doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion DoubleGun BBS @ doublegunshop.com New Pigeon Ring Operational

Please remember to come to Lapeer Michigan this Saturday, 16 April 2011 to try out the new Pigeon Ring! See my post concerning the 16 April SxS Shoot at Lapeer Michigan. http://doublegunshop.com/forums/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=222240#Post222240


The Pigeon Ring at Lapeer Michigan Sportmans Club is in operation!!! This was made possible by the hard work of our Club's shotgun chairman, Paul Harm.

Today we shot the ring, or should I say the rotating trap where the ring will be and it is not easy! The trap is hidden behind a wood barrier so this is different than the rings at the Upper Peninsula match where they are under ground level. One step at a time�



Paul Harm and his granddaughter adjusting the rotator.


This is me trying my skill with my Elsie Chain Damascus 10 Gauge and hoping for some luck!






Happiness is our club�s SxS only rack with Parkers, LC Smith, AH Fox, and Remington doubleguns! There are a couple empty spaces. It was a slow day at the range�

Nice, Mark!

If you're ever in northern Michigan, stop by Emmet County Sportsmen's club.

We have a bunkered Crazy Quail.

Our engineer will gladly show it off...

I.ve shot in the live pigeon ring with my departed buddy, and we were in a tie at the last bird. We missed our shot and the second place guys won by having a bird with a broken neck tossed from the trap box. I felt dirty for years for participating. I think it is fine if you like it, but make my pigeons from clay nowadays. Chops

What is the trap you are using?

I rarely comment on anothers sport but I think it's responsible to do so here. I have NO problems with hunting game birds and feasting on them afterwards. I have done this since I was old enough to carry a gun and hopefully will continue to do so for years to come. However Using live animals solely as targets is something I personally can't abide by even if they are pigeons. I also think this is becomming more and more distaseful to the general pubic.
You can put me squarely in chopperlumps corner here.
Jim

Could you explain the rules of competition for this clay game please?
Number of stations, layout, distances etc.,

Salopian,

The rules for shooting a "clay" Pigeon Ring vary between the clubs operating them but in general they try to simulate live pigeon rings.

1. A trap mounted on a rotating platform.
2. The platform is on an angle so that targets released toward the shooter fly high but will eventually land short of the shooter.
3. Targets thrown to the left or right have medium elevation but travel farther.
4. Targets thrown directly away from the shooter travel low and fast much like a straight away trap shot.
5. The trap is hidden from the shooters view and is rotating.
6. The shooter calls "pull" and the target is released (ususally with a short delay) in a direction that the shooter should not know.
7. There is a circle or "ring" around the trap. The size MAY be 17 yards in front and left and right of the trap and 27 yards behind the trap.
8. A 6" piece of engineer tape (non-sticky brightly colored plastic streamer 1" wide) is folded up and taped to the underside of the targets.
9. The shooter may shoot twice at each target.
10. The piece of the target with the engineer tape/streamer must fall within the ring.

Note: Ideally the trap should be below ground level so that those keeping score will have a clear view of if the tape falls inside or outside the ring. Often wind will blow those in or out adding to the excitement!

Of course when just starting the ring and taped targets are not necessary because those clays are darn hard to hit!

I hope this helps!
Mark

PS: Many thanks to the Sagola Township Mighigan Sportsmens Club, host of the Upper Penisula Side-by-Side Classic, http://www.stsportsmen.com/ for allowing me to copy their World-Class pigeon ring set up!

Our ring at Lapeer County Sportsmans Clun in southeast Michigan will never equal that of our Yupper friends! Our ring will but be a warm up for shooting the Yupper rings!

Most respectfully,
Mark

The shooting was limited to less than 180 degrees. I picked a few photos which show action but they may suggest a safety hazard. I can assure everyone there was no safety hazard at our range.

To ensure that there will be no hazards we are going to position shooter stands with side and top bars to limit movement/swing. To start we will set 3 shooting stands in a line 10 yards from the ring. The shooters will alternate shots.

For this test run the targets fell in front of the shooter (who in the photos is me). For those photos in which I am pointing up at perhaps an 80 degree angle to the ground, the target was past its apex and its way down. Had we had the 17 yard ring set up, a hit on those targets would have landed the tape outside of the ring.

-Shooter is 27 yards (sound familiar?) from the trap.
-Rings are 17 yards from the trap on 3 sides with the far side of the ring being 27 yards from the trap.
-The far edge of the ring is 54 yards from the shooter.

Clearly a You Tube video of this is needed...

Mark

Italian and Chopper,

Did you guys even look at the pictures? Do you see a pigeon or a pigeon trap? This is clay shooting, not live pigeon shooting, it's a simulated live pigeon ring. I swear, you throw out the word pigeon and ring, guys go stupid.

That being said, I shoot live pigeons every chance I get. Long live the sport, the anti shooters be damned.


Destry