About Clay Shooting

Clay Pigeon Shooting

Many years ago shooting live pigeons released from boxes, or 'traps' was a fashionable competitive sport, often involving large sums of money. Then, at the beginning of the last century glass balls were substituted for live birds and these in turn were superseded by 'clay pigeons' - saucer shaped discs of baked ceramic material (often re-cycled mineral waste.)

Today clay pigeon shooting is a popular sport that covers all social classes, many women are enthusiastic competitors and it is one of the few sports in which the disabled can compete on level terms with able-bodied people.

Most shooting is done through clubs with their own shooting grounds where there will be a series of traps - or launchers - which catapult the clays into the air to simulate a variety of wild quarry.

A number of different disciplines has evolved, such as 'down-the-line,' 'sporting' and 'Olympic skeet' which offer different kinds of challenge. Many people begin their shotgun shooting by learning on clay pigeons and it is the ideal way to gain experience without committing yourself to a large outlay. Shooting grounds will invariably have guns which the novice can borrow while making up their mind about taking up the sport in earnest.

Clay pigeon shooting can be a particularly attractive for those who live in towns or are limited in the amount of time that they can give to their sport. It can also be relatively inexpensive, compared with paying for a day's live quarry shooting.

Arms and equipment

Shotguns come in a wide variety of forms, from rimfire models with 5.5 mm (.22 inch) bores up to massive punt guns with 5 cm (2 inch) bores, and in nearly every type of firearm operating mechanism. The common characteristics that make a shotgun unique center around the requirements of firing shot. These features are the features typical of a shotgun shell, namely a relatively short, wide cartridge, with straight walls, and operating at a relatively low pressure.

Ammunition

Ammunition for shotguns is referred to in the USA as shotgun shells, shotshells, or just shells (when it is not likely to be confused with artillery shells). The term cartridges is standard usage in the United Kingdom. Single projectile loads are generally called shotgun slugs or just slugs.

The shot pellets from a shotgun spread upon leaving the barrel which makes it easier to hit small targets at suitable ranges than with a rifle. The shot is usually fired from a smoothbore barrel; another configuration is the rifled slug barrel, which is used to fire a single projectile (though some slugs can also be fired from smoothbore weapons).

Since the power of the burning charge is divided among the pellets, the energy of any one ball of shot is fairly low, making shotguns useful primarily for hunting birds and other small game. However, the large number of projectiles makes the shotgun useful as a close-combat weapon or defensive weapon, where the short range ensures that many of the projectiles of shot will hit the target