History of Clay Shooting
Please call ahead to inquire about these different options.
Sporting Clays
A form of clay pigeon shooting over a course of numerous shooting stations laid out over natural terrain. Sporting clays aims to simulate the unpredictable flight paths of gamebirds and paths of rabbits across uneven terrain. Courses provide a variety of trajectories, angles, speeds, elevations, distances, and target sizes. The original idea was to replicate hunting conditions, so unlike trap and skeet (games of repeatable targets), sporting clays has more target variety. In competition, you move from station to station where new target presentations are thrown in pairs (usually 3-4 pairs per station). At Mid-Hudson, we offer 32 stations, with multiple traps at each, so you can get more practice on a wider variety of individual targets, pairs, and simos. You’re welcome to stop at as many or as few stations as you’d like.
Five Stand
Very similar to Sporting Clays in that a wide variety of targets are thrown. There are five “stands” or stations to shoot from in a row. There are usually somewhere between 6 and 8 traps that throw targets. Participants shoot in turn at each of the 5 stands and various combinations of targets are thrown from the traps. Usually there is a menu card that will advise the shooter of the sequence of targets. Five Stand is a great way to get a Sporting Clays like experience in a small amount of space, with very little walking. Five stand is often used as warm up before competitions or as a game after competitions.
FITASC
An acronym standing for the French words: Federation Internationale de Tir Aux Sportives de Chasse. It involves strategically placed clay target throwers (called traps) set to simulate live game birds/animals- teal, rabbits, pheasant etc. Shooters on each layout or “parcour”, shoot in turn at various combinations of single and double clay birds. Each station or “peg” on a parcour will have a menu card that lets the shooter know the sequence of clay birds he or she will be shooting at (i.e. which trap the clay bird will be coming from). On arriving at the stand, the squad is shown the targets they will shoot. On single targets, full use of the gun is allowed and a kill is recorded whether the first or second shot breaks the target. For the doubles, there is no requirement to fire one shot at each target and a competitor may fire both barrels at one of the targets if they wish. There is no penalty for doing so and the target will be scored if broken with either shot.
Skeet
Invented by Charles Davies, an avid grouse hunter, in 1915 as a sport called Clock Shooting. In the February 1926 issue of National Sportsman and Hunting and Fishing magazines the sport was introduced and a prize of 100 dollars was offered to anyone who could come up with a name for the new sport. The winning entry was “skeet” chosen by Gertrude Hurlbutt. The word “skeet” is derived from the Scandinavian word for “shoot”. During World War II, Skeet was used in the American military to teach gunners the principle of leading and timing on flying target. Skeet is a recreational and competitive activity where participants attempt to break clay disks flung into the air at high speed from a variety of angles. Skeet targets are more consistent and repeated than sporting clays. Note: We have houses with traps but they are not formally laid out. Many people still enjoy shooting this though.
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