Skeet or other clays competitions?

[Leo]

I like to think Cause and effect. Pretty sure obumma had the epa shut down the lead smelting plants.

I would often pitch in with a friend and buy a ton of shot. That ended up costing about $10 per bag. Now people are paying $50 a bag of shot. There are about 350, 12 gauge shells per bag. (if you don't spill any) Even if you buy imported primers, use low grade powder, and generic wads, but you still have to have lead shot.

 

[Leo]

Do they run sales on target loads? I don’t know if I haven’t been looking or it doesn’t happen. As of now I buy a case (125) for $34 at Walmart.

I have not seen a 5 box value pack. I have seen the 4 box, (100 shell) value pack for that price. That is about as cheap as any I have seen.

 

[cg21]

I have not seen a 5 box value pack. I have seen the 4 box, (100 shell) value pack for that price. That is about as cheap as any I have seen.

Sorry new here

 

[Twangbanger]

Do they run sales on target loads? I don’t know if I haven’t been looking or it doesn’t happen. As of now I buy a case (125) for $34 at Walmart.

The stuff they run specials on are not really target loads, but what target shooters (and the industry) used to affectionately refer to as "pigeon loads." Really a low-cost hunting load with multi-piece hull (you take your chances on reloading those), a cheap wrap-around wad, and non-hardened shot. When the Estate brand of discount shells started to become popular in the early 2000s, and got bought by Federal I think, you started to see some better offerings in the discount shell segment. Still multi-piece hulls, but now some were putting hardened shot and an actual injection molded plastic cup-wad in the shells. Those are both important for limiting shot deformation and keeping "flyer" pellets with flattened sides from spraying out of the effective pattern.

I think the cup-wads have become pretty standard, so what you're really looking for in discount "target" loads now is whether they have the high-antimony content hardened shot. The cheaper low-antimony shot is referred to as "chilled" shot. If it doesn't say hardened shot, it probably isn't.

Not being able to get shot was what broke me from reloading. There are 7,000 grains in a pound, and divided by 16, that's 437.5 grains in a one-ounce shotshell (and most serious shooters use 1,1/8 in 12 gauge, which is almost 500 grains per trigger pull). So a 12 gauge target round is sending almost two 45/70 lever action loads worth of lead down range, per shot. At one point I was loading 10~20,000 shells a year. But as was mentioned above, if you can't get shot (or sometimes it was primers, during generalized "ammo scares"), pretty soon you're buying Estates or Nobel Sports or what were affectionately called "Wally World Federals" or "Wally World Winchesters." I eventually sold three (3) 55-gallon plastic trash cans full of once-fired Remington STS hulls on the Trapshooters.com classifieds (all of which were purchased because factory shells were mandatory at the Grand American trapshoot back then) because they were taking up space in my garage and the cost/availability of shot negated reloading. This is why I never really fully committed to USPSA shooting, when I got into it, because I saw how easily the commodities market can blow up your hobby, and I just did not want to be in that position again of having my fun-time dictated by the communists' distortion of the metals market.

Trapshooting was additionally being hobbled by threats of environmental lead-remediation issues (all that shot you're firing has to go somewhere). Once you've had tons of lead dropped on land for decades, that land can't be used for many other things. There are actually companies called Shot Reclaimers that have an apparatus mounted on a truck trailer that will come out and scrape off the top couple inches of topsoil of a range, screen the used shot out of it, and deposit the small amount of dirt back. This "dirty shot" can be refined, and the way the economics of the operation works is the owner of the range gets a profit back in the form of a share of the proceeds from the lead reclaimed. Next time you're at a serious clay shooting range (trap or skeet), go out and walk around downrange when nobody is shooting, well out past where the crushed target pieces land. There are 3 distinct "bands." First you walk over a "sandbar" of fired wads...then broken target pieces...then you come to the shot. It's less noticeable, but really shows you why the sport is so expensive.

In the early 2000s there was a rumor that there was only one shot-dropping tower (shot making facility) left in the US, in Carson City NV or somewhere out west, and that was the reason for scarcity. I'm not sure if that was true, or if that place is even still open. Just like happened with primers during the 2013 "Obama AW Scare," I believe the OEM ammo manufacturers were using up the available production of dropped shot, and there was just nothing left over for reloaders. The neighborly practice of a bunch of buddies getting together and buying a "ton of shot" together pretty much ended. You had to "have a friend" in the industry. The Chinese were putting a lot of Lead in car batteries and wheel weights, and I guess the raw material prices were really putting pressure on the shot-drop facilities. You can't make shot if you can't buy lead.

