I'd like to get a good one that partially re-sets itself. I priced some today, but couldn't find a semi-compact one. The double thrower was about $200 and I believe you had to pull it with a bumper hitch.
Looking for something a little more compact. Recommendations?
Gene, the Do-All traps aren't bad, but check your local sporting clays ranges. As they've moved to automatic traps, many have some manuals that they aren't using and are just sitting on the property somewhere. I just sold the Lincolns I started our club with, and they sold really cheaply. Lincolns are, in my opinion, the top of the line in manual traps.
That's great advice, but there is a dearth of Sporting Clay ranges in my part of the country. The one I belonged to closed and sold all its traps to another one that closed. And I think that one sold its traps to the one that's about 45 minutes away.
I don't put a lot of demand on a trap, but need something that's portable and doesn't take up a whole lot of space in my garage. I'm pretty much stuck to muscle power for my clay flinger as the range I go to is a cop range and I have no official status there.
watch Cabelas. they have the do-all and others on sale every so often. we purchased the single- stack auto at a good price w/ shipping to NH and use it on a steady basis.
I recently purchased a Champion WheelyBird battery powered trap from Amazon.com and am very impressed with it for the size and cost. It's not very large, is well built and is made to be mobile. The only thing I would have liked is slightly larger tires to make it easier to move around in the woods and field.
https://www.amazon.com/Champion-40909-Wh...rds=wheely+birdAmazon was about $30-50 cheaper then everywhere else I looked. For about $250 it sure beats having to use a manual trap by hand and it throws a nice target. Unlike most manual traps you can use the WheelyBird alone if you want to as it comes with a foot pedal release. My next move will be to pick up the wireless remote for it. It is also adjustable so you can have a variety of target presentations and speeds.
I used my points and picked up a Do-All at Cabela's when they were on sale. It's been fun but I have had some issues with it dropping the targets; probably just an adjustment thing I haven't quite figured out yet. I also bought the wobble attachment which has been a great addition. I found Amazon had a much better price than Cabela's on the attachment.
You know you are old when you can remember manual cocked and loaded skeet and trap traps. Back then even the calls were different. Mark, Bird and Pair was how I learned to call for birds at Skeet. Being a trap boy was a hard job in those old, hot, houses. Not fan, no breeze, just hot work for fifty cents a hundred. Our birds came wrapped in newspaper to reduce breakage in shipping and handling. So you had to unwrap each stack before you could start loading. After you were done all the papers and boxes had to be taken out and burned, the house swept out and closed up. Later we had a electric buzzer connected to the puller to signal you to release the bird. Then they had a trap which was manual cocked and loaded but released by the pullers cord. Those were very unsafe. A release when you were loading could cost you and arm, hand or few fingers. I refused to work on them and the "men" at first complained about my "silly fear" but after one or two close calls pulled that machine out. You could work all day for three to four dollars. No fifteen dollars an hour back then. And I loved it.
Instead of feeling threatened by the first automatic trap our club bought I felt freed. Free at last. Now you can get traps for just a few hundred dollars, we could only dream about them back then. A friend has one of the MEC clay throwers and has thrown a lot of targets with it and is very satisfied. I have had excellent service from them on their reloaders and expect they are the same on their trap machines.