You step up in the shooter’s box, throw a demo and your heart sinks. What in the…. yeah, the trap setter started feeling frisky half-way through the course and stuck in a few oddities.
Chondelles, rabbits, rabbues and other types of presentations aren’t difficult they’re just different.
There are good setters and there are those that just rely on speed and lack of visibility. The latter type of setter has very little understanding of the dynamics involved to set an honest target. Target setting is truly an art. Let’s take a look at some of the presentations these setters use as their “medium”.
Chondelles
The chondelle, a parabolic curve, shows you where being able to shoot multiple types of methods will make the biggest difference in your confidence and your score.
Use the one you’re most comfortable with to start then try a few others to build your skill set.
Straight Line Intercept is the top choice for chasing chondelles. The bird doesn’t care where you shoot it, but you care if you can break it so select a break point that makes you the most comfortable. Find a hold point where you can see the bird and it won’t outrun the muzzle.
Once you call “Pull” the bird should come to the barrel at the hold point. Travel with the bird under the flight line so that you will be able to push in a straight line to the other side of the parabolic curve and intercept the bird at the break point.
Rabbits & Rabbues
You either love or hate a rabbit target. There seems to be no in between on these hippity-hoppity hair pullers. Geometry still applies here just the same as the “in the air” presentations. If you are starting your muzzle high above the bunny at the hold point, you’re starting with a mistake. The rabbit has a naughty secret; you can rifle shoot it. Catch the rabbit with two eyes then as soon as you see it, shut down your off-side eye and put the barrel on the bunny’s “nose”.
Rabbues are a rabbit target on steroids. As if clay presentations aren’t tricky enough, someone went and invented a machine that can throw a rabbit clay as a crossing bird with a mean angle.
The heftier rabbit target means you’re going to need more power from your shot string. Because it’s denser, it’s heavier so it’s going to fall faster. Again, it’s not difficult, it’s just different!
Devil is in the Details
Another favorite trick for target setters is to use a midi or a mini size clay. This smaller target will give the illusion that the clay is traveling faster than the standard 108mm target. It’s not, it’s just smaller so the visual speed is more difficult for your eye to pick up.
Beware of the shadows! Especially if the setter is throwing a target with the dark, bottom facing the shooter. This is exactly why you should never get a demo with the gun mounted in your face. It obscures at ton of information and your ability to truly read the target.
Trap setters are always coming up with ways to make us cringe at a clay. I’ve seen trampolines tucked in the flight line, clays skipped across a pond, long flight lines with very short visual windows and all sorts of oddball birds.
The key to success is to remember it’s still only a clay pigeon and even though it looks like it defies physics and gravity, it doesn’t. The majority of a shooter’s success is their ability to read a target. This is what builds consistency along with a smooth swing and good fitting shotgun.
Always step into the box with confidence and be sure to share time on the course with a friend or family member, even if it’s just for moral support.
Kate Ahnstrom, owner of Virginia Shooting Sports is a certified, professional instructor of the Paragon School of Sporting. She has dedicated her life to sharing her passion for the outdoors and diversifying the dynamics on the clay course and the hunt field. Her tireless dedication to her students’ success is obvious in each and every lesson. Kate is on the pro staff for Syren, the resident pro at Bacon Farms Preserve, Artemis Ambassador, regional coordinatHer for HerUpland, department editor for Woods & Waters magazine, and contributing editor for Women’s Outdoor News. She and her husband, Mike enjoy their small farm in central Virginia where they have a menagerie of animals and plenty of room to train and work their beloved GSPs. Kate loves getting behind the barrel of her Syren Tempio Sporting 20ga for all things clay and feathered.
