Are you better at sporting clays or wild birds?

B

benelli-banger

Well-known member
If you shoot a round of sporting clays…new course, intermediate difficulty…vs same # of wild roosters…which are you better at? Roosters for me. I don’t think most shots are that difficult. May have a lot to do with covers I’m hunting? Dogs? Etc? (My dogs aren’t necessarily close, but thank god for thick covers!)..,,,
 
Yeah I haven't shot many clays but I have shot a lot of roosters. Much more confident hitting roosters than I am clays. Comfort thing, easier IMO. Most pheasant shots aren't very hard in my opinion, as long as you're ready and relatively quick to the draw.
 
I used to be addicted to sporting clays. Depending on how difficult the course is of course. But for me when I 1st started, sporting clays were at least twice as difficult maybe 3 times harder. I shot a lot of clay from regular throwers, sometimes two throwers trying to make the shots as difficult as we could. Hunted grouse, quail and pheasants, so wasn't a slouch before I started shooting sporting clays. I shot a 50 first time. Worked my way up to mid 80's. I think any shotgun shooting will help a guy, but I think skeet is the best for actual hunting scenarios. It would be embarrassing to try now.
 
I miss birds, as well as clays…but sharpies and roosters aren’t too tough for me…Huns, when they covey flush, give me fits, but I’ve been doing better with them the past few years, but I had fewer hun contacts this fall…
 
It depends on several factors. If the real birds are all 30 yards or less, than real birds are easier. If they get turned with the wind before you get the shot off, or 40+ yard crossers, than it's sayonara... Most of the local clays courses are set up to be fairly easy (with a couple harder stations) so guys can hit most of the targets and gain some confidence. However, the ranges where tournaments are held are usually very difficult. I tried one of those after a major shoot, and there were some stations where I never even saw the bird, after several attempts.
 
CRP said:
It depends on several factors. If the real birds are all 30 yards or less, than real birds are easier. If they get turned with the wind before you get the shot off, or 40+ yard crossers, than it's sayonara... Most of the local clays courses are set up to be fairly easy (with a couple harder stations) so guys can hit most of the targets and gain some confidence. However, the ranges where tournaments are held are usually very difficult. I tried one of those after a major shoot, and there were some stations where I never even saw the bird, after several attempts.
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Right…that’s why I mentioned intermediate in difficulty course…50 targets, vs 50 wild birds, however long that takes…some presentations will be windy, and/or past 30 yards…if u had to guess, what scenario do you do better at? I’ve killed about 40 pheasants this season, a few were in super windy conditions, a few were pretty long…the majority have been 15-30, maybe 35 yards…my spectacular misses were close flushes! 3 of those…certainly other misses as well…but most days there aren’t multiple misses…a few days no misses…some days there were multiple misses…I’ve been hunting solo mostly thus far, which bodes well for my shooting…but the clays games I’m not very good at…maybe I’ll get better…but I doubt it
 
For me, I never got enough shot presentations in my early years to get good. Just not enough birds in those days. I started shooting skeet and clays in the off-season and it really helped the shooting % in the fall. Just handling the gun more often and shooting more targets should help anyone if they want to get better. Skeet helped me to be able to hit the crossing targets that most people miss. While sporting clays can have some target presentations that will never be seen in the field, it is still good to practice (and its fun).
 
Before the screw-in chokes came out, most of the bird hunters I knew all used fixed full chokes. In fact, many dealers would not want to take anything in trade other than with a full choke. My father and brothers always shot full chokes, even after the others became available. Because my reflexes were good (probably from clays/skeet) and couldn't hit those long shots anyway, I switched to I/C, and the shooting improved vastly. And best of all, the birds were not all shot up with pellets.
 
I shoot a lot of 5-stand in the spring/summer/fall. Our course is set by a State champion SC shooter and uses 11 or 12 machines. I shoot all from a low-gun stance. It can be tough to shoot over 80% on most of his setups, but I still find it easier than wild pheasants as you know where the bird (clay) is coming from/going and when it is going to fly. That generally doesn't happen with wild birds, even if they are larger and slower. The surprise factor with pheasants, and to some extent Sharptail can make me miss until I program in "settle down, take your time". I used to shoot a lot of skeet and in the fall we would set the release to "random delay", with up to a 3 second delay, which is much closer to wild birds. You want to see people start missing, try that sometime. The good shooters will generally fall completely apart.
 
Depends on my body position or stride whenthe flush happens. Most of my misses in the field come from unbalanced, right front foot forward, or an awkward stance that accompanies a rushed shot. I'll break upper 70's to miss 80's on a new course. I'll shoot 75% - 80% in the field (with realistic ranged shots). I feel like 15% of these misses are because of being rushed and unbalanced.
 
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