Here at Riverside Shooting Ground we currently have the following layouts running during Saturday club day shoots:

Compak Sporting

Compak Sporting is a fun idea that allows all the usual targets from English and International sporting to be combined into a competition that can be shot in a small area. Set on a Skeet range, four firing points are available, along with four extra traps. These traps can be differing types of target for example Rabbit or Springing teal these are added to a combination of Horizontal Skeet Targets.

Shooter's change firing points every sequence of targets throughout the 25 that makes up a round. Single/Double targets are fired when the shooter calls with their gun out of their shoulder.

English Skeet

Here at Riverside we are curently buidling our second Skeet setup that will be online later this year.

The skeet layout consists of two towers from which targets are fired - a high tower and a low tower. Between the towers seven firing positions are placed, arranged in a semi-circle. A typical skeet round would be 25 targets.

There is a specific order in which the targets must be shot:

After the second clay is shot the shooter must reload ready for the simultaneous pair where necessary. In the simultaneous pair the targets must be shot in the order given, except for at stand 4, where the shooter must inform the referee which will be shot first. The shooter can call for the target with the gun mounted or partially out of their shoulder.

You may have noticed that there are only 24 targets listed above. To make up the 25th the shooter repeats the first target missed, or the final single if the shooter is on for a perfect score. The score is the number of targets broken.

English Sporting

English sporting is the most popular form of clay shooting. Two targets are launched from one or two traps, and can be launched on report or as a simultaneous pair. When launched on report the second clay is launched as soon as the shooter fires at the first clay; a simultaneous pair is when both clays are launched at the same time.

A wide variety of targets can be used, and it is up to the course designer to determine the difficulty of the layout. The choice of target is vast, including crossers, driven, rabbits, teal....

The number of stands and targets to be shot also varies from competition to competition. Here atRiverside our English Sporting consisting of 50 clays spread around 5 stands in a woodland setting, with five pairs at each stand. The order in which the stands are shot is not pre-determined, unless it is a large competition.

Scores are simply the number of clays that each shooter breaks. The shooter may call for the target with their gun in or out of their shoulder.

Down The Line (DTL) (Coming To Riverside Later This Year)

DTL is one of the oldest form of clay shooting and is a good discipline for beginners to shoot. A single trap is placed 16 yards in front of five shooting positions placed in a straight line abreast. The trap fires clays randomly in three directions. Each direction will remain the same, but the shooter will not know which path the clay will be fired on.

Each shooter shoots five clays at each stand, and then move one position to the right, i.e. a shooter at position 4 will move to 5, one at 5 will move to 1. However, each shooter does not shoot their clays consequtively. After the first shooter has shot, the second shooter will take their first shot, then the third etc. Once the last shooter has fired their first shot, the first shooter will take their second. This continues "down-the-line" until everyone has shot five targets at that stand, and then they move.

The shooter has "full use" at each target, meaning that the shooter can shoot twice at each target (use both barrels). Targets are called for with the gun in the shooter's shoulder. The scoring system is slightly different in DTL. Three points are awarded for breaking the clay with just the first barrel, two are awarded for breaking the clay with the second barrel and zero for missing completely.

DTL can be shot at a very quick pace, since all the shooters are on their firing points and each shooter can be ready to fire as soon at the previous one has shot.