doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion DoubleGun BBS @ doublegunshop.com Token system at our club....................

Anything that keeps a gun club open and in a profit is fine with me. I like shooting broken birds. Slow and fast pulls happen and I shoot them also. Not required to do it but it adds to the game. Skeet is just a game and I like to take it as it comes. My serious Skeet shooting days are behind me. Heck, I am just getting back the use of my right arm.

If I am luck I will get to shoot a few ducks with my Lefever this year. 108 years old and it drops them like Thor's Hammer. I often wonder which of the Lefever boys or if the man himself held and worked on my gun. Like to think that they mounted my gun in the factory and tried to dream about all the game it would shoot.

Our club president pushed for a counter system on sporting clays but was voted down. They use a considerable number more birds on the 100 target course. He naturally blamed it on theft. True there is some theft. But when I go to a station that throws doubles and one trap repeatedly breaks targets that is 2 targets lost. If the boys are rough when loading machines that is more targets lost. When I see a pile of broken targets near a trap and there are a number of whole ones that the boys are to lazy to pick up I point that out to my members. They drive the loaded target carts fast over rough ground and that is more targets lost. Many targets could be saved by simple enforcement with the boys but I have not seen a word said. Hell if I was running it I would have them picking up whole targets for reuse. I guess we are just to good for that though. We wouldn't want to look like bumbs picking up cigarete butts! If I were dictator....

I am a member and stockholder of THE WINCHESTER GUN CLUB in Winchester, Virginia. My WGC uses a "voice release" system on most of our 14 trap fields. When I observe some of our best shooters shooting trap with a five man squad and I carefully count and score the targets I usually count 153 targets thrown and 125 targets shot at. Yes, that is correct, for almost every five man squad of trap at the WGC 153 clay targets get thrown to shoot at 125 clays. Recently I was observing a squad that was made up of Officers of the WGC Corporation and members of the Board of Directors of the WGC and the numbers were the same. This 5 man squad threw over 150 clay targets to shoot at 125 clay targets. These voice release systems should be outlawed. Our WGC officers that thought these voice release systems were a good idea should be held accountable for their foolishness. Our voice release triggers throw targets that were not called for due to several reasons and then refuse to throw a target unless you lean over and scream into the microphone. If you want to make sure a target is thrown have somebody shooting a K80 or a KOLAR or a few other types and after he shoots have him open his trapgun and when the ejector kicks the empty shell out of his gun a trap target will be thrown. Even our knowledgeable trap shooters cannot time the opening of their trapguns correctly to prevent the voice release system from throwing a target. Voice release systems and token systems just do not work in actual field conditions. A system that does work is the red boxes used at HHHSC in Pennsylvania and CVSC in Palmyra, Virginia. The box counts your targets and you pay for what you use. If a trap malfunctions and breaks targets you call it in and get it fixed. This stops the idiots that just keep pushing the button hoping for a miracle healing of the trap machine. So when I am KING we are going back to an extension cord with a button and kid from high school pushing it at the trap range and skeet field. Good Shooting To You All, Jent

I really don't know what kind of system it is, eightbore. I will ask the manager and find out. And I will also ask him what the cost was and I will have to get back to you guys and let you know.

We have never had the kind of problems that were this bad. I remember when we first got our voice activated system, sometimes someone on the next trap over would call for a bird and it would ocassionally throw a target on the next field over. This was corrected by putting landscaping fences between the traps and that pretty much took care of it. The voice activated system was designed to throw a target according to the certain pitch of someone's voice. I have never had any problem with my voice activating them, although I have seen guys with a higher or lower pitched voice scream into the mike and not be able to set them off. And I would just go on shooting with no problem and he would follow me to the stand I just left and have a heck of a time. This is when you have to either raise or lower the pitch of your voice to get the thrower to release the target. That usually corrects the problem. I hate to say this, but one thing I always loved to see was a guy having trouble with the mike when I was shooting against him. When he has to call for a target more than once, he often misses that bird. Usually out of frustration. I always make it a point to be ready for the target when I have to call for it more than once and I usually break it. I always felt it gave me an edge and I usually used reverse psychology on myself. Keep that in mind when you shoot and you will soon start wanting other people to have problems with the mike because you know you will break yours. But we have enjoyed our voice activated sytem over the years. We don't have too much problem with guns ejecting shells unless you hold them right next to the speaker. I watched my buddy shoot with his 11-87 Sunday, and he never set off any targets when he loaded his gun. Occasionally, you will see some old codger with a Model 12 slam the receiver shut his gun right next to the mike just before you call for your bird. That gets old after a while. And if you really want to have some fun with your buddy, wait until right before he calls for his target and just tap your mike with the barrel of your gun and set off his target early. After a few times he'll get all screwed up. That's always good for a laugh.

And another thing that might help you is that if the sound of ejected shells are setting off the targets, you have to time opening your gun when the mike won't pick it up. Try opening it right after someone shoots. The thrower won't reset that fast. And I have never seen Kolars or K-80s (or any gun)set off targets that much unless you are really slamming it right next to the microphone. And on my Beretta or any other gun, I hold the lever over, quietly close the gun and then let the lever go. On my Ljutic, you have to hold the button in while you close it because you will damage the gun by closely it without holding the button in. So, it closes pretty quietly anyway. I have never had any problem setting off any machines with my guns. Try turning the gun away from the mike if this is a problem and see how that works. You have to learn to open and close you gun quietly and that way you shouldn't have any problems.

I wouldn't assume that voice activated pullers are universally problem ridden. They have been used in International Trap for decades with success. Winchester VA microphones must need some repair or updating.

Another thing that you have to remember as far as broken targets go- (and I am saying this from experience, because we just had a four day trap shoot at my club and I was one of the reloaders who reloaded the traps) broken targets won't usually be broken when they are thrown unless they are broken when they are loaded into the thrower. I loaded two traps for four days and we never had any broken targets....... I also load our skeet houses all of the time and we don't get that many broken targets unless someone has handled them badly before they are loaded. So, unless your machines are really messed up, they should not be breaking targets when they are thrown. Except maybe ocassionally.

Just got back from our test run on the Briley coin boxes. They worked just fine, set up for 27 birds a round. After 3 rounds with five shooters each, we had 27 birds left on the counters. We had one broken bird in 378 thrown, one bird to clear, and one slow pull refused. We may be able to set them up for 26 birds a round if our Super Stars continue to throw at this breakage rate.

Jimmy, I am still kind of torn about the coin operated "car wash" trap Pat had installed. I liked the way it was ran. On the honor system. Take a trap, shoot what you want . Then go pay up. For some odd reason it made me feel good. Maybe it was the thought that everyone is as honest as myself.
I for one have trouble with the voice activated traps. I just about quit shooting ata targets after they went to them. They dont like deep voices. They are better now but at 1st they were bad.
But I can see the reason for doing it. Maybe they could of stressed the point of not shooting an extra targets. See if that may of stopped some of it. I dont think most people mean to do it. I just think they dont know what that target cost the club.
As far as shooting practice. I want to see a bird after a no bird. I am practicing what I would do at major shoot. If its for fun thats different. I will shoot anything.