[Closed] Clay pigeon shooting

35p a clay isn't cheap. Where are ya?

£100 for a cabinet, £200 for a gun and £50 for the certificate.

Compared to mountainbiking it's cheap to get started.

Me and my Dad were into our clay pigeon shooting, started when I was 10 and finished when I was 18, I was damn good too! I have no idea on costs though! I just remember my Dad saying how expensive it is now compared with 10-20 years ago, like everything else!

£200 for a gun! It's a bit like bikes though.. Yea you can pick up a mountain bike for £200... If you look hard and long enough. 😉

I think it's barbaric and cruel and should be outlawed.

Mate of mine goes regularly. It's a sodding expensive hobby.

£200 for a gun! It's a bit like bikes though..

Far as I can gather, the difference between a cheap gun and an expensive gun is the amount of etching and filigree and assorted twaddle on it.

£200 for a gun! It's a bit like bikes though.. Yea you can pick up a mountain bike for £200... If you look hard and long enough.

You can of course pay as much as you like...

35p a clay isn't cheap. Where are ya?

Cheltenham

This is the local place I was looking at: [url= http://www.iancoley.co.uk/page_2219928.html ]Ian Coley Shooting school[/url]

Far as I can gather, the difference between a cheap gun and an expensive gun is the amount of etching and filigree and assorted twaddle on it.

Yeah, I have a neighbour who shoots, and he said the same thing...

I wouldn't really want a picture of a load of hooray henries shooting birds on the side of a gun. I wonder if I could get a custom etched picture of a bike on the side of a gun 😉

Other than that, I'd just want it plain!

I wonder if I could get a custom etched picture of a bike on the side of a gun

You'd fare better getting a picture of a gun etched on your bike. Might dissuade a casual thief.

An old miroku multi choke, a second hand cabinet goes for £60.

Its cartridges that cost. £147 / 1000

Were on 25p per clay

example costs:

gun: £50
shotgun cert: £50
Local clay club membership so i dont have to pay guest prices each time:£35
50 'bird' shoot every other sunday: £10 (instead of £15 as a guest)
cartridges: £10-12 for 50 cartridges for you 50 clays
basc membership inc insurance £66
cabinet - if you make friends with somebody who already shoots then they might be kind enough to offer to store the gun for you on their certificate... most gun shops can store a gun for you for a pretty cheap weekly cost!

my gun is a cheap baikal and as mentioned above, i could whack it into fence posts all day and not be bothered about any scratches.

like bikes you can spend thousands on the gun and then hundreds on the clothes to look the part, or you can buy a cheap gun and go in jeans, t-shirt, witha carrier bag for your cartridges.

find a local clay club ideally, introduce yourself, ask if anybody would mind taking you along as a guest and go from there 🙂

Used to do a fair bit of trap shooting in the late 80's
Then it was a fairly cheap day out but I moved away from the Cotswold's and didn't find anywhere close I wanted to shoot or shoot with.
Funnily enough I'm going shooting next week while I'm up in Northumberland 🙂

As for kit as 5thElephant says I had a Baikal O/U, slightly rough finish but the basic action withstood plenty of abuse on the farm. I didn't knock any fence posts in with it but did use the stock to wedge a PTO shaft still on a muck spreader 😀

My first shotgun cost me £150 and I still have it as a spare. It shoots well and it's a solid beginner's gun. The cabinet was about £70 including two new locks.

The rest is pretty much as people say. I think clays at 35p are expensive (I used to pay 20p) and my old club was £30 a year membership. All told, I used to do a 100 bird sporting round for £20 plus cartridges.

I really should get back to doing it, but rifle shooting has taken up my time of late.

if your local clay clubs are anything like the ones around here, people are generally pretty enthusiastic about getting new people involved in the sport and will lend you their gun to shoot if you're a guest. i've been shooting clays since February and must've shot about 8 different guns from people encouraging me to give theirs a try 🙂

The local place won't let you shoot as a guest (or I'd just go with my neighbour) unless you have a license because of their insurance.

Is that not normal then?

depends on the conditions of the clay ground as far as i know, as somebody signing in a guest you're completely responsible for the guest and their shooting/safety/adherence to club rules etc etc. some clubs can allows non-licensed guests but can't sell ammo to them.

getting a shotgun cert isn't too tricky, there's been advice on this forum about it before, but for up-to-date advice on the process, timescale and what you'd need check the BASC website 🙂

i got mine in 4 weeks from the date i posted the application off, some counties take a lot longer, but all are under pressure to speed things up.

Make sure you spend ££££s on ear protection. I got into rough shooting on farms in Australia, then clays here, then you get invited to pigeon and game shoots, then you join a syndicate. It's great fun but it ain't aerobic and that's where I struggle to find the time to do it. Like cycling, once you've got all the right gear it lasts for years.

I find the little blighters so much easier to hit if you wait for them to land.

They're quick in the air but their land mobility isn't up to much. Sneak up on them and Bam - dead clay pigeon every time...

Cheers

Danny B

My advice is that whatever gun you buy fits you properly & is capable of shooting a good range of disciplines (sporting, skeet, DTL trap) otherwise you'll have a pretty miserable & unsuccessful experience to start off with.

Get some advice from a good gunsmith as there's nothing worse than spending your hard earned cash making a load of noise but hitting very little. 😉

You could just burn a twenty pound note every sunday, itd be cheaper