Sporting Clays Herald Arrival of Spring

Sporting Clays
Sporting Clays Herald Arrival of Spring

Columbus, OH –-(Ammoland.com)- With warmer days sweeping America, many gun ranges that were closed during the winter months have now reopened.

While a common sight of spring is colorful flowers, in many areas those flowers have been joined by more color— bright orange clays stacked in throwers on sporting clays courses.

Sporting clays is described as “golf with a shotgun.” Shooters move around a set course and stop at stations to engage flying clay targets that move across the sky —or hop across the ground— at varying speeds and in many directions. A Sept. 2011 Southwick and Associates survey estimated 19 million recreational shooters in America with sporting clays courses attracting many of those shooters.

It takes hand-eye-gun coordination to bring the targets down—or burst them.

Sporting clay shooting originated in Britain in the early 1900s and arrived in America during the 1980s. Most courses offer 10 to 15 stations. While over/under shotguns are the most popular firearms in this challenge, shooters can effectively shoot moving targets with side-by-sides and semi-auto shotguns. Twelve gauge guns are the most commonly used models. Some shooters shoot clays to become better with a shotgun that they already own and frequently use for hunting.

If you’d like to find a course for shooting clays, visit www.claytargetsonline.com. If you wish to find a retailer that sells shotguns and the necessary shooting supplies, visit https://www.nssf.org/retailers/find.


About U.S. Sportsmen’s Alliance

The U.S. Sportsmen’s Alliance is a national association of sportsmen and sportsmen’s organizations that protects the rights of hunters, anglers and trappers in the courts, legislatures, at the ballot, in Congress and through public education programs. Visit www.ussportsmen.org.