Thread: Who owns a clay thrower and how do you rate it ?

Originally Posted by seano

@Survy if you live in CHCH or nearby .. you could borrow mine for a couple weeks ? give it a whurl

Thanks for the offer, I'm up in the big smoke, but seeing what you can do with these things I am narrowing down my choices

mine is same as seanos but reinforcedwith steel tube .Ive got a bolt &hook for tying it to a tyre cause as seano says if you dig it into the ground and fire a clay ,the recoilmakes it jumpout and nearly turn itself inside out.I made up a lever with a no*wire linkage to fire it-though a rope is also fine.
im going to redo base of mine in heabvy duty ply with holes for 3x pegs of reinforcing steel to secure it.
Unfortunately its buried under heaps of decoys etc in the garden shed at present.

Originally Posted by seano

Ive also got a G.C Thrower ... Its also is ment to be pushed into the ground and held down by kinda "tent pegs"(but I found that was pretty much useless as every time it threw a clay,it would jump out of the ground)So I Mounted it to a old tyre and rim and I also bolted two 5kg weights to the underside of tyre to make it a lot more stable ...It takes a fair bit of effort to reset the arm each throw ,but is easily operated buy a pull string ... It works ok ,you can throw singles or double (stacked or side by side) it hasn't got the best distance but its always a good afternoon of shooting.. also use a hand thrower to mix things up a bit and its throws a lot further ..
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ive got one of these it throws clays i shoot them its not fashionable but what else do you need

Our club has Promatics (S.I. Sporting clay Shooters) all up 33 or so, thanks also to Target Products (Timaru) who are the agent.
They are good traps, and we don't have much trouble with them, like everything mechanical they have to be set up properly to work day in, day out.
They make the big Super Sporter 400's, Falcons (the ones we have) holding 400 clays, and then 'Personal use' traps: Super Hawks, Single stacker -65 clays, Harrier XTS 200 clays on a rotating carousel and Merlin's holding 150 clays.
Check out their web site:Promatic | Sporting Traps

promatics are great but the new MEC traps are essentially promatic traps now as they now have promatics old head designer and are really good quality and are a bit cheaper than the promatics and you can order any spare bits you want of MECs website

Yes saw them in the USA, while not wanting to knock them as I've never use them, they appear not to be as robust as the Promatic, especially the SS, and Falcons.
They look like fairly light alloy frames, but basically appear to be the same as Promatic otherwise.
I suppose it depends what you want from your trap, semi commercial use or just a fun day occasionally.

we borrowed a promatic from a member but the club brought a MEC use one at our range no issues they are faster on the second bird than a promatic

Our club has a Promatic Superhawk on the water now. Will let tou know how it goes. We got it for its range and rate of fire given we only have a small six stand sporting range.

Originally Posted by Survy

Thanks for the offer, I'm up in the big smoke, but seeing what you can do with these things I am narrowing down my choices

I have one of the standard spring loaded ones that works fine something like this:
Allen ClayMaster Clay Thrower #227 - Clay bird Shooting - Accessories - Reloaders Supplies Ltd
They are definitely NOT as good as an automatic but still good practice. I think they throw the slightly lighter "American Trap" targets a bit better that the heavier Euro ones or the horrible cheap Chinese ones.

I'm up in the big smoke also if you wanted to try it out.

@300CALMAN thanks for the offer, and also the info about the weight differences with the clays, something I didn't even consider.
What are the Chinese ones to stay away from ?

OK don't have a box in front of me but one of the "American Trap" type i purchased was thicker (higher) but lighter, slightly and with the golf ball dimpling on the surface. The other standard ones are thinner and don't have the dimpling. The Chinese ones looked like the standard ones but have "Made in China" stamped on the box. I am sure they are heavier and harder to break (with shot) but broke in the thrower more often. I wont be buying any more of thoes they look something like the ones in the link below, as you can see the "clay" is white/grey and only colored on top.

High Quality Wholesale Thower For Sale Clay Target - Buy Clay Target,Clay Targets For Sale,Mexican Clay Pots Product on Alibaba.com

The European made ones are completely painted orange or have an underlying balck material. I have some new boxes of decent targets to try out once the weather settles a little.

Originally Posted by Survy

@300CALMAN thanks for the offer, and also the info about the weight differences with the clays, something I didn't even consider.
What are the Chinese ones to stay away from ?

Chinese clays are indestructible. you can shoot them, see holes appear in them but they don't break. Reusable maybe!!

Originally Posted by mikee

Chinese clays are indestructible. you can shoot them, see holes appear in them but they don't break. Reusable maybe!!

Number 2 3inch steel do the business

I have a Winchester, with a western retro conversion, just pricing up, to convert the cocking motor and wobble to 240 volt from 110, as undecided if I am bring it to NZ or selling it,

Looking pretty narly in black there, must be good if your thinking of bringing it to NZ