doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion DoubleGun BBS @ doublegunshop.com Cost of sporting clays

Those are some great clubs, Historic.
I did the Lord Ripon Challenge at WLSS. Accompanied by their high pheasant training.
Some grouse work at Churchill’s, and restorative clays at Thimbleby.

You have some great clubs, brimming with hospitality, there.
I would say Sandanona is similar to Thimbleby.

It’s hard for a club to have gunsmithing, a big retail showroom, a restaurant, rifle ranges, as well as championship clays facilities, and then be expected to give it away.

Look up Mid Hudson in New Paltz---50 ish free cart

Longer better birds no trapper. 3-4 traps per station.

Smoking Crack is cheaper than shooting but much harder on the body. Shooting is an expensive hobby but one we choose to do. I know prices in some prices are out of sight, I just ignore those areas. If I told you how much I spent on fields for Dove this year, who decided to mostly migrate South a week before the season opener, you might tell me go shoot $1 clay targets and save money. My harvest was 90% below the five year running average of birds harvested. In part that was because we had so few birds that could not give friends a good experience shooting so this year was a bust for them. But I'll be back next year, doing the same thing and not questioning if clay targets are cheaper. They are, even at $1/ bird. I just do not get early as much pleasure shooting them. They are a filler, between seasons for me at this point.

I pay $38/100. Our club is private so we have dues. The public club by my house is $63./100. The traps have issues and many times you have to by pass a station as the batteries are dead.I do not shoot there. At our club things always work and if a trap happens to be not working, you call the club house and generally with in 5-10 minutes they are out there to fix it

I think skeet and trap 5.50 at our club . Was $5.

John
Quality Arms
Arrieta

I currently pay dues at 4 clubs that have sporting clays. In spite of reciprocal agreements, I choose to pay dues to help support the places and to have a voice. All told, including my local trap/skeet club I shoot about 10k targets/year. The venues are all different, they have different cultures, and I enjoy them all. As a member, I pay between 28 and 35 cents per target. The trap/skeet place is $6/line, I volunteer there one day a week.

I recently visited Seattle which is a very expensive place to live and was surprised that the shooting venues are priced about the same as here. I even got to shoot bunker trap and wobble skeet.

White Flyers are about 13 cents now coming up the driveway. I'm well aware of what challenges the clubs all face trying to keep the doors open.

Compared to some activities, the cost of shotgun shooting isn't that bad. I know people who attend spectator sport stadiums and visit Vegas who spend multiples annually of what I do on shooting. You could get a boat and pour your money into that hole...

If you enjoy a place like Orvis, you go right ahead. I'll shoot 3 targets for the price of one instead and then sit on the porch with a cold beverage from the fridge, grab a brat from the grill, and swap lies with my friends. That is the experience and ambiance I prefer.

Whatever part of this sport fits your style, do it now. It won't be getting any cheaper and you aren't getting younger. Do it while you can and have no regrets.

Orvis is not even the most expensive in the area.

Orvis has two courses and a lot short birds. Skeet/LM works fine. A lot of 15-20 yarders.
They now have some Glenthornes and A10s on display.

Nicer stuff costs more, there's no getting around it. This isn't a inexpensive pursuit anymore. If you have an affordable club nearby then consider yourself lucky. How they survive is a mystery to me.

One thing I have learned over the years in competing in, and shooting for fun, sporting clays. The quality of the target setting has nothing to do with the cost of shooting them. When you go and shoot at a nationally known and highly touted venue, and pay the big bucks to do so, you are paying for the ambience, not necessarily the quality of the target presentations.

I'd rather shoot a course set by a great target setter than shoot the fanciest, most scenic venue with so-so targets. Inexperienced target setters think that speed and a short/narrow shooting window makes good targets. Good target setters know that is wrong, and are much more technical in their presentations.

It is an unfair comparison to make between a commercial enterprise with a professional site manager and paid staff, a a local club run by volunteers.

Ours is a private, but open to the public course, built by a very energetic group of volunteers. I pay $225.00 for 1100 targets and the whole course is automated. We have cards that the electronic throwers work from and we have 3 five stands, 1 open walk around course with 5 throwers and 2 long courses and a sub gun course.

I can shoot as much or as little as I want at any station. It is a great course.

My granddaughter shooting a 410…