Beretta Blog

If you want to see the next generation of competitive clays shooters, look no further than the Association of College Unions International (ACUI). This non-profit organization is much broader than clays shooting or even sports as a whole. Its purpose is to bring together college union and student activities professionals from hundreds of schools across the globe.

Each year thousands of people make a great migration to the Shooting, Hunting, Outdoor Trade Show (SHOT Show). It is the industry’s largest trade show and is attended by retailers, media and other industry professionals. This year was a bit different for me. My daughter, Lea, was finally old enough to take along. She had an amazing time meeting colleagues, suppliers and learning about products. While she was there she worked on intern and homework assignments. 

Lea had a lot of work to do, but a highlight was meeting clay shooting Olympic athlete, Beretta shooter, Kim Rhode.

What do you get when you combine 133 college students, from seven colleges with over a quarter of a million dollars worth of competition shotguns?

You get boatloads of clay dust and a lot of smiles.

We were at the old Tarheel Gun Club, and I was sitting on the porch with Jason, a unique individual and the clay shooting club keeper, who always wore blue denim bib overalls. I was talking about the relative difficulty of the different targets in skeet shooting. The toughest targets for me were stations three, four, and five. All these are crossing targets, one each from the right and left. At that time, I didn’t really have a good handle on shooting crossers and it seemed these targets always kept me from shooting 25 out of 25. “Well,” I bragged, “at least I don’t have trouble with low house, station seven.”

Now that my daughter has a shotgun for competitive shooting let’s talk a little about practicing and using the right shells for the job. You know how to get better, right? Practice. Practice. Practice.

When my husband and I were at SHOT Show last winter, we were lucky enough to visit with Kim Rhode to get some shotgun tips from one of the most successful clay shooting athlete in history. Among the many questions we asked was how often she practices. She told us she shot a minimum of 500 rounds a day.

Everyone, even our Olympic champions, miss a shot now and then. Some of us miss more than others. It is easier to miss with a shotgun than you might think. Learning from a miss can teach you a lot about how to take the next shot, and let’s face it; there isn’t any shot more important than the next one.

Mistaking the distance of the target is a prime way to miss. And with waterfowl and upland game, it isn’t the easiest thing in the world to measure because you’re dealing with fast-moving birds. One tactic you can do to work on judgment is to observe birds as much as possible. During a waterfowl hunt, I’ll set up decoys at specific yardages. It gives me a little reassurance that I know how far everything is in relation to where I am. Increasing your confidence reduces that chance that you’ll miss.

How do you go about choosing a new competition shotgun for your 100 pound, 15-year-old daughter?

My husband and I started by asking a trusted colleague for a shotgun recommendation when looking for a new one for our teenage competitor. From there we asked a few more friends for their thoughts. More than one person recommended the Beretta A400 Xcel. We were intrigued by the suggested shotgun and wanted to learn more about it.

Recently, I wrote The Rookie’s Introduction to Clay Shooting to help new folks get a handle on what the various clay shooting sports are all about.

Now, let’s get serious about how to get started.

Although you can start your clay target shooting career in any of the primary disciplines - trap, skeet or sporting clays, I might encourage new shotgun shooters to take a run at trap shooting first. It’s not a hard and fast rule, just an opinion from some guy on the internet. (That would be me.)

New shotgun shooters often wonder where to start and how to have fun. The best of the best shotgun shooters seem to boast about a good round of sporting clays. Many people think of sporting clays as golf with guns. I happen to like golf. The problem is, I don’t always have time. Between work, being a mom, volunteering and various other activities, it's hard to get a full round in. Another factor, other than time, that may inhibit a shooter from getting a round of sporting clays in is the cost.

Trap Shooting: Competitors fire at targets moving away from the shooting line.

When I first expressed interest in the shotgun shooting sports, I was completely confused.

In their enthusiasm to share the sport, all my shotgun friends started right into detailed knowledge and tips and tricks. For example, they talked to me about how to aim a shotgun, how to get ‘classified’ and how to lead clay targets. All good intentions aside, no one stopped talking long enough to appreciate how little I knew. Without a basic understanding of the games, how was I to know what these things meant?