Why you should learn how to clay pigeon shoot, Now hear us out, we have all at some point or another wanted to experience what it’s like to hold a gun, aim and shoot; embrace our inner Downton Abbey or Bugsy Malone, so why not experience the real thing with the added discipline of English Sporting Clays?

Well, you can do just that at Yeaveley Estate!

The Estate has been an established shooting ground for nearly 60 years and offers a wide variety of shooting stands which vary from a superb High Tower to provide some challenging high birds, to their custom-built Grouse Butts.

Origins of Clay Pigeon Shooting

Clay Pigeon Shooting is a sport, a skill, perhaps even art. As with most specialised pastimes, it embodies its own language which often mystifies the outsider. At the end of the 18th Century, live pigeons released by hand were used to practice the new sport of shooting birds on the wing. During the 19th Century rules were produced to regulate pigeon shooting competitions and the birds were released from boxes known as “traps”. This word is still used and the “trap” is an automatic machine for throwing the clay pigeon. Fortunately, by 1921 the sport of live pigeon shooting was made illegal and the shooting of artificial targets i.e. clay pigeons became the norm. However, the target is still known as a “bird”, a hit as a “kill” and a miss as a “loss”.

How to clay pigeon shoot

This is how to clay pigeon clay pigeon shoot. Each position that you shoot from is known as a “stand”. The bird appears from the trap by calling the word “pull”.

Each different bird is represented as realistically as possible utilising the landscape and wooded areas of the Estate.

During your day you and your team form your own shooting party, accompanied by your instructor, you move around the Estate trying your hand at a variety of stands.

At each stand, your instructor will explain to you how to shoot each of the clay pigeons safely as well as provide some interesting and often amusing insights into the world of shooting.

You will be provided with a variety of shotguns with a range of calibres ensuring a suitable shotgun is used especially for ladies and they only use fibre wad biodegradable cartridges and approved clays ensuring your estate is here for the generations to come.