Trap shooting on a budget

Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
1

I’ve been getting back into clay games (shooting clay “pigeons” with shotguns) recently, specifically, trap, at my local rod and gun club, I still shoot paper targets on the pistol and rifle range, and am constantly chasing that elusive “One-Hole-Group”, I’m getting pretty close with my Ruger 10/22 at 50 yards, but there are times that punchin’ paper starts to get “old”, and I feel the urge to slay some “Evil Orange Frisbees” (EOF)

There’s just something more dynamic, more reactive, and more fun about watching a small 3" flourescent orange clay disc arcing away at 25-45 MPH (depending on how the thrower is set up) you lead the EOF with the muzzle of your shotgun, and pull the trigger, your shotgun roars, tossing a cloud of small lead pellets into the clay’s flight path, if your aim is true, the EOF disappears in a cloud of dust right before your eyes, if you’ve aimed too far ahead, or behind, the EOF escapes, laughing haughtily at you, only to be pulled down to Mother Earth and shatter on the ground (Gravity is a harsh mistress…)
(sometimes, very rarely, the planets align just right and the bird touches down softly, and does not break, but it’s extremely rare…)

Let’s just say that clay games are fun…

The problem is, up until recently, my only shotgun was a Mossberg 500 12-gauge pump, a good, basic, reliable firearm, it’s been 100% reliable, and I’ve owned it for almost 20 years, problem is, it really doesn’t fit me, and I’ve been too lazy to cut the stock down to shorten the length-of-pull, besides, the “rattly” pump arm kinda’ annoys me, let’s just say I’m not enamored with it, it’s a tool, nothing more, not fun to shoot due to the oversize LOP

About a month ago, Dad suggested that I try his old Harrington and Richardson single-shot 12-gauge the next time I hit the trap range, Dad thinks he’s too old to shoot now :(, so he’s given me free reign of his gun cabinet

Dad’s H&R is one of the old original “side-lever” break-barrel 12’s with a Full choke barrel (no choke tubes), I took that gun to the range, it looked out of place in the rack with all the fancy, expensive trap guns, mostly over-under double barrels, the cheapest one of the group was probably at least $2500, Dad’s little $35 H&R looked sadly out of place there, stuck out like a sore thumb

It’s been at least 3 years since my last trap games, and at the time, I was shooting my Mossberg 500, and I was lucky to break 15-18 on a good day (a round of trap is 25 EOF’s, I broke an average of 15 to 18 of the 25), needless to say, I wasn’t having as much fun as I could, I was having fun, but the misses were frustrating

Once I was back on the trap range, with a thoroughly unfamiliar gun (Dad’s H&R) I set up for a round of trap, fully expecting to shoot 15-18 if I was lucky…

I ended up shooting a 19, then a 22, Dad’s H&R and I just “clicked”, the gun felt natural, pointed well, and had almost no recoil, unusual for any break-action gun, as they transmit most of the recoil impulse to the shooter, and this 12-gauge had a hard plastic buttpad, no squishy Limbsaver pad…

It was funny hearing my fellow trapshooters good naturedly grumble about “beginner’s luck” and “he should get a real trap gun, not that clunky old antique” (hey, buddy, if you’re buying, sure, I’ll get a “real” trap gun, but some of us actually work for a living…)

So, I decided to get my own H&R single-shot, after all, our trap range is singles trap only, so a single shot is not a handicap…

Long story short, I stopped off at the local gun shop two weeks ago, and found a nice used H&R Topper Deluxe Classic in 12-gauge, in great shape (98% of new), it feels right, balances well, and most importantly, it fits me, I haven’t had the opportunity to shoot trap with it yet, as each time I’ve been to the range, the trap range was closed, but I have patterned it so I know where it’s throwing the shot cloud and am ready to hit the range running…

A few days ago, I went back to the gun store to pick up a “Full” choke tube for the TDC 12-gauge, as it’s modified tube throws a little wider pattern than I want, when I discovered they were putting out another used TDC single shot, a 20-gauge with a Trulock Full extended choke tube, needless to say, I had been thinking about trying out a 20-gauge, but hadn’t found one that I’ve liked yet, until I saw that TDC 20, this one was in 99.9% of new, and hadn’t even broken in yet, it looked unfired, I had no choice, I HAD to take it home

