Start shooting trap and skeet without embarrassing yourself

Walk into the clubhouse and say this: "First time shooting clays. Can somebody put me with a squad and show me the ropes?"

That sentence does about ninety percent of the work. Clay target people are the friendliest crowd in the shooting world, mostly because everybody there has personally shot at twenty-five orange disks and hit nine. Nobody is going to laugh at you. They'll hand you a scorecard, tell you which field, and probably lend you a gun if yours is wrong for the game.

A round is 25 targets. That's the unit of measure for the rest of your life in this sport.

Trap and skeet aren't the same game wearing different hats

Trap has one machine, sitting in a low bunker out in front of you. The targets fly away, angling somewhere inside a set window, and you never know which way until it's in the air. Five shooters stand on five stations in a shallow arc, 16 yards behind the house, and each of you shoots five targets before rotating. It's a going-away game. Modest lead, lots of rhythm, and it will humble you on the hard left angles.

Skeet has two machines: a high house on your left throwing from about ten feet up, and a low house on your right throwing from near knee height. Eight stations in a half circle. The targets cross in front of you at a known path every single time, which sounds easier and isn't, because crossing targets need real lead and your brain hates putting the barrel in empty sky.

Trap teaches you to see the target. Skeet teaches you to move the gun. Do both.

There's a third option, sporting clays, where you walk a course and shoot targets that rabbit along the ground and drop out of trees. It's the most fun and the worst place to learn, because every station is a new problem. Save it for month three.

The gun you already own is probably fine

If there's a pump 12 gauge in your closet for birds, bring it. It'll work. It won't be ideal and it doesn't matter yet.

What actually helps:

• A barrel of 28 inches or longer. Longer barrels swing smoother and stop less. Short home-defense barrels are the wrong tool here.
• An open choke to start. Improved cylinder or skeet for skeet, modified for trap. If your gun has screw-in chokes, ask the guy at the counter which one you've got in there. Plenty of beginners shoot a full choke at close skeet targets and wonder why they're missing with a pattern the size of a dinner plate.
• A gas-operated semi-auto if recoil is a concern. It soaks up a noticeable amount of the push. Over/unders are prettier and let you run two chokes, but they hit you harder.

A 20 gauge breaks clays perfectly well. So does a .410 if you're a better shot than me. Don't let anybody tell you that you need a 12.

Two minutes of setup that save you a season

Check your eye dominance before you shoot anything. Make a small triangle with your hands, arms extended, and frame a doorknob across the room with both eyes open. Now close your left eye. If the knob's still there, you're right-eye dominant. Switch and check the other way.

About one shooter in three has a dominant eye that doesn't match their strong hand. If you're a right-handed shooter with a dominant left eye, your gun points at the target and your brain looks somewhere three feet to the side, and you'll never figure out why. The fix is simple: close the off eye, or put a smudge of translucent tape on that lens of your glasses. Ask an instructor which one suits you.

Then get the gun to fit. Mount it with your eyes closed, settle in, open your eyes. You should be looking straight down the rib with the bead sitting right at the end, not looking at the top of the barrel and not staring at the back of the receiver. If the stock's too long, your nose ends up against your thumb, which you'll learn about the hard way on the second shot.

Length of pull and comb height are adjustable on most modern guns with shims or a slip-on pad. A club fitter can sort you out in twenty minutes. This matters more than what's stamped on the side of the gun.

Buy light shells, not tough-guy shells

Target loads. Seven-eighths or one ounce, #7.5 or #8 shot, low velocity. That's it. Every clays club sells them by the box at the counter, and a flat of ten boxes is cheaper than buying singles.

The classic rookie error is shooting heavy field loads because they were in the truck. You'll finish the first round with a bruise and a flinch, and a flinch takes months to unlearn. Nothing in this sport rewards recoil. A light load breaks a clay just as dead.

Wear a shooting vest or a pouch with a recoil pad on the shoulder. Eye protection isn't optional, ever, and electronic muffs are worth every dollar because you can hear your squad call "pull" and hear the instructor tell you what you did wrong.

Line manners, learned in one paragraph

Gun action stays open and empty whenever you're not on the station. Muzzle up or downrange, always, no exceptions, including when you're talking. Load only when it's your turn, and only the number of shells that station calls for. Don't shoot at somebody else's bird. Don't coach anybody who didn't ask. When the squad finishes, open the action before you step off the pad. Do those things and nobody will care that you shot a 6.

Say "pull" clearly. Say it like you mean it. Mumbling at the puller is the most common reason a beginner's first target never shows up.

The three things you're doing wrong

You're looking at the barrel. Your eyes belong on the front edge of the clay, hard, and the gun is just something that happens in your peripheral vision. If you can read the brand name on the bead, you missed.

You're stopping the gun. You swing, you pull, and at the instant of the trigger break the barrel parks. The clay sails on. Keep the gun moving through the shot and past it, like a follow-through in golf.

You're riding the target. Measuring the lead, checking it, checking again, and shooting when the bird is forty yards out and falling. Take it early, decisively, in the first third of its flight. A committed shot at a wrong lead beats a careful shot at nothing.

What a season actually costs

A round of 25 targets runs about the price of a decent lunch. Shells, less than that per box. Club memberships knock the target price down and usually pay for themselves in a couple dozen rounds.

One lesson with an instructor certified by the NSSA or NSCA is the single best money you'll spend. An hour with somebody watching your feet and your face will fix things you'd spend two years guessing at. Book it after your first two or three rounds, not before, so you've got specific problems for them to solve.

Take somebody with you

This is a sport a twelve-year-old and a sixty-eight-year-old can shoot on the same squad and both have a real day. It's the rare outdoor thing that doesn't require dawn, a boat, or three hundred dollars of specialized clothing.

Teach the safety rules first and hold the line on them without apology. Then let them shoot a 20 gauge at station 7 on the skeet field, which is the easiest target in the sport, and watch what happens to their face when that clay turns into orange dust.

They'll ask when you're going back before you reach the truck.