Clay Pigeons

I took my Rem 870 Tactical (with ghost sights) to the range 2 weekends ago. Had a blast shooting some cheap walmart birdshot through it, but as you can imagine, it destroyed the cardboard backing on the target stand. Since this wasn't my target stand, I felt kinda bad about destroying it, but the range officer didn't seem to care.

With that aside, I think shooting clays would be fun. But being new to shotguns, I don't know what kind of safety precautions I would need to take. Do I need a clay thrower, or can I get one of the handheld chuckers (throwing the pigeon myself and then raising shotgun)? Any relatively cheap brands of clay throwers out there with a pull cord that can be done without a friend?

And what about picking a place to shoot them? I've got a nice area in the local national forest that tons of people go shooting at and it has a nice berm (but is about 300yds of open space). Do I need to worry about a backstop? Lastly, what is the protocol with picking up broken clays after shooting them? Do you guys pick up the largest pieces only, all of it, or none at all?

You *CAN* throw clays yourself with a hand-thrower. I wouldn't recommend it until after you have shot clays a good few times. That is a lot to think about, and too much to think about at once can become dangerous. After you get more practice you are not quite as concentrated about the swing, mounting, leading, etc and you can concentrate on safely holding the shotgun by the foregrip in your non-dominant hand, throwing with your dominant hand, dropping the thrower and mounting the rifle.

I have seen spring throwers at walmart for reasonable prices... I can't remember how much but I think they were $50 or less, but don't quote me on that.

If you use #7.5 or #8s you don't really need a backstop. In fact, unless you are shooting into a mountain the clays will be above most back-stops. But you should make sure that no people will be within several hundred yards (the more the better) of your shooting in the down-range direction. The bigger the shot (smaller number) the further it will carry with deadly force, so stick with the small shot and get the lower velocity varieties to help minimize travel.

Get the biodegradable clays. You have to make sure they stay dry/indoors unlike the traditional clay clays, but they will degrade naturally and quickly.

I was wondering if the hand throwers would be a little too awkward, thanks for that tip!

My local walmart does have a thrower (probably Winchester brand like all of the other accessories they carry). Are the cheaper ones good enough or do they tend to break in a few months of use?

I know that with rifles/pistols you shoot into the berm, and knowing the physics of trajectories, I figured that the shot would go above berms but didn't know how much space I needed. I've seen people shooting clays on the banks of rivers/creeks and always wondered how safe that was since they couldn't easily go to the other side and check to make sure it was safe to shoot that way.

Thanks for the help/tips!

No clue on the Walmart spring thrower. They are pretty simple, so barring a brace snapping, I can't see how it would die that quickly. It probably doesn't throw as far, is harder to set (put load on the spring) and should be kept out of the rain for extended periods. But I imagine it would work fine, though I have no personal experience.

From personal experience... AND THIS IN NO WAY IS AN ENDORSEMENT OF WHAT IS SAFE/NOT... #7.5 shot at 300-400 yards feels about like riding a motorcycle in a t-shirt in the rain at 65mph. That is why I am glad I don't hunt public land anymore... 300yd lead showers aren't super fun. They could most likely put an eye out without eye protection, but not mortally wound someone. Still, you don't want to be blinding anyone. This is just to give you an idea of the energy of lead shot at that ranges, not tell you that shooting a shotgun at people 300-400 yards away is safe or a good idea.

Hmm, okay I know exactly what you mean. I've ridden in pea sized hail at 65mph and that was painful (and that was with a leather jacket on).

Guess I'll do some more scouting and see if I can find a better place to shoot the clays with a little more range behind it (granted there are tons of trees all around the shooting spot, so they should stop most of the shot from getting too far). Better safe than sorry. Thanks again!

The wal mart throwers aren't terrible. Mount them to a spare tire for some longevity and ease of use fill with water for an even more stable base., the legs won't stay even in the clays down south, up here it's like 2 throws and the thing is flopping around.

there is some research out there on shot distances and stuff but if I remember correctly 500 yards is the magic number outside of that your "safe" but if your shooting towards the berm you should be fine