Newbie trap question's

[oldguy]

Don't know much about trap shooting but my son is interested now so I will be helping him to learn.
Sounds like a gun that fits the shooter is most important.
We have a few 12 ga that he handles well and seem to fit but the barrel length and choke has me scratching my head.
The choices we have for our guns are 22"ic , 26" ic,30"full,28"mod.

1.I am wondering what barrel would be the best choice from the above list?
2.Whats the difference between sporting clays,trap,skeet.
Thanks

 

[boilermaker]

For trap you would want a longer barrel - either the the 30" or 28" but keep in mind that this will change the balance of the gun and may make it less comfortable or too heavy. Also you will want the tighter chokes - most shoot a full choke but others shoot mod. So whichever he feels most comfortable with.

As for the differences in games the basics:
trap - all targets go away from you at different angles - this why you want tight shot patterns and therefore longer/tighter barrels/chokes
skeet - all targets are crossing shots at different heights
clays - targets will be at all sort of angles and directions - there are only a few clubs that do it because it requires many machines to set up a course.

Hope this helps and good luck

 

[Kevlar]

Whats the difference between sporting clays,trap,skeet.

Good explanation here...

http://www.claytargetsonline.com/aboutthegames.php

 

[MACGYVR]

Go to a club, and try them all out. See what works for you.

Nothing in this sport is an exact formula.

 

[Maj. Boom Boom]

with a full choke you have less leeway. that is, you will have to be more "on" target to get a hit. with the other chokes you have a better chance to make a hit because the pattern is more spread out. However with the cylinder choke it can spread out so much, depending on the gun, length, ammo etc, that the clay can fly right between the pellets. I use a Mod. choke myself and i have a 28" barrel - compared to others at my club that is short.

here is a chart of how some of the most popular chokes work. these are by no means all the chokes out there, but it will give you an idea, if you don't know already.

View attachment 11676

 

[MisterHappy]

The part about the gun fitting is right on....No fit, no hit.

Most trap shooters use a full choke, I've shot guns fairly well with a modified choke.

Best is to try as many as possible. One of our members shoots well with a 20" barrel coach gun.

The post about it not being an exact science is right on, too!

Important consideration - don't take it too seriously....have fun.

 

[mac1911]

I would start with the 28" modified if he can handle the wiehgt and balance.

Do not get hung up on barrel length the only real affect it has is balance. you are not aiming a shotgun so sight radius is of no factor. Take what you have go to the club and give it a whirl. You wont shoot as well until you get used to the flow of the game and start to feel comfortable on the line.
Today there was a shooter @ the trap range with a mossberg 590 tactical type gun, short barrel cyl choke. although the patern is very wide he still managed to break targets, Ideal no but works. He never shot trap before.

If you told skeet shooters 20 years ago that 30" barrels would be common place they would laugh. 26" was considered the norm for skeet.

I find modified choke to cover all the clay games pretty well. When you get to the point where you will be changeing choke tubes for different target presentations in sporty clays, THEN you can think "what choke"

skeet is a closer target faster swing so sometimes a shorter barrel may help with a quicker swing through the target

trap you may benefit from a longer barrel to keep from swing to fast.

Go shoot, get comfortable with being on the line, get used to handleing the gun have some fun...........If you get hooked you will have
A trap gun, A skeet gun, A sportingclays gun, over under,singleshot,semi, nick nacks galore.
Take a look at what the top dogs are shooting and that will tend to be the "trend " of what you need.

last. you might want to try some of the winchester low noise low recoil target shells. My wife started with those and would absolutely crush the targets when she did her part. Althouh not very good for semi-auto guns. They did not cycle my browning gold

 

[oldguy]

We will start out with the 28'' mod barrel .
Thanks guys for the advice

 

[mac1911]

come to hanson wednesday night 530ish

 

[DitchDigger]

Try the 5 stand format. A small version of sporting clays. Different targets and different visuals. Good place to start to learn clay shooting.