I patterned it on Sunday, and let me just say, it’s a keeper, it throws a nice tight pattern at 16 yards, no holes or gaps in the pattern that would allow an EOF to sneak through unscathed, and the gun itself has essentially no recoil with target/trap loads, thanks to it’s wonderful heavy barrel…

Normally, H&R uses a smaller diameter tube for the 20-gauge barrels, but in the case of the Topper Deluxe Classic 20 gauge, they take 12-gauge barrel stock and simply bore a 20-gauge hole through it, the barrel walls are twice as thick as the 12-gauge, and both guns weigh around 6-7 pounds, for a 12-gauge gun, a 6-7 pound gun is considered “light” and transmits more felt recoil to the shooter, a 6-7 pound 20-gauge is about the right amount of weight, and the recoil is noticeably less, needless to say, the “youth model” 20 gauge guns (around 4 pounds) actually have more felt-recoil than a full-sized 12-gauge, weight helps soak up recoil

I know I’ve been rambling a bit and have drifted off subject a tad, but I’m just really happy with these two single-shot shotguns, the TDC series are actually reasonably hard to find in my area, so the fact that I ended up with two of them in under a week just makes me happy, these will be my primary trap guns, especially the 20 gauge, I could shoot that little beauty all day and come home unscathed, two to three games (50-75 shells) with either my Mossberg 500 or the 12-gauge TDC and I’d be feeling it the next day for sure

I can’t wait to see how my “lowly” H&R TDC’s fare against “better” trap guns at the range the next time…

No, you don’t have to have some Überexpensive trap gun to enjoy a nice relaxing game blasting EOF’s to smithereens, you can have fun at the trap range on nearly any budget, I was able to perform relatively well for a recreational shooter with an old $35 used shotgun (it’d be around $65 if purchased today) and do almost as well as the shooters with dedicated trap guns…

Oh, and one of my fellow shooters did let me try his ultra-nice dedicated trap O/U gun and I did exceptionally well with it, there’s just no way I could afford a $3500+ shotgun for what is for me, a recreational hobby, if I was competing professionally, sure, I could see owning one, but not for a recreational shooter like me

Anyone else shoot clay games? what’s your setup?

2

If I hit something… it’s a miracle. Or a Charles Daily Miroku top break single barrel trap, 32". Hurt my shoulder this year, though. Cost me $700, worth every penny. But it’s a bit brutal on my shoulder even when I didn’t hurt it already. (That’s not my gun, but it looks identical. Mine’s a 74.)

And yeah, cheapest ammo is still Wal-Mart.

3

As far as soft-recoiling ammo, I’ve found that the Winchester “WinLite” shells have a very soft recoil, they’re advertised as “50% less recoil and noise” and they do actually have 50% less recoil and noise, they use a 26 gram load of shot and a minimum powder load

They won’t cycle semiautos reliably, if at all, but they work fine in manual action guns, pumps, break actions and the like

Yes, WinLites are a tad more expensive than Wally World bulk ammo, but they’re more comfortable to shoot, I’ve also had good results with the “Rio” brand of ammo, specifically their 20-gauge Top Target 7/8 oz load, almost no recoil with those shells, I’d imagine they make a similar load for 12-gauge

I’m also planning on getting into shotshell reloading, so I can recreate the WinLite loads for less money

I’ve also created a homemade recoil absorbing system that fits inside the stock on my H&R’s, if anyone’s interested, I’ll detail how to build it here

4

I’m learning trap too. Both my husband and my father-in-law are 27-yard shooters. I spent a couple of years just being around it, mostly taking pictures, before I really wanted to pick up a gun myself.

It’s all about the fit, they say. I can’t even see the front sight on my husband’s gun, but I was shooting our Remington Model 1100 OK when we went sporting clays shooting (which is also a ton of fun and you might try it, but you have to shoot doubles.) So he spent a few weeks during the winter league having me pick up the guns of everyone who’d let me, which was everyone, just to see which model would initially fit me.

