I’m helping my wife organize a bachelorette party for her sister. One idea floating around is skeet shooting. Is this a fun activity for people with extremely limited firearm experience or is it just going to be frustrating more than anything else?
Let me answer your question with a question. Is there any chance, no matter how remote, of alcohol being consumed before or during the event?
If the answer is “yes” then you should immediately eliminate skeet shooting as a possible activity.
No alcohol before or during.
Safety will be a primary concern with inexperienced shooters. You’ll need to provide for either an instructor to stand behind the shooter as they each take their turn to make sure they don’t inadvertently hurt themselves or others or have some sort of a safety class before venturing onto the range.
But just from a pure “Is it fun” sense, yeah, it sure can be if you’re somewhat adventurous. I recently taught my daughter to shoot and she was scared at first but quickly warmed up to it and actually did quite well for a novice. She wants to do more so yeah, it was fun for her.
Tip: Use a 20 ga., not a 12.
If one is not used to firearms, firing 25 rounds with a 12 gauge may not be that fun. They kick like no other. Also, skeet is a little advanced for novices, I would stick with trap.
I take “skeet” in the OP as a generic term for shotgun sports involving clay pigeons. But yes, trap is generally considered easier, although any shotgun club should have both no? And sporting clays quite possibly (harder).
I wish to punch every shotgun salesman who tells potential buyers that shotguns are easy and you don’t really have to aim. It takes skill to develop, and the way to do that is to try. So if the party is interested, why not?
12 ga vs. 20 ga is not noticeably different with birdshot. I am not a novice bridesmaid but I consider the recoil minimal. The main advantage of 20 is that the gun is normally lighter and easier to carry for longer.
Thanks for the tips everyone. This place does trap also, so I’ll suggest going for that instead of skeet.
For total beginners you may want to turn off the wobble on the launcher (so that all the clays launch the same direction) and have them travel exactly away from the shooter. It will be much easier for them to get the feel of it without the left/right travel of the clay at first.
I have done trap shooting exactly once in my life, at a bachelor party. The drinking was AFTER the shooting.
We were at the Horse & Hunt Club in Minnesota. I was using the gun of a friend (since I don’t own one, and do not shoot).
I’m a 5’9" male, was 40 at the time, and weigh about 225. The recoil wasn’t bad.
I did okay - hit more than half of the targets. I have no idea why I did so well - apparently I have good hand-eye coordination.
It was fun, but not fun enough to make me do it again on my own.
My father in law took me trap shooting (same as skeet?) about 10 years ago. I enjoyed it but have to tell you I was scared as fuck handling a gun and never did it again. Theres also a lot of rules, good rules, at the gun range and it added to the nervousness.
I enjoyed the beers afterwards. 
To me, to get more involved, I know it would require eventually cleaning and maintaining guns, buying shells, etc etc just seems like too much work for me.
Id definitely try it at least once. If you enjoy it, its a great way to make friends and do something with customers if you are in sales.
I agree- I’d stick with trap as well.
But I’d say a 12 gauge with a #9 skeet/trap load is about the lightest-kicking thing I can think of. Those are usually pretty light loads, since all they typically have to do is break a clay pigeon at 30-40 yards. Even your average #7.5 dove load kicks quite a bit harder.
Several companies make reduced recoil shotshell loads.
I’ve shot clay pigeons before with friends who have a pigeon chucker and some open land, it’s good for a lark even though I’m terrible at it.
Then I went to a bachelor party for my cousin where we all went to a gun club and did real skeet shooting. There were around a dozen of us, and, well, long story short, getting through an actual official “skeet” round takes forever. It’s somewhat tedious, there’s a lot of waiting for your turn, and halfway through your shoulder is really starting to get sore. Eventually we told the range instructor that none of us gave a flying fuck about actually playing the sport like he was trying to teach us, so we all took turns expending our remaining box of shells as quickly as possible and then went to get drunk.
eta: Funny story from that event, we were sharing our skeet session with some unfortunate teenagers in flat-brimmed hats who were probably none too happy that they had to wait on a dozen antsy partygoers. I felt bad for them, douche-hats aside, until one of them closed his shotgun with his finger on the trigger. Expelled the contents into the ground about 2 feet from our range instructor’s foot (young guy, maybe 20, knew his way around guns but not so much around people.) The instructor stood there dumfounded, then reluctantly said, “Look, if any of my bosses saw that and I don’t kick you out I could get in big trouble.” MOTHERFUCKER JUST ALMOST SHOT YOUR GODDAMN FOOT OFF AND YOU FEEL BAD ABOUT KICKING HIM OUT? So dude went to go sit in his car while his buddies finished the round.
Honestly, I think they would have more fun target shooting on the pistol range. As others have said, if you are going to do it, do trap instead of skeet, and use a 20 ga with light bird shot. It’s still not something I think most total novices would have fun with, but you would know your wife’s friends best (or she would) so maybe they would like it.
There are shotgun recoil tables available online that compare gauges and loads. This one’s preview looked pertinent. I tried to open it but my work firewall blocks it.
I think you give good advice here; and I’ll add one thing. Find a 20 gauge with as short of a barrel as possible; or at least adjust the choke so that you have as wide as pattern as possible. The reason for this advice is that with a wider pellet pattern you have a greater likelihood of hitting the skeet; which will make the experience a lot more enjoyable for beginners.
I want to know what the hell the OP is planning for the dove release at the wedding.
My first and only attempt at trap shooting resulted in not a single hit. I’d never fired a shotgun before, or fired any kind of gun at a moving target. The local club does hold occasional beginner sessions where the disks are all shot in the same direction and trajectory so I’ve got to get to one of those and get a little practice in.
I’d say your greatest risk is having to endure a bunch of lame “shotgun wedding” jokes.