Sporting Clays Trap Course at Marble Mountain Guest Ranch

Sporting Clays at Marble Mountain Ranch are an opportunity to experience a sample of the Western Firearms tradition in a sporting “non-kill” venue.    Our predecessors considered firearms to be an essential tool for survival here, and in our remote setting, we still consider the firearm to be an equally necessary tool.   Most of our guests find our sporting clays trap course to be both an educational and a highly thrilling addition to their Western Frontier vacation experience. 

 

Many of our novice shooters compare the trap course to “golf with a shotgun”.  There are some strict and technical differences between the games of skeet, American trap, and sporting clays, but we take an informal approach and try to run the course in a safe fashion that enables guests to break the most number of clay pigeons.   Sporting clays is perhaps the non-kill shooting sport that most closely resembles the shots normally encountered by a “wing shooter” in hunting quail, duck, pheasant or other fowl.

 

Your sporting clays experience starts on the first visit to the course with an orientation on shotgun safety and review of rules for the course.  Ear protection and eye protection are required and are provided by us along with the shotguns and ammunition.  If you are an experienced shooter and desire to bring your own shotgun, you must inform us prior to your arrival and keep it secure in our gun-safe during your participation in other ranch events. 

The Sporting Clays course is composed of 13 stations, 2 to 10 shots at each station, for a total of either 50 or 100 in the complete course.  Birds come from any direction or angle.   They are outgoing, incoming, crossing, rising and falling. The birds (clay pigeons) can come as singles, following pairs, pairs on report, or true doubles. The thrill of sporting clays lies in part, in the closer approximation to real-life hunting situations. The flight patterns of the pigeons can be set to resemble ducks landing, geese in an over the shoulder flight pattern, a walking hunt (the fur and feather combo shot), and quick rising flights (the spring teal). Our sporting clays course can be shot with #8 and improved cylinder to light modified chokes unlike some competition clays that have longer targets requiring tighter chokes.

We provide lighter shotguns (410 gauge and 20 gauge youth models) for smaller participants. The minimum age for participants is determined on a case by case basis (typically at 7-8 years minimum) with input from the guardian in attendance. Ultimately our trap-master makes the decision with safety as the prime directive, and with compliance with course rules absolutely required by the participant. If the trap course is deemed inappropriate for a particular youth, we offer an alternate introduction to shooting safety with bb guns.

 

 

 

 

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