Three shotguns (or maybe two)

[Vikram]

Very nice guns and pics,Steve.Thanks again for sharing.

Best-
Vikram

[Sakobav]

Steve

Thanks for the pictures again

Best

[shooter]

Thanks steve,

A few of clay magzines here have a 'USA section'. A lot of the articles there relate to NASSA skeet. Ive read that ISU skeet is also popular.

Ive read that the popularity of sporting clays is growing. Exactly how popular are they?

Over here OSK isnt popular at all.and sporting is the most popular followed by DTL and english skeet. Then olympic trap and lastly Olympic skeet. Our international performance reflects this. out of the last 107 shooting medals won by british shooters, 98 were in sporting (approx; dont quote me).

Hows the scene in the US? The US performance in the world cup and the olympics is very evenly distributed and consistant; you win medals in trap, skeet and DT but not so much in sporting. is this a reflection of the hobbies of shooters in general?

please do post pics of youe semis.
Which is the most popular semi? i used to see many adverts for benelli there but its not very popular here. Beretta is quite popular for wildfowling here.

I met a gentleman from california in the clay range the other day. He owned many guns. Many handguns, rifles and shotguns. Was describing he used to own a lot of semi auto rifles too. Had O/U shotguns, SxS, Pump, semi shotguns.

I think he scored 0 or 1 out of 50. When i asked him the reason he said he never shot clays but it was very common for people to own shotguns/rifles etc but not hunt or shoot clays/targets with them.
He said it was common for them to 'fire' them at targets but it was more about the fun of shooting rather than scoring and improving the scores etc.

Is that right?

[Steve007]

Shooter, it's a big country over here, and to get a shotgun or rifle in most (though not all) states including mine, you just wander into a gunshop and buy it. There is an instant FBI check, but if you're a law-abiding US citizen, that's it. If it's a private sale (as with my pumpgun), you just give the seller the money. That means there are people who buy shotguns/rifles and don't shoot (or clean) them. They just want to have them around. I might think that's pretty silly, but, heck,I've got handguns I haven't shot in many years. Nevertheless, those guys aren't genuine "gun guys". They just own a gun. Or sometimes quite a few guns. Not the same thing.

Most of the fellows I hang around with that have shotguns shoot every week, sometimes more than that. There are maybe 6 Sporting Clays ranges within 60 miles of my house (suburb, medium/large -sized Midwestern city) and more skeet and trap ranges than that. The Grand National Trap championship is held about 60 miles away; over a MILE of trap ranges, and huge numbers of shotgun-related booths. A friend of mine has a son going to college (university) on a Trap Scholarship. Of course, many men hunt birds or deer, but don't shoot clays or targets in the off-season except to sight in their rifles and maybe a few rounds of skeet.

My only semi-auto is a Beretta 391 (though my wife has one too). It is the most popular new semi-auto,with Browning and Benelli far behind, so far as I can tell.

I am a regular and better-than-average shotgun shooter, but have no information on (or interest in) US competition shooting. I'm a boxing fan.

[shooter]

Thanks for the detailed response Steve. Though over here they say british are more into shotgunning and americans more into rifles, the world cups and olympics dont necessarily reflect that. (Im referring to issf events).

It is good to get a first hand account of how things are across the pond. Do tell me about the shooting techniques you use. is shooting gun up popular or gun down.(usa has produced many isu skeet shooters)
sustained lead or pull through.

How easy/difficult is it to set up ones private shooting range with traps etc. What brand of ammo is popular. whats the cost.

For eg. a good second hand shotgun here (beretta/miroku/browning) will cost £1200 approx.

ammo:
decent mid range ammo is £160/1000 (£4 per box). Starts at £128/1000.
Costs in club approx 25 pence per clay (varies between 24 to 30).

Most of clubs here (the smaller ones open 3 times a week). the bigger ones approx 5-6 times a week.

The biggest shooting range here is bisley; its the largest in Europe. They have most shooting desciplines but arent very big on olympic desciplines (please dont ask me why).

I am not criticising the UK but just telling you things that I think you might not know and might find interesting