# Sporting Clays



## driggy (Apr 26, 2005)

How come there is not much interest in Sporting clays in ND? I don't see anything posted in the SC magazine and there is basically no news from there. It is strong in MN and SD. Doesn't seem right.


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## magnum3.5 (Sep 19, 2003)

Driggy, Devils lake just add a 5-stand to there range. The interest is really growing we have about a half a dozen faithfull shooters and occaitional 10 -12 other shooters. Our league will start july 2nd, we draw for teams each team member shoots 12 scores and we take their best 10.
The team with the best ave. wins the bragging rights. Anyone interested pm me and I'll get you sighed up. This league is for both 5-stand and skeet. Magnum


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## MWC (Oct 1, 2004)

Magnum3.5

Was up and shot the 5 stand in Devils Lake over the 4th. You guys did a great job of setting that up. Keep up the good work. The interest will be there as soon as people start to try it for the first time.

Driggy

North Dakota's number's are growing, just not very fast. This weekend at the World FITASC Championship at the Horse and Hunt Club in Minnesota, I saw a few North Dakota plates and ran into a few old high school classmates. There just needs to be that one club that takes care of the shooters and keeps changing the targets in order to keep people interested and coming back.

MWC


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## njsimonson (Sep 24, 2002)

Probably because unlike MN, there are ACTUAL BIRDS to shoot at. Just ribbin' ya.

It's a developing trend, and there are three places to shoot trap/skeet near Valley City. Spring Creek Outfitters has a nice outdoor range which I have toured. Wimbledon has a gun club clay range. And there is a trap club in Valley City as well. So they're around, but like you said, they aren't hyped up very much.


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## MWC (Oct 1, 2004)

Nick,
I know the owner of Spring Creek had advertised for a shoot a couple of years ago at Scheels and Sportsmans in Fargo and had a decent turn out. There is a new course up at Lurverne called "Oh Shoot" and they have hosted a couple of NSCA tourney's. I shot in the spring shoot and had a blast. I think they had quite a few turn out. They have an awsome setup up there for sporting clays.

For all that are interested, the organization that registers sporting clays tournaments is called the "National Sporting Clays Association" - www.mynsca.com.

On a side note, the Minnesota State Sporting Clays Tournament is being held this weekend at Caribou Gun Club in LeSeur, MN. More information can be found on the Minnesota Sporting Clays website - http://www.mnsportingclays.org/

MWC


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## Hawkeye_90 (Sep 30, 2006)

Im in Montana I haven't seen much intrest in sporting clays here... a lot of trap, and now I got a doubles league started and that caught on. But at my trap club most people shoot doubles or singles trap... and the only thing they say about sporting clays is its fun... don't hear much about it though.


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## BIRDSHOOTER (Jul 18, 2005)

One word "Population base". whoops that's two words. :lol:

Minnesota has the population base to support the many sporting clays ranges it has. As the sport grows the number of clubs grows. North Dakota and Montana just do not have the population base to support alot of clubs.

With a sporting range you need more land, more traps and trappers to work the course than a standard trap range, so the overhead goes up. I might add that areas like Fargo, Bismark, Grand Forks might do well with clubs built nearby. Any clubs life blood is it's league shooting. Some of the more successful clubs in Minnesota are supported by very strong league shooting programs, with 100's of shooters shooting on a weekly basis.

Being a member club of the National Sporting Clays Assoc. gets your clubs name in print and on the map, and hosting tournaments helps your club gain recognition.


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## driggy (Apr 26, 2005)

Birdshooter
May be moving to MSP area next year. Hear I'll have lots of clubs to pick from. I won't miss the winter spring leagues up here as it gets pretty cold some weeks. Think lowest we shot last season was -10. On double shots (report or true) it was hard to see target through the smoke of the first shot. I will miss Grouse Ridge. Suppose to be one of the nicest clubs in the U.S. if not the world. Scenery and presentations are incredible.


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## zogman (Mar 20, 2002)

A very top notch sporting clays range southwest of GF about 10 miles. 
After shooting trap for about 12 or so years sporting clays was a very humbling experience..........


