Sporting Clays
Sporting clays is a shooting sport that is one of the disciplines of Clay pigeon shooting — often called golf with a shotgun. The objective of the sport is to accurately shoot a flying target. The sport requires equipment such as a shortgun with cartridges, a trap machine that release targets, and clay targets.
Sporting clays is very popular because of the challenges the sport presents, which is similar to live quarry shooting. The target is released in various trajectories, by changing the angle and speed of release. The target shape and size are also changed between releases.
The sport is conducted in a course format, where shooters move from station to complete the entire course. Each course can have 10 to 15 stations, with each station presenting unique challenges. Trap machines are setup in each station to release targets. Targets are released in pairs in three different variations, simultaneously, sequentially, or on report.
In each station, targets are thrown in rounds of 25. The shooters are split into squads of six and shoot between 6 and 10 targets in each station. Targets can come from left or right, move inwards or outwards, fly up or fall down.
Some of the variations of sporting clays are Five Stand, Compak Sporting, FITASC and Super Sporting.
Other Clay Target Shooting Disciplines
- Clay pigeon shooting — the umbrella term for shooting sports involving clay targets - the shooters try to shoot flying targets like clay pigeons
- Skeet Shooting — participants will attempt to break a clay disk flung into the air using shot guns.
- Trap Shooting — one of the variants of shotgun shooting at clay targets
Related Sports
- Metallic Silhouette Shooting — players compete to test their skills by shooting at silhouette metal targets.
- Hunting — an activity that involves tracking and killing animals with various weapons (not a sport?).
Related Pages
- About Shooting Sports — about the many sports which involve shooting at targets using guns like pistols and rifles.
- Complete list of sports
- The Encyclopedia of Sports
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