Clay Target Nation, August 2019

CLAYTONS CRAZY CLAYS how this works One of my favorite stations is what I call the in and out At this station I set up a pair of longish incoming targets I also set up a pair of outgoing targets The rules to the team of shooters are that each shooter is allowed only two shots and all four targets are released at the same time Shooter A must break both incoming targets before shooter B can attempt the outgoing targets If shooter A misses an incomer then shooter B must clean up his partners miss es before attempting either of his targets And yes after shooting the flurry several times this way shooters A and B change positions Now the shoe is on the other foot One of the favorites of the shooters is the rabbit herd This is a herd of four rabbits thrown simultaneously All the machines are nestled on one side of the field and throw rabbits that are quartering 56 WWW NSSA NSCA ORG AUGUST 2019 away All four targets move closely together but not close enough to break multiple targets with a single shot and all have slightly different speeds And yes all four targets jump at different points The shooters are allowed two shots each and they may engage the targets any way they want and may and often do change their strategy Shooting at and breaking one of the many target pieces that soon fill the air is common but it does not earn the team any points The favorite station at fundraiser shoots is my duck blind I set up five machines on one side of the field The machines launch targets that travel in a flock across the p Spectating and good natured heckling is strongly encouraged sky in a large arc The springs are adjusted so the targets are continually changing positions within the flock The key here is that one of the targets flying in the middle of the flock is a different color than the others This target is the hen among a flock of drakes Again each shooter is allowed two shots and shooting the drakes earns the team one point each Shooting the hen costs the team 5 points Thats right a negative score is very possible on this station Sometimes you are better off letting a drake get away than risk hitting the hen I encourage fundraiser shoots to have a game warden assess fines for hitting the hen e g 5 each All fines assessed are collected and become part of the funds raised that day An easy station to set up is on the 5 stand field Both shooters start with two shells in their gun and when the team calls pull the trapper starts releasing pairs of targets according to a menu which only he sees at threesecond intervals This is continued until 20 targets have been released The shooters may engage the targets any way they wish and they are allowed 10 shots each With a good mix of targets slow fast long close in out it doesnt take long for the best of team strategies to be rendered useless A fun station is one that I call the bonus station It is unique in that each shooter will shoot it individually It consists of two crossing targets that fly together just long enough that they can both be broken with a single shot If the shooter accomplishes this then a q With two shooters firing at the same targets at the same time in a flurry get ready for hot barrels and lots of fun