Build a Skeet & Trap Range
A skeet and trap range can offer a great deal of enjoyment while building your sporting skills. While you can always drop money at an established range, if you are a shooting enthusiast, your own skeet and trap range may be a better solution. With a little planning, you can custom design a range that offers exactly the type of shotgunning challenges you desire. Some minor building may be involved if you want to make the range as close to shooting regulations as possible; however, if you do the job right, there will be practically no difference between your skeet range and the ones the pros shoot at competition.
Instructions
1. Locate a flat piece of land that offers at least 40 yards of clear space. Draw a line across this area for the full 40 yards that will serve as the front end of the skeet and trap range. Make sure shooting beyond this line is safe, as this is the direction the shotgun pellets will go when the range is being used.
2. Build one small "house" at the extreme right end of the firing line. This can be nothing more complicated than a small ply board decking about a foot off the ground. This will be the "low house" where one of the remote clay pigeon throwers is installed.
3. Construct the low house by digging four post holes 4 feet apart, creating a simple square outline. Place 4x4 beams in each of the holes and solidify their hold by pouring in quick drying cement. Once the beams are properly set, saw them off at about a foot from the ground. Nail the ply board panel on top of these beams to provide a platform for the clay pigeon thrower.
4. Build another taller house on the extreme left end of the firing line. This house should be tall enough to place a clay pigeon thrower about 8 1/2 feet from the ground. This will be the "high house" throwing position.
5. Construct the high house the same way you did the low house. The only difference, of course, is that you let the beams extend further up before placing the ply board platform on top. Also, for greater stability, you may want to add cross ties between each of the beams to form a primitive flooring system.
6. Mark the eight shooting positions with a small patch of gravel. The stations will be located beginning at the high house, then move in an outer arc so that they create the appearance of half of a clock dial. The positions should be evenly spaced to make seven spots by the time you mark the spot directly adjacent to the low house. The eight spot will be at the center line from positions one and seven on a direct line between the two houses.
7. Place each of the clay pigeon throwers so that the clay pigeons will leave the houses at an outward angle of about 10 degrees, placing the targets on the safe side of the firing line.
8. Place another small house just forward of the firing line with a clay pigeon thrower turned so that the targets will fly away from the shooters' side of the range. This will provide the means to shoot trap from the same positions as well.
Tags: clay pigeon, firing line, clay pigeon thrower, high house, pigeon thrower, skeet trap range
