[Twang]

I found this while perusing YouTube. It's a 5-minute video showing how clay targets are made. It's interesting . . . I assumed they were actually made of "clay".

 

[Vick]

Interesting...I thought they were made of clay, too!

 

[fordpkup]

:yeah:

 

[Redlick83]

Clay targets are killing the planet in 3...2...1

 

[patchz]

I thought they were plastic. Regardless, when placed on a dry dirt berm and shot with a .54 caliber muzzleloader, the resulting cloud of dirt and orange and black pieces is very satisfying.

 

[Southern Reloading]

Lawry targets from Canada are still made with a good percentage of clay. Actually certain dirt!

 

[45flattop]

I somehow think I'd get a real WTF look from old Ralph
Burke in his now gone shooting supply outlet on Terry
Road if I ever asked to buy a crate of "petroleum pitch &
talc" targets. So clays it was and will most likely remain
for the foreseeable future. I made enormous mistake once
of stopping by his place to buy some primers just as an
18 wheeler FULL of them pulled in and got drafted to
help unload them. That was a WHOLE LOT of weight.
:lol5:

 

[patchz]

I somehow think I'd get a real WTF look from old Ralph
Burke in his now gone shooting supply outlet on Terry
Road if I ever asked to buy a crate of "petroleum pitch &
talc" targets. So clays it was and will most likely remain
for the foreseeable future. I made enormous mistake once
of stopping by his place to buy some primers just as an
18 wheeler FULL of them pulled in and got drafted to
help unload them. That was a WHOLE LOT of weight.
:lol5:

I had completely forgotten about that place.

 

[Southern Reloading]

Hey 45 you right on them being heavy!! We get 23 pallets at a time. 63 boxes per pallet and 135 birds per box!! Ask me how I know!

 

[Doc]

Randy is correct - 63 boxes on a pallet and each box has 9 stacks of 15 per stack and most of the time a truck will haul 23 pallet - sometime less...
8505 targets per pallet and 195,615 targets per load.
Randy and I know that for numerous reasons -- one is when we divide cost of that truck load to include freight by the number of targets you get a cost per target …… that is one reason why you keep your eye on your trap-help when they drop a box or when the machine loaders crack a few --- or when a shooter gets on his post and wants to look at a couple before he shoots.
We just had the MS State Trap Shoot and over 4 days threw in the 90,000 range.
We know what each one of those cracked targets or targets shooters just look at cost us...…… and they are not free.

I knew an older trap shooter who had a great collection of old targets - amazing the transition of material over the century. Shooting flight targets started in earnest in the second half of the 1800s. Some of the first thrown targets were actually glass balls...…… quite an evolution in targets and machines from then until now.

 

[Redlick83]

I knew an older trap shooter who had a great collection of old targets - amazing the transition of material over the century. Shooting flight targets started in earnest in the second half of the 1800s. Some of the first thrown targets were actually glass balls...…… quite an evolution in targets and machines from then until now.

Some of those glass ball targets were quite ornate, and fetch a pretty penny now days.

 

[Don sims]

Pretty cool video.

 

[Glkfan]

That’s a interesting video !

 

[NRA_guy]

Nice video. I love manufacturing videos and visiting factories in real life.

I thought they were clay, too. I have never shot them.

Question: Do the targets that shooters miss break up when they hit the ground?

 

[Tim18wheels]

I made enormous mistake once of stopping by his place to buy some primers just as an 18 wheeler FULL of them pulled in and got drafted to help unload them. That was a WHOLE LOT of weight.
:lol5:

I think I found me a volunteer!

Question: Do the targets that shooters miss break up when they hit the ground?

Yes, they are fragile. Popps set a box up on its side on the hand railing. Subsequently, the rail got bumped, and the box belly flopped on the deck. More than half were broke from a fall of 3 foot. @Doc Many of the clays, that were not broken or were only chipped, subsequently cracked being launched from a two birds throwing mechanism. Those clays with a piece missing flew funny.

 

[blkout]

That is very interesting, I have always loved watching how things are made, was my favorite part of Mr. Rogers neighborhood when he would show "films" of how things where made.