Skeet Range Information
PLEASE SEE THE MASTER SCHEDULE FOR SKEET AVAILABILITY!
Skeet (and Trap) is only $6 per round (25 targets). Note that while we typically shoot a regulation round of skeet, you are welcome to shoot your 25 targets as you prefer, i.e., if you want to focus on crossing targets for example, you could shoot 25 targets at stations 2 – 6 as long as your squad mates don’t object. It’s a friendly and accommodating group!
All gun actions must remain open unless in the gun rack or while loading the gun on the shooting station. Guns are only to be loaded when you are on the shooting station! Target loads with a maximum of 1 1/8 ounce of #8 or 9 Shot is ideal; 7 ½ shot is also allowed but not ideal.
Ear and eye protection is required to be worn at all times while near active shooting. Safety first. All you need is a shotgun and shells with 7 1/2, 8 or #9 shot. The clay birds are only shot roughly 20 yards away, so a more open choke like Skeet or Improved Cylinder is best and there’s no need for other than light shooting target loads. Most of those who come out and try skeet become ‘one of the regulars’; it’s truly an enjoyable and challenging sport! No matter what your current skill level, it will improve quickly.
Are you a Sporting Clays Shooter???
While skeet is an interesting and challenging game unto itself, are you aware that many of the top Sporting Clays shooters use the skeet field to practice and work on their skills? Many, if not most, of the presentations seen in Sporting Clays are encountered on a skeet field. Outgoers, incomers and crossers are the game of skeet.
The National Sporting Clays Association’s Chief Instructor, Don Currie, is a huge fan in using skeet to practice for Sporting Clays. In his book “Mastering Sporting Clays” (which I highly recommend), Don Currie dedicates a full chapter (Chapter 18, “Practice”) to the use of skeet to develop your shotgun skills. Don states that “When I reach a plateau in performance or feel that I might have developed a flaw in my game, I regularly turn to the skeet field for practice”. He goes on to quote Craig Hancock, coach and father to Olympic Gold Medalist Vincent Hancock, who says, “There is no better place than the skeet field to learn and teach the fundamentals”. Other top performers in the sport agree.
Don mentions various reasons why skeet is such an optimal training arena including repetition with fewer variables, the comprehensive array of target angles and the ability to develop and refine your pre-shot routine and mental game through skeet. He also includes a defined drill in his book that he calls “The Grid” to be used on a skeet field.
Ever shoot skeet at night?
Yes, at night! We have installed an LED lighting system on our skeet field and are now able to keep skeet open until 10PM (Again, please check the Master Schedule first!). If you’ve never shot skeet under the lights, you really owe it to yourself to experience it! Watching an orange target explode like fireworks against the night sky is satisfying and exhilarating.
The Skeet range has a High House on the left and a Low House on the right, each housing a trap machine which throws the targets from their windows at 17-degree angles from the base cord across the target crossing point, which is 18 feet straight out from the center of Station 8. Each house sits three feet outside the circle, exactly at the rear of the shooting pads of Stations 1 and 7.
Here is a great link for more information on Skeet: www.claytargetsonline.com
