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Clay fliers


Abilene, SASS # 27489

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1 hour ago, Long Hunter SASS #20389L said:

This is what cowboy action use to be and many newer shooters will never have a chance to experience it. Maybe not all of the above on one stage but at least one on every stage.

It was definitely lots of fun! George West, TX with the Texas Riviera Pistoleros. Buckshot Sully won the side match… I tried to load a video but not sure it worked. 

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2 minutes ago, Abilene, SASS # 27489 said:

The long link gave an error, but the link in the gray box downloaded to my computer.  Fun stage!  But I had to watch it sideways. :)

Oops … glad it worked … 

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Our club has a pair of poppers, that took a tank to knock them down, and the clay only comes up like 5'.  

Needless to say, not a fan favorite. 

 

We just purchased 2 spring loaded throwers, plat trips the trigger, and the spring loaded lever throws the clay, height is adjusted by the number of springs. 

We are looking forward to adding them in the stages this year. 

We also have two shotgun swingers, the activator falls out from under a weighted arm, the clay is in a holder on the other end, and swings in an arc, we make it more "interesting" by placing a no shoot target covering the clay at rest sometimes.  

We throw in a Texas Star and other flip down targets once in a while as well.  

 

And to plug a local shoot, if you like shotgun the Buzzard Boil in Connecticut each Columbus day weekend has plenty, If I recall correctly main match 12 stages was just shy of 90 shotgun rounds, if you shot clean.  Fliers on almost every stage, plate racks, etc. defiantly a fun shoot. 

 

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Howdy Again

 

Years ago, one of the clubs near here had a 'Cowboy Trap' stage.

 

We did this at a standard Trap field. The machine was set to throw the targets consistently the same direction every time, rather than rotating and randomly throwing them in different directions. And rather than standing back 16 yards as is typical in Trap, we were standing right next to the house.

 

I remember some of the shooters cursing because they did not have any experience shooting moving targets.

 

I used my Model 1897 Winchester with its 30 inch full choke barrel, which is a pretty good Trap gun. Shooting these targets was like shooting fish in a barrel for me, I couldn't miss, they were so easy. Until a young lady on my posse hissed "Trapshooter' the same way we sometimes say 'Gamer'. I was laughing so hard after that that I think I missed a few.

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I shot a match in Illinois a few years ago where they had "clay" popper that instead of throwing a clay, launched a beer can. The beer used as targets was donated by the local police who had confiscated it from underage drinkers. If you really centered the pattern, there'd be a big foamy cloud, and then most of an aluminum can would sort of float to the ground like a falling leaf. It was a lot of fun.

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That may well have been the Saturday portion of the annual St. Jude Charity Shoot held at the late, lamented Shady Creek Shootists near Little York.  Beer donations also included some very out of date stuff from a couple of the local suppliers.  Target setters were instructed to thoroughly shake the cans for better effect before inserting them in the throwers.  This shoot usually attracted well over 150 shooters, and there were two can throwers on the stage.  It was great fun...unless you were a member of the cleanup crew that came back on Monday morning to rake up the 300+ exploded cans while inhaling the aroma of the mix of stale and skunky beer that wafted up from the entire beer-covered hillside...:rolleyes:

 

CS

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On 1/26/2022 at 3:20 PM, Count Sandor, SASS #74075 said:

That may well have been the Saturday portion of the annual St. Jude Charity Shoot held at the late, lamented Shady Creek Shootists near Little York.  Beer donations also included some very out of date stuff from a couple of the local suppliers.  Target setters were instructed to thoroughly shake the cans for better effect before inserting them in the throwers.  This shoot usually attracted well over 150 shooters, and there were two can throwers on the stage.  It was great fun...unless you were a member of the cleanup crew that came back on Monday morning to rake up the 300+ exploded cans while inhaling the aroma of the mix of stale and skunky beer that wafted up from the entire beer-covered hillside...:rolleyes:

 

That was it. I was only able to shoot there twice. It was a great shoot. I still have the St. Judes pin I got for shooting in it. I've left the area and I didn't realize that that event/club was gone. I had to re-shoot the stage with the can thrower because it poured rain that day and smudged my score. The score keeper thanked me for my good sportsmanship -- heck, I was there to shoot, and getting to re-shoot such a fun stage was like a bonus for me. (I am glad I never had to help with the clean-up).

 

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Hey Wartrace Regulators!  My first ever SASS shoot was there in early 2020, and we had a popper at The Trestle stage.  I think I was one of only about 3 or 4 people in my posse that hit it.  It was about the only thing I did right at that match.

 

I haven't seen the popper again since then.  Was it a one-time thing? Or did I just miss it because I usually only make it to one shoot a month? Why don't we have it more often?

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We (Kings River Regulators) generally shoot a couple moving or stationary clays in every monthly 2-day match. 

 

 In November, one Sunday stage had us shoot (at) a couple medium-fast clay birds from a conventional thrower with the Rifle (one of our shooting bays is an old mining pit with a good backup wall).  Each hit got the shooter a raffle ticket for our Thanksgiving turkey raffle.  Misses were not counted, except the clock time.   Only about 10% of rifle shots connected.   When someone hit the bird, a shout of support went up.  It really  was great fun.  

The day before, we added a 6th optional stage and gave everyone a 4-shot, 4-bird chance to practice with the rifle.  I think it upstaged all the other stages that day for popularity.

 

In December, our Cowgirls wrote and put on our Christmas Match.  They included clay birds on popper launchers on almost every stage.  One stage had clay birds packed with coarse mylar fragments that sparkled when broken.  Again, great fun.  Our  Cowgirls really seem to enjoy breaking clay birds.   They hit a very high % with the shotgun.  

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If I recall correctly, there are a bunch of stories about folks doing that with big game rifles at Gunsite when the Colonel was running it.  I think the clay birds have to be going straight away for best results.  I have a very large backstop, if I had a machine, I'd have to give it a try.  Thanks for the memory.

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