Field vs. Sporting

[Drue]

I am a fairly new shotgun shooter and I tried trap, skeet and sporting clays and I want to get involved. I know what a trap gun is and what a skeet gun is but I am a little fuzzy on what a sporting clays gun is. The advice is often given that one should choose a sporting gun rather that a field gun but I don't understand the difference. Using the Citori as an example, the 625 Field comes with three flush chokes and has a MSRP of $2,500. The 625 Sporting comes with five extended chokes, has ported barrels and has a MSPP of $3,500. Two chokes and barrel ports do not seem to be a thousand dollars worth to me. What am I missing?


Thanks

Drue

[stevinator]

From the last 2 lines of your post I don't think you missed a thing LOL. That being said I shoot mostly trap , and as an example I like a trap gun for that rather than a field gun.Just because of the weight and barrel length and ribs and so forth of most trap guns compared to field guns.The trap models of the same gun in the same brands  can shoot a little higher point of aim than the field models alot of time and they may have monte carlo stocks and a little different choking.I have limited experience with sporting clays but I would think a field gun you can shoot well would work to get started and something light and fast handling from the local course I went to here.A fellow in our party shot a 20 ga citori field gun in 26" with pretty open chokes and he made us look like fools with 12 ga guns and we have shot plenty. For that course I would have been served better with my 20ga hunting gun I think.

[Graybeard]

The thing about sporting clays is no two courses are the same and at many they change the layout regularly so if you've not been in awhile it might not be the same it was last time you were there.

Some set them up with ridiculously long shots that need more than an ounce and an eighth 12 target load. Others who are more knowledgeable make the course difficult with deception shot angles and presentations. On those you can generally use a 20 gauge fine.

On one course I used to shoot my 28 ga O/U was fine for most of the shots with three quarters of an ounce of shot and I had some ounce loads for the few longer shots. Some courses are set up so even a .410 can be used to break the targets.

Sadly the folks around my area seem to have drifted to the long range shots. I spoke with one young guy I know who wins a LOT of tournaments and he commented that he was having to use super full choke to have a chance on some of the targets there.

But in general I agree that a gun set up for field shooting is fine for skeet and pretty much for sporting clays also. The main difference is the chokes needed and if it's one of those that use distance for difficulty then gauge can come into play as well. These days I shoot only the .410 and stick to skeet where you never have to shoot further than 21 yards on any target.

I've shot sporting clays where shots varied from in your face to barely ever coming closer than 60 yards to you. Ya just never know.

[Drue]

Thanks guys! I think that I will just get an O/U field gun and start on all three, trap, skeet and sporting clays just changing the chokes. If it comes to the point where I get more serious about trap I'll get a trap gun.


Drue

[stevinator]

I think that sounds like a good decision, but don't buy one of the bargain basement ones.You can find brownings and winchesters and some others reasonable,look at cdnn investments and you can always get someone to get you one that has an FFL. Good Luck

[kenscot]

The one difference I see between all skeet and field models vs sporting models is length of pull  the skeet and field models will generally average 14.25 LOP while sporting models generally come at 14.75 or slightly longer   I am not quite sure why

[bkraft]

Just a WAG, but don't skeet and trap shooters generally wear a shooting vest wiy a padded shoulder? Would'nt the padding influence the LOP?

[dougk]

I think that sounds like a good decision, but don't buy one of the bargain basement ones.You can find brownings and winchesters and some others reasonable,look at cdnn investments and you can always get someone to get you one that has an FFL. Good Luck

Great point.  Also you might want to look into O/U's with 2 barrels.  I had a Beretta 682 Silver Perdez with 2 barrels just like this one http://www.huntingpa.com/forums/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=1864945 I never used it so I traded it for a few rifles and shotguns. 

That gun was great for Sporting Clays and field hunting.