Introduction

Sporting clays is a form of clay pigeon shooting, sometimes described as "golf with a shotgun" because a typical course includes from 10 to 15 different shooting stations laid out over natural terrain. Unlike trap and skeet, which are games of repeatable target presentations, sporting clays simulates the situations of live-quarry shooting, offering a great variety of trajectories, angles, speeds, elevations, distances, and target sizes.  The clay course uses up to 15 stations to present 100 targets.  The difficulty for this course is set for intermediate to advanced shooters. Beginners enjoy this course by picking and choosing the stations that they shoot and practice on the more difficult to build their shooting skills.


Matches at RBGC

Monthly Sporting Clays match is usually the 1st Saturday of the month and consists of 100 Targets in usually 14 to 15 of the available stations. Registration begins at 9:30 am safety briefing at 9:50 and the match begins with a shotgun start at 10:00 am. Cash Prize for HOA in the match - match dates and results on the club website rbgc.org
 

Procedure

Participants will be assigned to a squad of shooters and each squad will shoot usually 14 – 15 stations on the course travelling together as a squad. Shooters will rotate the shooting order taking turns on first shooter at each station. Each group will get one set of show birds for that station. If a shooter missed the show birds close attention to the targets of other shooters in the group will provide insight into the shots.  No additional show birds should be thrown. Squad can walk or drive the course.  Limited golf carts are available by reservation to rent from the club, personal carts are also welcomed. Parking for trailers is located at the bird barn just uphill from the club manager’s office. High Overall (HOA) score will be the winner of the match. All shooters are asked to pick up their spent hulls and discard them in the provided containers after each round.


Equipment

The RBGC Sporting Clays match is generally shot with a 12 gauge shotgun using a variety of choke tubes. Other gauge shotguns may be used but are a slight handicap because of fewer pellets in the shot load. The shotgun used is most often an over/under double barrel shotgun. Autoloaders are also used, but create challenges retrieving your spent hulls. Pump action shotguns create a handicap in shooting doubles targets. In addition to a shotgun, a shell pouch or vest is needed to keep shells at hand and keep the flow of the match moving smoothly. Safety glasses and hearing protection are required for everyone on the field.  Sporting Clays is shot with lead target ammo with a shot size between 7 1/2 and 9.


Getting Started

It is easy to begin shooting sporting clays with a sporting shotgun that is capable of two shots. New shooters will find that the established shooters are very helpful to explain the procedure and assist in getting into the game. For more information contact Shotgun Hill at: shotgunmanager@rbgc.org