Yesterday my wife and I participated in a team sporting clays competition Boy Scout fundraiser at a local conservation (sportsman's) club. $110/shooter for 55 clays at 16 stations. It was a hoot. Sixteen stations, I believe it was. All kinds of patterns/scenarios. That included your ammo, water and pop along the way, and dinner and beer at the end.

My wife and I didn't do well, but, considering the fact that neither of us have touched our scatter-guns in years, we didn't do as badly as we feared we would.

That got me to thinking. We've a manual thrower, but, with her back, she can't operate it any more. That means when I'm up: Rack my shotgun, load and cock the thrower, get set all over, "PULL!," repeat.

Then it lost the little spring steel wire thingy that keeps the clay from sliding down the arm until the mechanism's tripped and that was that for the day.

Commercial ranges are expensive and the sportsman's clubs are either restricted to club members and guests, have limited days and times they're open to the public, or are restricted to steel shot. (Do not like steel shot.)

So I got to thinking: Maybe one of those more automated throwers? I think they run off a small lead acid battery? What does it cost to get a "decent" one? Something that won't break the bank, but that'll hold up? Would be nice if it could throw doubles, but don't need anything that's got all kinds of fancy pattern programmability. Recommendations?

We've looked some. Electrics are usually $300+


I've been considering tha "One Step" manual version

I have a
Do all double with wobblers 3/4 cock I am getting rid of.
Just stepped up to an atlas.
No need to look anywhere else
Solid
Reliable
Good cs

I have had a One Step thrower for years. Very easy to use, even for one shooter. The clays come out a little slower than automated range traps. Launch angle can be varied and doubles can be tossed.

https://www.amazon.com/Trius-1...p-Trap/dp/B0000C53F6

Found a reasonably economical solution: Champion WheelyBird Auto-Feed Trap



$219 and free shipping with Amazon Prime. MSRP is $450. Seems like a pretty good deal. Gets 4.6 stars out of 5, with 438 reviews.

It doesn't do doubles, or have oscillating wobbling options, but neither did our manual thrower. (Well, it could do doubles. Sometimes. If you were lucky.) It weighs only 48 lbs. and includes built-in wheels.

One of my best friends has a Champion EasyBird, so, when we want to, we can get together and do doubles at varying angles, heights, from both sides, etc.

I would be looking at an Izaak Walton Club. There is one in Belmont, MI. There are also some in Indiana.

http://www.michiganikes.org/Dw...ter%20Info/home.html

The clay birds are toxic to cattle if I recall correctly and then there is the lead shot problem. Most clubs reclaim the shot and clean up the broken clay birds.

quote:

Originally posted by 41:
I would be looking at an Izaak Walton Club. There is one in Belmont, MI.

That's on the other side of the state from us. But thanks for the recommendation.

quote:

Originally posted by 41:
The clay birds are toxic to cattle if I recall correctly

Wouldn't surprise me. I don't plan to be shooting clays on anybody's farm, so...

quote:

Originally posted by 41:
and then there is the lead shot problem. Most clubs reclaim the shot and clean up the broken clay birds.

The DNR-run sites in Michigan do. The one nearest me just had had the rifle and pistol ranges down for a couple weeks for lead reclamation. I think they're doing the scatter-gun area now.

Couple friends and I group bought a whirly bird thrower back when we didnt have money. It works great and still does, i think we're on 10 years now. I believe you can buy an after market wobbler/oscilator for it but i could be thinking of another. We always had extra hands so just had someone else run it and adjust it all the time.

There are also some Izaak Walton Clubs in Indiana:

https://www.google.com/search?...2!1i823!2i465!4f13.1

I have an atlas at 50

http://www.atlastraps.com/AT-50_p_10.html

wired in a foot pedal with a long extension cord so I can go by myself and shoot all day. made of stainless steel ran perfect from day one, had it 10 years.

quote:

Originally posted by ensigmatic:
Found a reasonably economical solution: Champion WheelyBird Auto-Feed Trap



$219 and free shipping with Amazon Prime. MSRP is $450. Seems like a pretty good deal. Gets 4.6 stars out of 5, with 438 reviews.

It doesn't do doubles, or have oscillating wobbling options, but neither did our manual thrower. (Well, it could do doubles. Sometimes. If you were lucky.) It weighs only 48 lbs. and includes built-in wheels.

One of my best friends has a Champion EasyBird, so, when we want to, we can get together and do doubles at varying angles, heights, from both sides, etc.

GREAT find! I have been shopping for one, they (Raven or Champion) are always around $300.
Ordered the Champion on sale.
THANKS for posting that.

quote:

Originally posted by armored:
THANKS for posting that.

You're welcome. Glad it helped you out.

We bought an Atlas Patriot. We have had it a couple of years and it has been trouble free. Durning that time it has thrown several thousand clays. It is a very well built, easy to use unit. You can call and actually speak with someone at Atlas that knows about the product. I would buy another without any hesitation.

Certain clay targets are toxic to swine. Once upon a time I knew a fellow whose neighbor raised a few hogs and he would let them out to forage so he did not have to feed them. The roaming hogs would rototil fields, tear up home gardens, etc. one fellow was feed up so he took clay targets, put cheap peanut butter in the dome and put them in fermented corn. Problem solved!

Update

Got the Champion Wheelybird middle of last week. Finally cleared the decks of Other Stuff, got to my favourite battery place and picked up an Interstate deep-discharge "scooter" battery. Came home, assembled the thrower.

Hint: Disregard the instructions on installing the spring. Instead: Attach the spring to both the crankshaft eyebolt and the mainspring bolt, then operate the throwing arm until the mainspring bolt can be fed through the hole in the rear, finally leaving the throwing arm pointing straight out.

My wife and I wrestled with that verkakte thing for about an hour, trying to get that fracking spring on by following the instructions. Discovered the above by accident.

Took 'er out to the back forty, loaded six clays on, and ...

Wheelybird debut

(Had it embedded, but couldn't get it to stop autoplaying. So URL, instead.)

I think I can lower the elevation just a touch (And, I think, maybe the spring pressure. Those clays went a loooong ways.)

So, so far I'd call it a qualified success.

Mine came last week also. It was shipped to my Sons house so it has not been un-boxed yet.
Thanks for the Assembly tip!

I have a brand new one in the box I would love to sell.

The box is a bit damaged, but the contents are brand new.

If you are interested I will look up the model.