# Differences between Trap, Skeet, Sporting Clays



## gibbsron (Oct 31, 2005)

Hello Sportspeople,
In a nutshell, what are the differences among Trap, Skeet, and Sporting Clays shooting. Being new to the shotgun world, I've gone out with buddies and shot at a single clay thrown into the air by hand. I'd like to move toward a bit more sophistication in organized shooting. Also, I'm moving toward buying a Beretta parallel 391 for shooting. I'm open to your ideas on type of gun and differences of the above. Thanks.


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## Bob Kellam (Apr 8, 2004)

easy, hard and very hard

Trap the clays always go away from you at a given speed. 
Skeet you have clays that fly at you away from you and crossing in both directions

sporting clays seperates the men from the boys. I am not very good at any of them but I love the smell of gun powder! 

5 stand was the most fun in my opinion.

I was told repetedly last year in league that it has nothing to do with the gun you use it is the shooter. It sunk in toward the end of the season.

Bob


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## dlip (May 16, 2004)

Trap...
For beginners, there is basic 16 yard five station trap. Once you get into advanced trap, not only can you begin to start shooting handi-cap, but you can also shoot doubles trap. But you start on the 16 yard marker(16 yards from the trap house) Trap comes from one point and one point only which gets boring in my opinion, but it can go in any direction so you can't anticipate it. This is a picture of me at my shoot about 9 months ago. Look directly in front of me and you'll see the trap house. And to my right and above my head, you can see the clay.









Skeet....
Heres my favorite! I have a few pictures of the skeet range from years ago. Skeet has eight stations and two throwers. On station one, station two, station six, and station seven, you shoot a single from the high house, the low house, then you shoot a true pair. On station three, four, and five, you shoot singles from the high and low house, and on station eight, you still just shoot singles from each house, but you are in a pretty odd position. I know I'm probably confusing you, because it took me long enough to get the hang of which ones to shoot doubles on and I was actually there in person. 
Here's my buddy on station one.









Me on station 3









Me on station 6









Me on Station 8(high house)


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## gabe (Dec 21, 2004)

Do you have a picture of you missing the goose at 20 yards last year?


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## dlip (May 16, 2004)

No, but I have a picture of my killing my limit of ducks, every pheasant within gunning range, and a goose from Nodak if you want one. I know it's been a while since you've killed a limit so you may have forgotten what it looks like.


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## gabe (Dec 21, 2004)

Wow DLIP, you must be ready for the season in Oklahoma with those credentials. Hope to kill a few with you this year.


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## dlip (May 16, 2004)

I'll do everything I can to make sure we kill more than a few. So far things are looking good. Water levels are looking a little below normal for the lakes around here and same goes for stock ponds.


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## gabe (Dec 21, 2004)

Sounds good. We are set up for a trip to Eastern Oklahoma to hunt ducks. We have blinds we can use. Looking at the first couple of weekends in December for a wekend trip. Let me know if you are in.


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## dlip (May 16, 2004)

You name a weekend that is completely set in stone and I will do everything I can to do it. I got everything y'all might need so give me a call. I'd love to go hunt big bad Kerr.


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## Bob Aronsohn (Mar 21, 2005)

Trap, Skeet, Five Stand, and Sporting Clays are all fun to shoot. Everyone has there favorite game I'm quite sure.

These are good games to have some very good camaraderie with friends and also new friends whom you will get to know. They were designed to make you more familiar with your shotgun by the time hunting season rolled around. Some guys only shoot clay pigeons and have never actually hunted but I would like to think they are in the minority.

Bob A.


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## BIRDSHOOTER (Jul 18, 2005)

gibbsron said:


> Hello Sportspeople,
> In a nutshell, what are the differences among Trap, Skeet, and Sporting Clays shooting. Being new to the shotgun world, I've gone out with buddies and shot at a single clay thrown into the air by hand. I'd like to move toward a bit more sophistication in organized shooting. Also, I'm moving toward buying a Beretta parallel 391 for shooting. I'm open to your ideas on type of gun and differences of the above. Thanks.


Trap and skeet are set up on a small field and shot in 25 target rounds. In Trap the targets are driven away from you at angles from slightly left, straight away and slightly right. In skeet you get a target from high house on the left and targets from a low house on the right. the targets are always thrown the same tradjectory from either houses. The difference being you move in a semi-circle starting at the high house and move towards the low house every few shots (8 stations in all).

Sporting is a different beast. It's been explained as Golf with a shotgun. The analogy being with a golf course you have 18 completely different holes, each one being different. In Sporting you may have 10 completely different stands (stations) in which a completely different presentation is thrown on each stand. In the early days each station would try to duplicate a different game birds flight. Today as people become more accomplished course designers are continously trying to fool the shooters with tricky angles and target sizes. Yes target sizes, there is the standard which is like your trap target, then a midi or 90mm 2/3rds the size of the standard, and mini or 60mm with is roughly 2 inches in diameter. There are some other targets they use but these are most common. This is already getting too long but smaller targets look further away then they actually are hence the trickery of the course designer. BEWARE !! Sporting clays is highly addictive.... :lol:


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## goodgrubguy (Jan 29, 2013)

gabe said:


> Do you have a picture of you missing the goose at 20 yards last year?


DLIP...No rest for the weary here....I love it! Thanks for the great info! I was wondering the same thing. I don't shoot for sport but it looks like it would be fun. I'm a killer and griller myself. I don't really shoot unless I'm eating it. I may look into it though. Sorry your buddy piled on but it was funny to read.

Dave


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