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Clay Shooting Guides

How the clay target games are actually scored, and how to get better at them - written by the team behind Smoke 'Em, the scorekeeping app for trap, skeet, sporting clays and 5-stand.

How to Score Trap ShootingHow a round of American trap is scored: 25 targets, 5 posts, 5 shots each, how the squad rotates, what counts as a dead bird, and how to track your average.Trap Handicap Yardage, ExplainedWhat handicap yardage means in trap shooting: why better shooters move back from 18 up to 27 yards, how yardage is earned, and how to score handicap rounds.How to Score a Round of SkeetAmerican skeet scoring made simple: 8 stations, high and low house singles, doubles at 1-2-6-7, and how the option (your 25th shot) really works.Skeet Station 8: Why It Feels Impossible (and Isn't)Station 8 puts you mid-field with barely a second per bird. The geometry, the hold points, and why the scariest station in skeet is one of the most makeable.How Sporting Clays Is ScoredHow sporting clays is scored: courses of stations with menu cards, true pairs vs report pairs, 50-100 target rounds, and how to track your presentation stats.What Is 5-Stand?5-stand explained: five stations, a menu of singles and pairs from six or more traps, 25 targets per round - sporting clays variety on a skeet-field footprint.Trap vs Skeet vs Sporting Clays: What's the Difference?The three clay shooting games compared: field layout, target flight, difficulty, cost and pace - and which one a new shooter should start with.Clay Shooting Averages, ExplainedHow clay shooting averages work: computing hit rate, what counts as a good average in trap, skeet and sporting, and why tracking by station changes everything.How to Run a Gun Club LeagueA practical playbook for running a clay target league: picking a format, handicaps, flights, live scoring, standings and trophies - and the tools that remove the paperwork.Clay Shooting for Beginners: Your First Range DayEverything a first-time clay shooter needs: what to bring, what it costs, range etiquette and safety, which game to start with, and how to improve fast.Online Clay Shooting TournamentsHow online (postal-style) clay tournaments work: shooters compete from their own club during a set window, post scores to one live leaderboard, and fairness is enforced by score validation and time windows - no GPS, no travel.

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