Went shooting clays for the first time this weekend.

Boy, did I suck at it! I also had A LOT OF FUN!!

I have wanted to go clay shooting for some time now. It always looks like fun when I’ve watched videos of other people doing it. I enjoy shooting…A LOT! Why else wouldn’t I want to do this? (Also, I’m working on getting my training credentials for shotgun in a few weeks and need the practice.)

Nothing fancy here about my setup. Got one of the cheaper spring loaded clay target launchers from the local sporting goods store and a box of clays (not bad for under $50). Put it together, mounted it to a spare trailer tire and rim I had laying around and whispered sweet praise to my wife until she agreed to operate the launcher.

She stared at me. I stared at her.

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“Tell me when.”

Oh yeah, I forgot that part. “PULL!” BANG! BANG! BANG!

She reloaded the launcher and we started again (complete with the staring part ’cause I couldn’t remember to say “PULL!”). Repeat a couple more times. Retrieved the clays that hadn’t broken on impact (I had yet to hit one at this point).

I finally did manage to hit a few.

How will did I do? Well, it wasn’t pretty (and I do get some leniency for it being my first time out). Out of 10 clays used and 25 shots fired, I probably hit less than half…maybe 3 (some clays did get thrown more than once!).

Have you shot sporting clays, skeet, trap before? Let me know about your experiences/advice for a newbie by leaving me a comment/message using one of the links at the bottom of the page.

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