“Come and Try” Days
These days are run by Club Volunteers. They are unpaid and are donating their time to help the Club and their sport. When you first arrive, go to the Office and introduce yourself to the Office Staff.
Firstly you need to provide Photo ID. Usually this will be a Driver’s Licence or a Shooter’s licence. For younger attendees, a Student Card or Medicare Card will suffice.
Next you need to fill in the “Range Register”. There are 2 of them. If you are licensed, fill in the “Licensed Shooter” form. If not then the “Unlicensed Form”.
Next, you need to pay the office staff $70 per head for the first round (Gun hire, ammo & clays) and basic coaching, and $30 per head for subsequent rounds. GST inclusive.
All assistance needed will be given to every participant to enable them to begin learning to shoot. Naturally, with new shooters, our first concern is safety. So the first thing to learn is safe gun handling. Please watch the Safety Videos on this Site prior to attending the Club.
A Club member will supply you with a suitable shotgun for your build and the discipline you will be shooting. Normally they will retain your licence until the firearm is returned. The Club member will then take you to one of the Layouts to shoot. There may be up to 5 shooters that the member is dealing with, so be patient.
Instructions for new shooters – Trap
The Club Member will assist you with –
1. Which station you will occupy. Usually if you are on your own this will be Station 3, but if there are more shooters it can be from Station 1 to Station 5. For a beginner shooter, stand on your station with your feet apart, about the same as the width of your shoulders. The Coach will load a shell into the bottom barrel. When the Coach tells you it is safe to load, keeping the stock horizontal, the barrel is closed with the shotgun pointing above the level of the top of the Trap House. Keep your index finger out of the trigger guard and against the timber of you gun while you do this. Do not point the gun at the ground as you close it because if it discharges onto the hard concrete, pellets will spray in all directions causing injury both to you and your fellow shooters. The weight distributions should be around 70 to 80% on the front foot. The front knee must not be locked & the shooter will lean forward from the waist, into the shot. The front foot should be around 30 deg to the line of the track & the back foot comfortable. The stock is pressed firmly against the shoulder, into the pocket between your shoulder and collar bone.
2. A shotgun differs from a rifle in that your eye effectively is the rear sight. It is important that whenever you mount the gun it is exactly in the same spot. Stand upright with head straight and eyes fixed on a distant object. Place the comb (top of stock) beneath your cheekbone, then slide the gun backward to rest on your shoulder, pointing at the object your eye is fixed on. Using the heel of your trigger hand, gently press the stock inward to your neck so that it rests in the pocket between collar & shoulder bones.
3. Now move the gun to point 60 cms above the left hand edge of the Trap House for Lane 1, between the middle and left hand edge for Lane 2, the middle of the Trap for Lane 3, between the middle and right hand edge for Lane 4, and the right hand edge for Lane 5. Usually the Coach will put Clays on the roof of the Trap house to indicate these positions.
4. Now you have your gun in the right position, focus your eyes at an object at least 15 m beyond the Trap house slightly above your gun barrel. Do not focus on the shotgun bead.
5. Call for target & hard focus on the released target’s flight. Swing the gun quickly but smoothly to the target using your body not just your arms, and pull the trigger while continuing to move the gun. This continuation of movement of the shotgun is very important! If you focus on the bead you will probably stop the gun and miss “behind”.
6) It is routine for new shooters to shoot 5 targets on the same lane with the Trap set on “straight away”. Next an individual target is shoot on each of the 5 lanes. Finally, another 15 targets are shot over the 5 lanes with the Trap Oscillating. This completes the 25 targets. Should you like to then have another round, go to the office and for $40 more you can have another 25 targets.
7) Non Club Members can attend 3 “Come and Try” Days. If they wish to continue shooting after this, you must join the Club. See Membership for details.
8) Standard Trap and Skeet Layouts are shown below.
