doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion DoubleGun BBS @ doublegunshop.com Single pellet clay breaks

At any major sporting clay event the trapper has the final say on whether a shot gets marked as an "X" or as a "0". The other members of the squad are also watching for breaks. However, just an indication of a hit is not justification for an "X", or "dead bird". The NSCA regulations say that there must be a visible chip, however small. Dust doesn't count, nor does the bird showing an obvious change in direction from being struck. There must be a visible chip. When I'm shooting I do not second guess the scorer, or members of my squad. Many times I have had a bird scored dead that several others saw a tiny chip come off of, but I didn't.

Yesterday while shooting in a registered event I saw a squad member's shot take the center out of the clay, without the rest of it breaking! Over untold thousands of targets I've seen shot at I've never seen that. The target had the face toward us and we all saw a big black hole appear in the orange target at the shot. Chips went out the back and were visible, but only if you were watching very closely.

Stan

The coefficient of friction on the trap's arm is the primary influence on rotation imparted to the clay target. Machines that have thrown excessive numbers of targets with the same friction material on their arms will NOT impart the same spin as when they were new. I would posit that is irrespective of the friction material used. Some are better than others, may last longer, &c, but all deteriorate eventually as a product of exposure, age, oxidation and use. Single pellet breaks are, IMHO, highly dependant on sufficient spin. The target's composition also affects thier 'breakability' as does their moisture content which can be affected by weather conditions such as temperatures and humidity levels where & how they are stored. I can side easily with Murphy on his remarks; they bear the weight of only a few tens of millions of clay targets thrown and shot at by individuals who were attempting to break them all.

On breaking a higher percentage of 'rabbits' of the sporting clays variety: Do what Churchill advocated when shooting hares from a butt; shoot the ground about 8" to a foot directly below the 'bunny', do not shoot directly at it. Obviously, that technique can only be applied when they are on the ground. Also, use #7.5 shot exclusively for rabbits only because they do not allow #6's. Many of those targets are 1/2" thick.

As an aside, purpose loaded helice ammunition before the rules were changed to 28gram loads differed from the 36gram flyer loads in that they had lower antimony content so the shot was somewhat softer and would expand on the targets [deliver more energy]and NOT penetrate as much of the flyer shot had been observed to do on some targets. I cannot speak on the newer 28gram purpose loaded ammunition.

Interesting thread & discussion, for sure!

I am not too sure where it came from but at the back of my mind I have the guidance figure of 3 - 4 pellets of sufficient energy as a guide to reliable breaks.
When I am assessing a pattern quality this is the pattern density I look for - but this is purely anecdotal. The dome of an edge on target is obviously a tougher structure to break than the thin underbelly of an overhead target as any trap shooter will testify - hence the need for bigger - higher energy pellets. So what is the relevance of single pellet strike performance � unless it is to test batch to batch consistency of the clay targets. I know we are always grateful for the odd single pellet break but I don't think we should be using this as the standard. How you set up a test rig for a 3 or 4 pellet strike at 30 yards I am not to sure - it would need a bit of thinking about!!
John

Don, I'd say the failure rate is considerably lower hitting anything with a single .22 than a single shotgun pellet. Significant difference in energy.

I'm still not clear on the purpose of the research. Surely, no hunter or top classed competition shooter is interested in one pellet hits. Don does bring up an interesting point, though, if I read him correctly. Does a competition shooter on a long run of hundreds of targets have to worry about factors other than not being "on the target"? I think that may be exactly the case. A skeet shooter who has broken 1242 straight is just as likely to have that run broken by a slightly defective load than by "missing the bird". At least that is my opinion.

Anyone who has patterned a shotgun will know that the distribution is not perfectly even. Murphy�s law states that if it can happen it eventually will happed - or something like that - so if a hole in the pattern can happen it eventually will. Well it happens to me all the time!!!

Me too! Alas, I am sure my patterns are full of very big holes!

(But when I get them with the "hole-less" part of the pattern, they go down like the proverbial rock). (Talking about birds here, not clays).

JC

Old Farmer, thank you for clarifying what I was trying to say. 1242 straight skeet birds is not only good shooting, it is beating the law of averages for defective ammunition or defective patterns. Of course, a guy who can shoot like that will not bring up that possibility when discussing his miss. He will take it like a man.