How fast does a standard clay fly?

[Emmsy]

'forget the swing it as fast as possible and it spreads the shot out' method, it doesnt work. shoot a stationary gun at a partern plate, then shoot at the plate swinging the gun as fast as you can. the pattern will look the same, ie not spread in a line across the plate. the shot gets out of the gun too fast to make a difference !!

 

as for methods, i use all of them although im nearly allways infront of the clay at all times.

i do prefer to let the clay do the work and move the gun as little as possible cus im lazy

[Gully]

'forget the swing it as fast as possible and it spreads the shot out' method, it doesnt work. shoot a stationary gun at a partern plate, then shoot at the plate swinging the gun as fast as you can. the pattern will look the same, ie not spread in a line across the plate. the shot gets out of the gun too fast to make a difference !!

 

as for methods, i use all of them although im nearly allways infront of the clay at all times.

i do prefer to let the clay do the work and move the gun as little as possible cus im lazy

 

 

Seeing as this is the 'technical clay thread', I've fortified myself with a bottle of nice italian red and got the calculator out.

 

So. if a pellet flies at 110fps, it takes 0.0027 odd secs to clear a 30" barrel (2.5'/1100')

 

a rough experiment with my mrs and an umbrella leads me to believe that an average swing speed allows you to turn 180degrees in 1 sec. So, that works out at 180 deg/sec - in 0.0027 secs the barrels travel 0.409 degrees. Its a good 20 years since I did any trigonometry but if you project 0.409 deg out to about 40m, you get tan0.409 x 40 = 0.285

 

So, the shot string moves 28.5cm at 40m. Not much, but enough to miss.

 

Like I said, bit of booze and dodgy understanding of maths, I am prepared to stand corrected.

[peter-peter]

I was wondering how fast a standard clay flies (if there is such a thing).

 

I ask as I am trying to work out how far it will travel by the time the shot hits it (or in my case misses behind it).

 

Say a left to right crosser with the trap 35 yards away. I fire and my shot travels at about 1450m/s?

 

Also, how long is the shot string by then and what is the margin of error between the front of the string and the end?

 

I'm not planning on getting too technical but am interested in the figures.

 

 

thanks,

 

 

/Mad

He's back, He's back,again he'l be on about dry ice next. B)

[Emmsy]

'forget the swing it as fast as possible and it spreads the shot out' method, it doesnt work. shoot a stationary gun at a partern plate, then shoot at the plate swinging the gun as fast as you can. the pattern will look the same, ie not spread in a line across the plate. the shot gets out of the gun too fast to make a difference !!

 

as for methods, i use all of them although im nearly allways infront of the clay at all times.

i do prefer to let the clay do the work and move the gun as little as possible cus im lazy B)

 

 

Seeing as this is the 'technical clay thread', I've fortified myself with a bottle of nice italian red and got the calculator out.

 

So. if a pellet flies at 110fps, it takes 0.0027 odd secs to clear a 30" barrel (2.5'/1100')

 

a rough experiment with my mrs and an umbrella leads me to believe that an average swing speed allows you to turn 180degrees in 1 sec. So, that works out at 180 deg/sec - in 0.0027 secs the barrels travel 0.409 degrees. Its a good 20 years since I did any trigonometry but if you project 0.409 deg out to about 40m, you get tan0.409 x 40 = 0.285

 

So, the shot string moves 28.5cm at 40m. Not much, but enough to miss.

 

Like I said, bit of booze and dodgy understanding of maths, I am prepared to stand corrected.

 

LOL nice work

 

well ...

1) when was the last time you shot many 40m+ targets ?? (obviously closer range will be less of a spread)

2) i doubt your timing would be that good to hit a clay while moving your barrels 180deg in 1 second!!

 

anyway we are not talking about the time it takes for the shot to clear the barrel for firing, we would only be interested in the time difference between the first and last pellets leaving the barrel which would be significantly less in my opinion.

