Skeet vs Sporting Clays
Skeet and sporting clays are two of the three forms of shooting sport events that are very popular across the world. There are similarities between these two shooting games, and there are people who refer to both as golf with a shotgun. However, there are also differences that will be highlighted in this article, to enable readers to distinguish between these popular shooting games.
Skeet
Skeet is a shooting game that originated with the desire of game hunters to have some practice in the state of Massachusetts in 1920’s. These hunters resorted to taking aim at clay targets to improve their performance. With the passage of time and advancement in the setting of clay targets, the game of skeet became more consistent and very popular. The result was that it became an international sport, followed today not just by hunters but also those who love shooting. In skeet shooting, clay targets are fired into the air from two fixed stations at various angles and different speeds and the player has to aim and shoot down both every time. There are many variations of skeet shooting played around the world but one variation that is accepted as standard is known as Olympic skeet.
Sporting Clays
Sporting clays is a game of shooting that is designed to give the feeling of field shooting to its layers. The player is provided with a variety of targets that take the flight course of natural game. So the targets could be incoming, outgoing, angled, crossing and so on to test the skills of the shooters. The trajectories and elevations of the targets are variable, presenting a very difficult but real life shooting practice to the players. Even the size of the target keeps changing to make it difficult for the players to anticipate the next target to aim upon. The course of sporting clays has 10-15 stations from which targets are fired. The machine used to provide targets is called a trap machine. Every station provides 5-10 targets and thus every player gets anywhere between 50 and 100 targets to shoot at. The targets can be provided in singles or in doubles (pairs). Even the position of the target stations keeps on changing to keep the players guessing.
What is the difference between Skeet and Sporting Clays?
• There are only two stations in skeet shooting whereas there are 5-10 stations in sporting clays that provide targets.
• The target stations in skeet are fixed whereas the position of target stations is variable in sporting clays.
• The targets in skeet shooting are always crossing each other, whereas a player can get targets that are incoming, outgoing, crossing, parallel, or having other trajectories in sporting clays.
• Target stations are on a semicircular path in skeet shooting whereas a player does not know about the positioning of target stations that number 5-10 in sporting clays.
• Sporting clays is considered harder than skeet shooting.