doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion DoubleGun BBS @ doublegunshop.com Where are the High Tower Sporting Clays Targets?

Chris Batha has a nice article in the lastest Shooting Sportsman on how to shoot high tower sporting clay targets. He notes that high towers in the UK are common, but scarce in the U.S.

I have shot some of 120-200 foot high towers at Bisley and West London in the UK and thought they were great fun.

I have shot some 40-50 foot towers here in the US. A friend of mine has shot a 115 foot tower at Shanes in Greenboro, NC.

Does anyone know of any sky scrapers out there?

It's been a while for me, but I practiced for driven birds at Bald Mountain, in Lake Orion, MI, and then (as I recall) the Detroit Gun Club had a 120 ft Condor mounted station.
At 120ft, the complexity of man-lift mounted traps becomes an issue. 150's and 200's have multiple sections which would make reloading the trap take about an hour. Plus they have huge heavy bases, and require special training to use. And cost big.

A 120, with angled up trap, should give a 50 yard, face-on, bird at a fair speed. It's a good simulation for driven birds. If launched over a ravine, you might get 70 yards, but it's pretty iffy.

There was an artical in SPORTING CLAYS magazine a month or so ago listing most of the towers in the US.

There is a 60 foot tower at the BLACKHAWK range near St. Louis in Old Montoe, MO.

They are there to simulate high driven pheasant and are usually around 100' to 120'. Sporting clay layouts are far more common in Britain than skeet and trap and have been since I started shooting clays over 40 years ago. Lagopus.....

Bisley in Hampshire UK has some, very high in fact, oops...that's the UK

Couldn't find the article, but it was written by Steve Groh, a sometimes poster here. Don't remember them all, but Kiowa Creek in Bennett, CO has one of the tallest in the US - I think he gave its height as 150 ft., and Great Guns in Nunn, CO has one just slightly shorter. They make up for the difference in height by placing it on a knoll, so the stations are down a hill. Both are great courses.

Cavalier Rifle and Pistol Club in Henrico County, VA, outside Richmond has a 80-90 footer at their sporting clay range

I need to send some of the 'sky-busters' who plague my local duck marsh and the dove fields around here to practice on these high clays; maybe they'll at least start killing something instead of just scaring off the birds trying to come in....Geo

Lewiston Sportsmens Club in Lewiston, Mich has just erected a tower. I don't know how tall it is. but I can tell you that you better bring all the choke you have when you shoot it. It's used on two successive stations.