[Gully]

I got my wife to read out the seconds from her watch as I rotated drunkenly round the living room . In any one second interval I turned about 180 deg. Couldn't think of a better way to gauge angular speed of a gun. at 30m its 21cm.

 

There's obviously room for error because of the acceleration of the shot etc. Just wanted a rough estimate.

 

if you want to wave your gun around against the clock feel free to post the results and I'll do the sums. Even assuming the time in the barrel is doubled due to the burning of the propellant (assuming that max velocity is at the end of the barrels, as it should be) then the spread of the shot is 49cm.

 

If you go for high velocity cartridges @ 1400 fps the figure reduces to 39cm.

 

I think that if you try to ambush the clay though you are going to miss. All the methods - pull ahead, maintained lead etc rely on you moving the gun to gauge the speed of the target.

 

Anyway, in my experience, if you think too much you miss. I can hit crossers at any speed, its the loopers I can't touch

[Catamong]

As I've said before, this subject is way too technical for reasoned debate late at night after a bottle or 2 of Chianti.

 

The shot may leave the barrel at a speed of 1450 fps, but it quickly loses velocity, depending on many factors, including - shot size, (smaller shot slows up quicker), wind resistance, altitude, (try shooting above 3000 feet, it's a different game ).

 

Keep the slide rule where it belongs, in the cupboard gathering dust, do something a bit more exciting with your Missus at half past midnight , and get down that skeet range to break some targets and build up that ever so important sight picture.

 

I know you can hit the crossers, I saw you in action last weekend, so you understand the theory of seeing a fair bit of daylight between the barrels and the bird, with loopers you are probably swinging up on a straight line through the bird and going OTT and in front, you need to practice swinging the gun along the "looping" line of the target.

 

Keep plugging away, but forget the theory bit..!! B)

 

Cat.

[Emmsy]

I got my wife to read out the seconds from her watch as I rotated drunkenly round the living room . In any one second interval I turned about 180 deg. Couldn't think of a better way to gauge angular speed of a gun. at 30m its 21cm.

 

There's obviously room for error because of the acceleration of the shot etc. Just wanted a rough estimate.

 

if you want to wave your gun around against the clock feel free to post the results and I'll do the sums. Even assuming the time in the barrel is doubled due to the burning of the propellant (assuming that max velocity is at the end of the barrels, as it should be) then the spread of the shot is 49cm.

 

If you go for high velocity cartridges @ 1400 fps the figure reduces to 39cm.

 

I think that if you try to ambush the clay though you are going to miss. All the methods - pull ahead, maintained lead etc rely on you moving the gun to gauge the speed of the target.

 

Anyway, in my experience, if you think too much you miss. I can hit crossers at any speed, its the loopers I can't touch

 

well the way i see it, with you spinning your gun the shot pattern will only widen from the time the first pellet leaves the barrel until the last pellet leaves the barrel. the time that takes is probably a 10th of the time all the shot would get out the barrel. so that would make it that your shot is being spread an extra 3cm at 40m which is nothing considering your shot pattern is probably 3-4 foot across by that point.

 

on a more helpfull level if you want to hit loopers more consistantly shoot it like a crosser but with your barrels slightly low under the line of the clay. as it peaks just pull through in a straight line the lead you want and pull the trigger, the clay starts to drop and into the shot pattern. most folk get caught up trying to maintain the line etc and rolling the gun with the target, which usually results in misses over the top as they dont get the gun down quick enough. Stu

[Gully]

Having thought about it a bit more (and taking your points fully on board Cat ) what I wrote above is a complete pile of tosh. Please ignore it. The shot doesn't form a string until it leaved the barrel. I found this pic to demonstrate.

[Catamong]

Nice set of pics, I'll bet you had to hold the camera pretty steady to get those..??

 

Have you got lots of holes in your living room walls..??

 

The shot "string" looks about 1.5 inches long, I'm sure it will lengthen a bit further downrange, but don't rely on it to break a clay.

 

Cat.