This clay shooting discipline is probably the nearest to game shooting as it aims to simulate the different targets a shooter comes across in the field. The shooting ground will be set up to replicate the field physically as much as possible, with a 60ft tower to simulate the high birds, trees and open grassland all part of the terrain. The different types of clays will all travel at different speeds too, so there is almost endless variation.
A typical 100-target competition may be shot over as many as 10 or more stands, each offering a different type of target – going away, incoming, crossing, rising or falling.
Sometimes the targets are presented as simultaneous pairs (two targets in the air together), or ‘pairs on report’, when the trapper releases the second target the moment he hears your first shot.
The international version of the English Sporting clay shooting discipline is called FITASC Sporting.