problem with plaswads to farmers on grass or arable land

[optomist]

Hi Folks iI was considering asking a few of my local shooting permissions if i could set up a clay trap to improve my current poor skills. I then considered it from farmers point of view and wondered wether plaswads would be an issue as I also have livestock and certainly wouldn't want any plaswads in my hay. I Would think there is less of a problem on arable ground but could still be an issue for some.

 

Three questions.

1. Is it a problem, can you go out afterwards and find and recover them and how far do they go?

2. What are alternatives plain wads- more open shot pattern, more expensive?

3 What solutions have people applied in thier experience?

 

Excuse my ignorance but do the clays degrade in time or do i need to look at that aspect as well?

 

Ok so I know nothing much about shotgunning and I can't shoot, but i'm learning

 

Optomist

 

[Oli]

Hi, i did a clay shoot on a mates farm a few weeks back, he wanted us to use fibre wads as he sometimes has livestock using the field we were on and they werent too much more expensive than the plastics a few quid maybe. he wasnt bothered about the clays as he said it will break down, dont know if thats true or not and other farmers may have a different view but he was ok with it. He had his dogs out with him as well and they had a great time retrieving the missed clays back to us unbroken

[oscarsdad]

Just use fibre wads.

[Breastman]

Just use fibre wads.

 

30-40p a box more expensive getting less the more you buy

[rimfire4969]

As above. I shoot many places and would not use plastic unless at a clay ground. Clays will break up in time but do take a while.

[Seamus]

I shoot clays from my land into the farmers fields next to mine with 3-4 people from my village (roughly every 6 weeks shooting 300 clays). We only use fibre wads and the clays seem to get broken down pretty well by the harrow/plough etc. My mower sees to the clays that fall on my side. Any whole ones are collected and reused, big chunks are stood on to break into smaller pieces.

 

My only recommendation is that you don't use orange clays, I'm not entirely sure why that seemed a good idea at the time.

[Dekers]

Fibre/felt!

[al4x]

Also beware when the field is cut and laying in rows if it is grass, I know of a case where clay shooting over the rows meant the shot stayed on top of the grass was collected as silage and did cause lead poisoning symptoms in cattle.

[Full Pelt]

Get used to using fibre from the off, intelligent shooting is going that way

[optomist]

Thanks Chaps fibre it is then, do they have a more open pattern do they degrade?

Optomist

[arjimlad]

Our clay shoot is fibre wads only. There is minimal difference to the average shooter in performance. The wads do biodegrade as they are mainly from cardboard.

[scotslad]

I only shoot fibre wad, nothing worse than seeing the wad's everywhere on a shoot, esp on a grouse moor or somewhere really natural. Make very little difference to ur shot pattern/range for most average or even good shots. Althou I think with steel shot it is all plastic wading to protect the bore more, i may be wrong with that thou. But steel shot is mainly used for shooting over wetlands (scotland) and all ducks/wildfowl (england) wouldn't really use it for clays

 

U can also get bio degradable clay's that break down easier than ur normal ones, not sure the price diference, but that was wot we used before our trap got stolen