Smoke 'EmOnline Clay Shooting Tournaments
An online clay tournament (shooters of a certain age will remember these as postal shoots) lets everyone compete without traveling to one venue: each shooter breaks their targets at their own range during the event's window, and every score lands on one shared leaderboard. The mail-in scorecard is gone - the board updates live as scores post.
How an online tournament runs
- The host sets a window. One day, a weekend, every other week for a season - any schedule works, and the host can adjust dates as the event runs.
- Shooters register and shoot at their home range. No flights, no report times - you shoot your round whenever your range is open during the window.
- Scores post to one live board. Each shooter posts their own round; standings, ties and classes update for the whole field instantly.
How is it kept fair?
Honest online competition is about controls, not trust. On Smoke 'Em, an online tournament enforces:
- Server-clock windows - a score can only be posted while the round is actually open. Device clocks and back-dated rounds are ignored.
- Scorecard validation - every posted round carries its full shot-by-shot card, checked against the discipline's structure and the event's target count.
- Self-posted transparency - remote scores are marked as posted by the shooter, distinct from cards sealed by an official scorer, so the field always knows what it's looking at.
- One entry, locked - posted legs count once, results are immutable outside the sanctioned scoring path, and nobody can post for anyone else.
And deliberately no GPS or location tracking - fairness comes from validation, not surveillance.
What online events are good for
- State-vs-state and club-vs-club rivalries - settle it without a six-hour drive.
- Winter leagues - keep the season alive when nobody wants to travel.
- National fields - a hundred shooters, fifty ranges, one board on the clubhouse TV.
Hosting one takes about a minute on the Club Plan: create an event, choose "Online - shoot anywhere," set the window, share the link. Smoke 'Em stays free for every shooter - scoring, stats, and joining any league or online tournament included.