Animal Mother Posted July 30, 2013 Report Share Posted July 30, 2013 I'd love to take that to some snooty shoot or clay ground! I'd take this to bring a bit of class to the proceedings. B) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tim Kelly Posted July 30, 2013 Report Share Posted July 30, 2013 It amuses me the righteous indignation that comes out when people point out the obvious flaws in semi autos for some types of shooting. Every clay shoot I've ever been to has a bucket in front of the cage to put you empties into. With a double barrelled break action gun you can easily break the gun and take out the empties to put them in the bin. With the best will in the world you can't do that with an auto! Even if an auto and a double barrelled gun handled the same in every other way, the double barrelled gun would be more suitable for clay shooting for that reason alone. Of course you can and should pick up your empties wherever they've landed, but it's hardly convenient. I have an auto, o/u and SxS which I use where they are most appropriate. Not any snobbishness or militant indignation, just picking the best gun for the situation. The OP asked which was best for clay shooting, and the answer is obvious. However, any gun will work perfectly well on clays if you want to use it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
zx10mike Posted July 30, 2013 Report Share Posted July 30, 2013 It amuses me the righteous indignation that comes out when people point out the obvious flaws in semi autos for some types of shooting. Every clay shoot I've ever been to has a bucket in front of the cage to put you empties into. With a double barrelled break action gun you can easily break the gun and take out the empties to put them in the bin. With the best will in the world you can't do that with an auto! Even if an auto and a double barrelled gun handled the same in every other way, the double barrelled gun would be more suitable for clay shooting for that reason alone. Of course you can and should pick up your empties wherever they've landed, but it's hardly convenient. I have an auto, o/u and SxS which I use where they are most appropriate. Not any snobbishness or militant indignation, just picking the best gun for the situation. The OP asked which was best for clay shooting, and the answer is obvious. However, any gun will work perfectly well on clays if you want to use it. nicely put, thankyou Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Scully Posted July 30, 2013 Report Share Posted July 30, 2013 It amuses me the righteous indignation that comes out when people point out the obvious flaws in semi autos for some types of shooting. Every clay shoot I've ever been to has a bucket in front of the cage to put you empties into. With a double barrelled break action gun you can easily break the gun and take out the empties to put them in the bin. With the best will in the world you can't do that with an auto! But isn't the point being that it isn't the guns which have 'flaws',but more so the users? I have seen double ejector shooters pinging empties all over the place regardless of bins. You're correct,it's hardly convenient to pick up empties,but it isn't difficuilt. Even Mr Digweed can bend down;I've seen him do it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
thepasty Posted July 30, 2013 Report Share Posted July 30, 2013 at no point have we shown indignation, nor have we said that a semi is the better gun, we simply pointing out that the difference really isnt that great and can be dealt with if you really want to shoot a semi. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tim Kelly Posted July 30, 2013 Report Share Posted July 30, 2013 at no point have we shown indignation, nor have we said that a semi is the better gun, we simply pointing out that the difference really isnt that great and can be dealt with if you really want to shoot a semi. That's a statement of the blindingly obvious though. I think the original question was which was better for clay shooting, and patently a double barrelled gun is better, and generally an O/U is preferable to a SxS. If it was asking which was better for wildfowling the semi would take that honour in many circumstances, and if it were asking which was the better gun for walked up shooting a SxS would be the obvious choice. As I said, you could use any style of gun for any style of shooting, but there are good reasons why each style has its preferred place. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
throdgrain Posted July 30, 2013 Report Share Posted July 30, 2013 I've used a pump while clay shooting, I even took part in a competition with it. I guess I must go to working class grounds. Me too Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HDAV Posted July 30, 2013 Report Share Posted July 30, 2013 I'd be interested to hear your reason why apparently 90%+ use O/U? I don't know the reason but every time I go clay shooting I see 90% OU guns, a few semi's the odd SxS and pump. I have shot them all and the semi is the most faffy for clays, most cart fussy, takes longest to clean, being a LH shooter the choice ( with the ejection port on the correct side) is very limited. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Milkfloat Posted July 30, 2013 Report Share Posted July 30, 2013 One of the obvious major benefits of a O/U is the you have two barrels and therefore two choke choices rather than being stuck with one. Pretty much all target clays diciplines will require two different chokes at some point or other. As stated in trap throwing empties over your fellow shooters in the line is not acceptable. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
throdgrain Posted July 30, 2013 Report Share Posted July 30, 2013 Don't really agree with that either, stick in a quarter choke and use it for 99% of shots. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dekers Posted July 31, 2013 Report Share Posted July 31, 2013 (edited) I don't know the reason but every time I go clay shooting I see 90% OU guns, a few semi's the odd SxS and pump. I have shot them all and the semi is the most faffy for clays, most cart fussy, takes longest to clean, being a LH shooter the choice ( with the ejection port on the correct side) is very limited. To be fair that holds pretty true whatever you are doing with a semi and has little or no specific bearing on Clay shooting. The O/U has taken over massively from the SBS in terms of overall new sales and the Semi is still a long way behind in the sales league but making headway. That's why you don't see so many at Clay shoots. Times change, 125 years ago the semi was virtually unheard of so everything was still SBS and O/U, there is also tradition to contend with. On the pigeon, the popularity of the semi is growing quickly and old arguments of semis not being suitable for clay shoots for various reasons are slowly receding. MOST people who head off for a Clay shoot do it purely for pleasure and are never going to win an Olympic medal, plenty of fun can be had with a semi and many love them, including me (I hate the cleaning though). At top levels in any sport equipment becomes more specialised or individually tailored, that doesn't mean you can't have a hell of a lot of fun playing some park football in your old trainers and jeans with coats as goal posts and learn and improve a lot while you are doing it! The semi is showing the biggest growth of all current types of shotgun if you believe the manufacturers, no reason not to from what I see around me. They are without doubt very different to shoot, swing, handle, clean etc., than a traditional type of shotgun but they have a place, and as historical barriers are steadily knocked down and semis continue to improve, their popularity is growing all the time. As I said in # 47 Get whatever you like, that you are comfortable with, does the job and is allowed on the shoot! :good: We are all different, I hate SBS, love my O/U, but frankly I use my 391 everywhere I can. Edited July 31, 2013 by Dekers Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bostonmick Posted July 31, 2013 Report Share Posted July 31, 2013 I suppose you may get an answer to the original question if you check out the results of all the major comps over the past few years and see what guns the winners used,it may just give a hint. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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