Clays Cost - 25 Birds

[Dom]

What do the different clubs around the country charge for a round of 25 birds? At the Club I shoot at it's currently $4 a round of 25, with special rate of 10 rounds for $35. We only have Trap & Skeet stands. Have to use steel, been shooting steel (Clever, Mirage - Italian) size 7 for all. The clays are rather hard, don't know if it's the seel shot or what, but I see a lot of dust fly off and no chips. Gotta hit em pretty good to break 'em, Waidmannsheil, Dom.

[skeet]

At the Cody club where i currently shoot a round of skeet or trap is 3 bucks with a special of 11 rounds for 30 bucks. The club in Md that I am part owner of we charge 3.00. No specials but that includes either trap skeet or 5 Stand. Actually making money at that rate...but the costs will be going up soon as the price of targets will be going up. Steel and clay targets really are not the best mix. Steel actually isn't very good for anything...contrary to what a lot of people think. They need to worry more about other hazardous materials that are put onto our lands and into our waters. Lead can at least be reclaimed....and is on quite a few ranges here in the states

[Catfish]

We had to raise our price to $3.50 around last year. When I started shooting it was $1.00. Am I getting old or something???????? :confused:

[skeet]

When you started shooting had they started using the feather filled glass balls yet?...or were they still using flintlocks and mud balls to shoot at? I remember my father shooting skeet at the local skeet club when I was a kid and a round of skeet cost him 3 bucks...and that included the box of shells. Luckily I was just a very young kid.

[Dom]

I think when Catfish started shooting they were still releasing pigeons out of the boxes!

Ya Skeet, we didn't like it when they ran some super duper tests, said we were in a water protection area, blah blah, and it was either shoot steel or close the club. Sooo, you know how that goes . . . Still a lot of clubs we can shoot lead, depends on location, etc, but more and more are banning lead.

I heard they're going to raise the price here, so was trying to get a feel for the costs around the country. Current prices don't seem out of line, so maybe I can persuade them to leave prices as they are, thanks, Dom.

[gold40]

At the St. Louis Skeet & Trap Club, the price for a 25 bird round of skeet or trap is $4.75 for members and $7.00 for non-members. The cost of clay birds has risen in recent years.

Most ranges around St. Louis charge $30 to $35 for a 100 round of Sporting Clays. Add the cost of shells at $4 to $6 per box, and it easy to spend over $50 very quickly.

Oh well, I guess that is a reason to keep working....

JERRY

[Catfish]

Skeet,
When I was shooting for $ 1 a round, I was also selling shells to some of my friends for $ 1 a box and makeing money doing it.
As for steel, I don`t like it at all. I bought several boxes of 25 3 in. mag. for $ 10 a box to hunt geese with. I have never been able to knock down a single goose with it. The year befor last I killed 37 geese and up to the last goose I had knocked down 1 more goose than shells fired. It took me 3 shoots so I ended up with 1 more shell fired than geese knocked down, which still isn`t real bad for the range of most of my shots. I rember one of the times I knocked down 2 with 1 shot. 1 hit the water dead and I findly killed the other 1/2 hour later with the 6 th load of steel. I`m trying to use up the steel on the ones that can`t fly away.

[BILLY D.]

The reason I quit Waterfowling was because of Steel. Too many wounded birds to suit me. I don't like furnishing Coyote supper.

Howsome ever since I hunt on WPA's and State lands I had to stat using Bismuth For Partridge, Grouse and Pheasants. I will not use steel. I load my own but a 7# bottle of Bismuth cost over $80 the last time I had to buy some. A week or so ago I heard through the grape vine the Bismuth Co. has gone out of business. Sure hope thats just a rumor.

Best wishes, Bill

[skeet]

I understand where you are coming from. The fellows I hunt with back east mostly all use the good stuff any more. So many less shells fired. Honestly though most of them are really pretty good shots. One of the guys I hunt with is probably the best field shot I have ever seen. We were both taught by the same gentleman how to shoot in the field. He was always proud of us(he had no kids) because he said we were much better shots than he was.. If that is true I'm really proud cause he was great. Anyway all these fellows went to Hevi shot etc and we all put our extra steel shells in a cripple kitty. Had about 7 boxes of steel 4 yrs ago...still have at least 3. Not many crips in our decoys. Most of the cripples are finished off by the kids we introduce to the sport. About 25 kids over the last 4 or 5 yrs.. Most young kids are kinda bloodthirsty...or they just want to be able to shoot. Gonna take my 11 yr old grand daughter on her first goose hunt this year. My grandson got his start 3 yrs ago at the age of 10..My daughter got her first goose at the age of 8. All on the same place...in the same pit with the same people. Talk about traditions. BTW that one pit on a pond has produced over 10,000 birds over the year..probably twice that many. The 88 yr old farmer has the records on all the 8 pits on the farm. We even got him out 2 yrs ago and he shot his last goose with my gun. Tickled me...and him too.:D

Billy I heard the same thing about the bismuth shot company. Fellow that owned it died and no takers on buying it. Hope that changes. If not you can use the Tungsten Matrix loads in the old guns. Kill as good as lead too. Not cheap though. I may have a few boxes of bismuth and know where I can get more ..reasonably. What do you shoot??