Merkels are certainly well made guns and could be used for sporting clays. I believe a large part of the reason they are not commonly seen is that most Merkels are made as field guns. Special features can be ordered, of course, but there are few off the shelf Merkels with the features many sporting clays shooters look for, such as ported barrels, extended forcing cones, etc. Other makers tend to specialize in sporting clays guns, whereas Merkel specializes in field guns.