Thoughts on pellet counts for clays?

[Bruce Hering]

I have heard this kind of topic of discussion for a long, long time.

Here are my thoughts: From the scores given and a possibility to replicate the day, time, etc. I suspect the higher score would get the higher score regardless of ammo. The ability of that individual to read his targets and put his gun/shot load where it needed to be should remain the same and thus that shooter would duplicate (or close) his performance.

I would also propose that each shooter must practice with the gun, choke and load(s) said shooter intends to use in order to gain familiarity with said performance. When I was coaching my collegiate shotgun team I had several top shooters that would screw in one set or one choke tube (semi autos) and go through a round with one type of ammo and get the job done. Most of these young folks has shot 1000's of competition targets by the time they got to me, so I felt comfortable letting them continue with their chosen means and methods. So, I guess, if ya know your gun and how it performs and you can read targets well (sporting clays and FITASC) you should be good to go.

Now, for my own shooting I have several different loads that I use but that is because different guns like different loads. In my modern guns I like a 1oz. load of 8's for most everything until ya get that long squirrely target and then I go to 7.5's. These are loads traveling about 1250-1300 fps. but I do shoot a lot of "bunker loads" 7/8's oz. of 7.5's traveling from 1350-1360. For my old guns I like to stay at 1oz. @ 1180-1200 on a clays course or trap field. I am going to experiment with 7/8's oz. loads for the older guns as reload components become available in both 2 3/4's and 2.5 inch ammo.

I really feel that this is a case of the indian and not the arrow nor the bow string for that matter. If a shooters perception of target and mental understanding of what the target is doing (sporting clays) and is shooting from the subconscious once the "plan" is made then he/she will likely break the target. Shoot from the conscious mind and you are going to have problems....

JMHO