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Sporting Clays
With its roots coming from England,
sporting clays is a shotgun shooting game in which clay pigeons are presented to
the gunner in ways that mirror the flight pattern of game birds, or occasionally
rabbits, in their natural habitats.
The shooting grounds are laid out in
stations with each station representing one type of bird or a combination of
game; a rabbit and a grouse, for example. At each station, clay pigeons are
thrown in pairs, five or so pairs to the station. A course consists of several
stations, usually five to ten, where 100 birds or more may be presented over the
course. Sometimes birds from the same traps may be shot from different
positions, so the gunner sees the same target from entirely different angles,
which creates entirely new shooting problems. An area presenting pigeons to
several stations from a single trap is called a field. With variations in trap
position, trap speed, shooting position, and flight paths of different types of
clay pigeons, targets can come through the trees, from under your feet, straight
down, over your head, quartering, going away, left to right, right to left, and
in any path a real bird might choose. The key words are unpredictable, variable,
and sometimes bordering on impossible.
As in golf, the rules of sporting clays
become more specific, and therefore more restrictive as the level of competition
increases. There are a few basic rules, however, that define the sport: 1) The
gun should be a 12, 20, 28, or 410 guage with no more than 3 dram and not to
exceed 1 1/8 oz of #7 1/2 spherical shot. 2) Only two shells may be loaded. 3)
If doubles are tossed and both are broken with one shot, both are counted as
kills. 4) A requirement is that all persons wear approved eye and ear protection
while on the course.
The Roots Wingshooting with a shotgun had its
orgins in England in the mid-eighteenth century. The next century saw live
pigeon shoots become popular, reaching their peak toward the end of the
Victorian era, when ones ability to handle a gun had definite social
implications. American inventor George Ligowski invented a replacement for live
birds in 1880 made of baked clay and modeled after the clamshells he used to
skim across water. Ligowskis clay pigeon quickly replaced feather-filled balls,
the only other alternative to live birds, and just as quickly replaced the real
thing. The first clay pigeon game, which imitated live pigeon shooting, was
called trap, after the device used to hold and release live birds. Next, a new
shooting game called skeet was developed in New England which was designed to
approximate the fast, close-range shooting found in that areas grouse coverts.
Meanwhile back in England, the demand to perform at estate shoots on driven game
gave rise to a number of shooting schools. These schools, in turn, adapted
Ligowskis clay pigeon to use on practive fields of targets that approximated the
flight of live quarry, as the English like to call it. Sporting clays was born.
Although the Britsh Open, Englands premier sporting clays competition, dates
back to 1925, sporting clays has made its greatest gains in popularity in
England within the last 20 years. Meanwhile it took a while for the sport to
make it to America. In 1985, the Orvis Company hosted the first national
sporting clays championship at its Houston facilities, for which the company
established the Orvis Cup. Sporting clays had come to America. It is rapidly
growing and as new ranges are popping up, more people are trying this
challenging game.
More information on Sporting Clays is available via email at
info@isca.addr.com.
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