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## BIRDSHOOTER (Jul 18, 2005)

Driggy,

You won't have trouble finding a place to shoot around here, many top notch and a few nationally recognized clubs. World Fitasc Championships were held this past summer at the Minnesota Horse and Hunt Club in Prior Lake. If you are not familiar with this yearly event, it is the superbowl of sporting events for the entire world. Shooters from around the globe ascend on the host club each year for this best of the best competition. It is held in a different country each and every year, and usually makes a trip back to the USA every 6 years or so.

Anyway there's plenty to shoot in this area and many guys shoot the entire winter. Our winters can get chilly in December and January, but lately we've had some pretty mild ones.


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## Hawkeye_90 (Sep 30, 2006)

We have a lot of trap clubs theres one in every town... but not very many of them have a sporting clay range.


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## driggy (Apr 26, 2005)

Birdshooter

I grew up in West Fargo so I know about chilly winters. The hardest thing I'll have to get used to is the wind moving targets around. Alaska is amazingly calm most of the time. Here the Caribou is top notch also.

Zogman

Where exactly is that range. I finished up my AF time at GFAFB and am still know the area a bit. Sounds like it's south of the air port.


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## MWC (Oct 1, 2004)

Driggy,

As Birdshooter stated, there are plenty of places around the Twin Cities that are open year round. The NSCA tournament circuit here in Minnesota is a great way to get introduced to all of the clubs. The tournament circuit does start in January and ends in December with at least one shoot every month. The World FITASC was this years big shoot and was quite an experience. I know what you mean when you say you'll miss Grouse Ridge. If I moved from here, I'd miss Horse & Hunt and Caribou too....

Shoot me a PM if you get to Twin cities.... I'll show you around if your interested....

MWC


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## driggy (Apr 26, 2005)

Thanks MWC. From talking with the locals here that have a bit more money than I have, they really enjoyed the Fitasc down there. As they put it, with as liitle terrain as they had to work with they put together an excellent quality shoot. Most up here that have shot the courses down there say they prefer the Caribou. Maybe the terrain in the Minnesota valley area is closer to what we have up here.

Now all I have to do is figure why I keep going into a slump the last 2-4 stations of a shoot. This has cost me 2 shoots so far in the last month or two. Would have shot upper 80s but ended up with upper 70s. 2 shoots ago I actually zero'd the last station. After everyone else shot, I took 4 more shots and ran'em. It's gotta be in my head or something.


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## MWC (Oct 1, 2004)

It happens to the best of us... I can't even count how many times I have done that on the last few stations and then look at the board when your done and see you missed it by 1 or 2 targets for a win. I did it at our state shoot, dropped 12 of the last 18 targets and lost by 9+-. They were not difficult targets, just had the number in my head that I needed to shoot for the win, knew I was close and blew it.

I have found that if you DO NOT count your misses and just think of breaking the target I do shoot better. Had a few Master class guys tell me this more than once as it is very hard to due. Especially when you have only dropped 10+- birds coming down to the last few stations. Your thinking, well if I break 7 out of 8 and 6 out of 8 maybe I have a chance to win my class!! Instead of - I need to insert my barrels here and break the target over here.

I met a couple of guys from Alaska last year at the World Fitasc. One the guys actually came down in April to due some snow goose hunting and shot a couple of our NSCA tourney's while he was here. The Horse and Hunt has about the same terrain as Caribou and has more courses so I not sure what they meant by little terrain. They are not located in the mountains by any means, but they did not have to put up a tower to present a target above or below the shooter. I recall one station with 3 rabbit targets that were at least 30 ft below your feet. (Missed a few there :roll: )


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## BIRDSHOOTER (Jul 18, 2005)

driggy said:


> Here the Caribou is top notch also.


Caribou is a very good place to shoot. His courses are 100% automated (no trappers). Randy Voss has hosted many national, zone, and state shoots. Great hunting preserve If I don't say so myself. Also.... I especially like his european driven pigeon shoots he holds once a month during the winter and spring. :sniper: I relate it to a poor man's argentina. :lol:


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## Hawkeye_90 (Sep 30, 2006)

In the montana state trap shoot I had 48 straight birds and my coach was going to give 50 bucks if I got anoter 25 in a row. I missed my last bird, trap is 95% mental and 5% all the other stuff. Its a mental game. One thing I learned at a shooting workshop is the subconcious doesnt understand the negavtive. If you say I can't miss the last bird all it hears is miss the last bird and you will miss, it only understands the positive so if you say I will hit the last bird then you will hit it.


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