And from an ammo manufacturer standpoint, why would you put that lead into cheap shotshells for penny-pinching old men on fixed incomes to shoot their Wednesday morning round of skeet with their retired buddies after breakfast at Denny's, when it can be manufactured into a much higher quantity of soooper-sexy .380/9mm caliber "tactical defense" rounds at two dollars a shot for people to carry around tucked in the pockets of their cargo shorts like magic talismans?

But "It's the Chinese' fault" is my story and I'm sticking to it.

 

[COOPADUP]

Issac Walton Kokomo has registered shoots monthly. I have been a member there for 4 years. Nice course there and open to the public except for certain events.
The Ike’s sits on 40 acres of wooded property. We have a club that not only offers camaraderie and friendship, but a sporting clays course that meanders through the woods with a winding stream, prairie meadow, ridgetop and wood lots for a unique shooting experience.

We offer a National Sporting Clays Association (NSCA) registered shoot on the second weekend of each month from March through November (weather permitting). Registered shooters can pre-register on Score Chaser before each shoot. Pre-registration is not required.

• • Registered shoots consists of a 100 bird Main
  • Various other events that may include Super Sporting, True Pair and Sub Gauge
  • The other events vary each month.

 

[COOPADUP]

slightly OT but since the clays guys are here...

Hows the shotshell availability and pricing? Stabilized yet? I would assume so since other ammo seems to be back to normal (adjusted for inflation of course)

I havent shot sporting clays since pre pandemic, and during the pandemic I considered it, but shotshells were either unavailable or insanely priced.

Just curious if they have come back down to reasonable prices and if they are readily available. Been itching to get out again.

Been buying 7 1/2 shot 12 gauge at Wallyworld for 36.00/100 rounds (Winchester)

 

[Cameramonkey]

Been buying 7 1/2 shot 12 gauge at Wallyworld for 36.00/100 rounds (Winchester)

Thanks. It got so bad I stopped looking.

 

[cg21]

Well….. working for shells now I guess she must be serious.

 

[Leo]

Sorry new here

No problem.

 

[racegunz]

Issac Walton Kokomo has registered shoots monthly. I have been a member there for 4 years. Nice course there and open to the public except for certain events.
The Ike’s sits on 40 acres of wooded property. We have a club that not only offers camaraderie and friendship, but a sporting clays course that meanders through the woods with a winding stream, prairie meadow, ridgetop and wood lots for a unique shooting experience.

We offer a National Sporting Clays Association (NSCA) registered shoot on the second weekend of each month from March through November (weather permitting). Registered shooters can pre-register on Score Chaser before each shoot. Pre-registration is not required.

• • Registered shoots consists of a 100 bird Main
  • Various other events that may include Super Sporting, True Pair and Sub Gauge
  • The other events vary each month.

Didn’t you guys host a West Point fundraiser sporting clays event?

 

[COOPADUP]

Didn’t you guys host a West Point fundraiser sporting clays event?

I am not sure if they did or not. I’m just a member that casually goes there to shoot. There’s also a lot of different chapters around.

 

[cg21]

After posting I get a message for challenger clay ammo on sale for .34 c a shell sold out when I clicked it almost instantly

Leads me to another question……. What is preferred shot number for trap? 7.5 8 9?

 

[Leo]

After posting I get a message for challenger clay ammo on sale for .34 c a shell sold out when I clicked it almost instantly

Leads me to another question……. What is preferred shot number for trap? 7.5 8 9?

I am a number 7-1/2 fan for trap, (and Sporting clays, and skeet) and I use them up close for singles, at the back for handicap, and at the back fences for games.

Some men use a light load of #8 up front, 7-1/2 full load at the back and 7-1/2 high power shells for back fence games. I don't like the learning curve of shooting different velocities. I just keep it simple.

For skeet a lot of men use #9 and a good centered shot grinds the targets into dust with all those little pellets hitting up close. I even use 7-1/2 for skeet. A hit is a hit. In the score book they all record as dust.

 

[Hookeye]

Right or wrong I buy 7.5
Can use for dove hunting