Then I borrowed a few to shoot. Some of them, I couldn’t hit anything with, but it turned out that my father-in-law’s main trap gun fits me just fine. Suddenly, I was getting around 15 on singles, where I’d barely broken any before. Since Dad’s a bit of a horsetrader, he had an extra one of his model that he’d recently bought. It’s a Beretta Model 390, with all of the extra work already done to it, like porting the barrel and lightening the trigger. They had to change the shim in the stock because it had been set up for a lefty, and I shoot right-handed. It’s an automatic. his is all painted up fancy, and so is his backup, but I like a wooden stock anyway.

So they conspired to have me borrow that one for a few months, to “learn to shoot it.” And of course, when it did in fact suit me well, they gave it to me for a birthday present. So now I have my own gun. I’m still learning pretty slowly, and I shoot around an 18-20 at singles. I haven’t done much with doubles yet, except for farting around. Sometimes I can hit them, but it’s rare. People are pushing me to join a League team, but I want to get a little more experience under my belt first, so maybe next year.

But besides the League shoots, we often go out and play at the fun shoots. And the people there shoot all sorts of guns. One of our friends shoots some ancient single shot, except for doubles, and he’s a 27-yarder too. There are people with camoed-up hunting guns and people with $10,000 trap guns, and everything in between. I’ve never heard anyone get talked about for their choice of gun except one crowd who are very disrespectful of the rules of courtesy, like not pointing your damn gun at other people, and they happen to shoot very militarized guns with pistol grips and everything. We’ve all got guns like that, but they’re a little out of place at a trap club. It’s not a riot. And even they’d be fine if they’d be polite.

If you go enough and you’re polite and friendly, you’ll find that you’ll meet people who will not only teach you things, but will let you try a variety of guns. It’s a fun sport. People are friendly and encouraging.

5

I used to piss the Hell out of people shooting 22-23 with a 16g bolt action. It made me chuckle a lot.

For cartridge and most of my clay shooting I use a Beretta Essentials that I got used cheap enough to consider; basically $300 for near mint in the box 10 years back. Where my frugal nature shows up is ammo - I load my own with my trusty rusty (if plastic could rust) Lee Load-All and sometimes use mined shot.

For black powder flint I use a Centermark 1734 model and for caplock I use an original Enterprise Gun Works (James Bown circa 1880) double.

6

Cowgirl Jules, that is definitely bad form and range etiquette from your “mall ninja” group, pointing any weapon at anyone on the range would get them automatically ejected and permabanned from my range

7

I get to shoot sporting clays with my BIL a couple of times a month. I’ll get to go more often when I retire in the Spring.

Currently using a CZ Redhead Deluxe O/U in 12 Ga with a 26" barrel. I also have a TriStar (Spanish import) O/U in 12 Ga with 30" barrels. Both shoot OK, but are nothing special to look at.

Planning the near term purchase of a Browning Citori 625 Sporting with 30" barrels.

I do reload AA hulls to keep the cost down as much as possible. I use a MEC 9000G.

8

I use a 20 Ga Remington 1100 Special that I’m very good with. I’ve also got a Winchester 1200 Riot 12Ga with a very short barrel that I’m not so good with. To hit anything, I have to pull the trigger as soon as I see orange.

9

I only have one shotgun right now - it’s a Fox Sterlingworth 12-gauge side-by-side that my great-grandfather bought new around a century ago. It has forged steel barrels and no corrosion issues, and I have no problems shooting trap with it.

I don’t want to do this all of the time, and so am in the market for another field gun.

10

You have a great and important/historic gun that can get into big bucks; make sure someone in the following generations knows. With luck they will keep it and add you to its history. At the worst they won’t get snookered out of it cheap.

(I have seen that happen at so many gun shows that it isn’t even funny anymore)

11

Actually in the condition it is in (refinished stock) it isn’t worth all that much. Pennies compared to Great-Grandpap’s other shotgun, the L.C. Smith that my dad now owns.