pigeon, but not nearly as bulky.

waterfowl is a game of its own. like stonewall jackson said about tobacco... "I don't do too much of it for fear I'd like it too much."

You hit the nail on the head. Fun don't quite sum it up.

I like that quote.

LHBB

[huntfish]

Moved from O/U Advice thread since the topic is taking on a life of its own. :)

Gone for 4 days and wow.....

I'll be the first to admit that timing is extremely important in skeet shooting but to say that a skeet shooter shoots where the bird is supposed to be is just wrong:yikes: After all, a skeet shooter shoots doubles as a part of the round and, if the 12 gauge gets too easy, you just step down to the 20, the 28 and the 410:)

In all seriousness, the toughest targets have to be sporting clays/five stand.

Dan Mitchell, a many time all american skeet shooter and former captain of the Navy skeet team (some of you who have been shooting for some time may remember Dan from his Wold Creek days), shared his thoughts on the relative difficulties of trap and skeet by saying that, for a new shooter, it is easier to become relatively proficient in trap than in skeet (relatively proficient being in his opionion breaking 20 plus clays per round) but that it is more difficult for an experienced shooter to run a hundred in trap than in skeet. I do believe it's easier for a skeet shooter to switch to trap and have some level of success than it is for a trap shooter to make the conversion.

Very true Fred. And a cross wind can cause havoc. I've seen birds come out of the low house and hit the hit house due to wind. Like you said, drop down from a 12 ga. It takes a 100 round in the 12 to get in the shootoff, usually the same with the 20. Now the 410, it's another story.

If I remember correctly, Didn't you break a 99 in 410....:cheers:

[fredw]

Gone for 4 days and wow.....



Very true Fred. And a cross wind can cause havoc. I've seen birds come out of the low house and hit the hit house due to wind. Like you said, drop down from a 12 ga. It takes a 100 round in the 12 to get in the shootoff, usually the same with the 20. Now the 410, it's another story.

If I remember correctly, Didn't you break a 99 in 410....:cheers:

Russ, I did.....and I'll never forget that low six double in the last round. It sailed away as I turned to jello.

I never figured out the 410. I could go out and shoot a 98.....or an 89....and not tell the difference in what I was doing. Never finished the skeet season with a class higher than A in the little gun.

Old joke, completely classless....the old skeet shooter who was going to end it all....with a 410. He took an extra shell in case he needed to take an option shot.:eek:

[Red Owl]

This may be off the wall but I might have been a better game shot BEFORE I started on trap and clays. A guy told me the clay targets start at top speed and immediately begin losing velocity whereas actual birds, in a lot of situations are gaining or at least maintaining velocity. The clays also start dropping whereas the birds are level or gaining altitude.

[Buck Henry]

Welcome to NGTO Red Owl! Your statement about clay targets loosing velocity is definitely true over the full flight of the target. But most clay targets (at least in Trap shooting) are hit at about the 25 yard mark from the Trap house, and thus I wonder if they have lost much velocity at that early point in their flight. Same is probably true for skeet too; targets are hit not long after they leave the high or low house. Again I am betting they are moving at near peak velocity when they are fired upon.

But you do bring up a very interesting point and I look forward to other shooter's responses.

[huntfish]

This may be off the wall but I might have been a better game shot BEFORE I started on trap and clays. A guy told me the clay targets start at top speed and immediately begin losing velocity whereas actual birds, in a lot of situations are gaining or at least maintaining velocity. The clays also start dropping whereas the birds are level or gaining altitude.

I know a bunch. Reflex shooters (game shot) often are better at the International game where the stock is held below the elbow when calling for birds. Getting set up on station, ala American style, causes the brain to attempt to take over thinking about proper lead. While shooting international, you might be thinking prior but reflex takes over.

Many a times, I've missed doubles only to get PO and call again and dust both.