Is clay shooting a declining sport?

Help Support :

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.

7iain7

Well-known member
Joined
Sep 22, 2013
Messages
77
Location
Kidderminster
I was wonder if the numbers of clay shooters (in all it's forms)  is on the decline, I've tried searching google to find an answer, but to no avail.

Because I have noticed there seems to be less people at my local shoot recently but this could just be specific to this shoot. 

I do feel the more people who shoot clay the stronger the voice we have.

 
Last edited by a moderator:
What I have noticed is that the average age of those shooting is getting older. There are not as many youngsters coming through as when I first started shooting. This could be down to several different factors. No interest, no spare cash from the parents, too engrossed in x-box, play station and social media.

 
I am fairly new to shooting, and when I talk about it to my mates/colleagues, the perception is always that it’s a rich man’s (Or woman‘s) game, not for everyday folk.
 

I am not sure that shooters have the best image, currently so I feel we are fighting an uphill battle. 

 
Not from where I'm standing. I don't see a decline in overall numbers but, like others, I stopped visiting both my local shoots in 2011 because of poor value. People drifted away because the owners had got lazy and expected people to pay £28 to shoot 100 sporting clays - for which sum there was a whole 5 stands and no scorers.

A couple of Sundays ago I went to a registered sporting shoot and paid £35 for 100 birds set over 13 stands, each with a scorer/ref.

It's not a cheap hobby and people vote with either their feet or their wallets. Some grounds do well and always get good turnouts but, for one reason or another, others are less popular - but the real addicts always show up to shoot every chance they get.

 
registered shoots are very busy round my way, cost is probably the main prohibitive factor for youngsters (and parents with keen shooting youngsters), some local shooting names are trying to help promote youngsters into the sport which is great to see, also on the game scene there are lots of youingsters beating and showing a real keen interest as well as earning some decent pocket money

 
Not from where I'm standing. I don't see a decline in overall numbers but, like others, I stopped visiting both my local shoots in 2011 because of poor value. People drifted away because the owners had got lazy and expected people to pay £28 to shoot 100 sporting clays - for which sum there was a whole 5 stands and no scorers.

A couple of Sundays ago I went to a registered sporting shoot and paid £35 for 100 birds set over 13 stands, each with a scorer/ref.

It's not a cheap hobby and people vote with either their feet or their wallets. Some grounds do well and always get good turnouts but, for one reason or another, others are less popular - but the real addicts always show up to shoot every chance they get.
I agree.

Excluding petrol to get to and from the ground a 100 sporting session costs about £0.55 per shot ( £35 for entry and £20 for shells ), you can kit up for well under £1000 and membership of a 'club' that usually does little more than give you a club ranking and cheaper practice clays costs around £50. Buying a £10k gun does not guarantee being able to shoot better ( moneys probably better spent on coaching ) and you can shoot against the worlds best, competitively with your £1000 used Beretta.

For your £55 you get about 2 hours of entertainment. 

Even shooting a 100 sporting once a week is only going to cost you £2750 a year. ( 2 weekends you don't go because it's Christmas or you're on holiday ) 

That's a pretty healthy level of participation.

What are the alternatives ?

Motor racing. even participating once a month in a cheap track day car is probably going to cost you £7k to £10k per annum and the sky's the limit really. Your level of success really is directly proportional to the depth of your wallet. Spending £100k in a season is commonplace. If you wrap a car round an armco it's gone. If i ding my gun I get to claim on insurance!

Skydiving. Lets face it is one for the young as a participant. To get in to it and get your wings is going to cost around £3.5k minimum. Work on about £100 for a 60 second 15000 freefall.

Keelboat yachting.  You get a lot of participation for your buck but a days offshore sailing is going to cost very little but the worst bit is it costs £3000 to £5000 to moor a small yacht in UK waters these days, plus antifouling, engine maintenance etc etc. Buying a small yacht will set you back upwards of about £10k at very basic entry level and if you don't know how to sail you'd better break out the wallet. Another major challenge is not a lot of people are happy to sail alone, especially in keelboats so you have the problem of getting crew together.

Power flying. Not quite in motor racing territory but it's getting there. Cost of entry is high, lessons etc and a days flying .... talk about £80 per hour upwards.

Gliding - Actually very reasonable, probably in the same league as clay shooting but very, very time intensive.

Golf - probably similar to shooting.

Watching football on a season ticket - again similar as long as you don't get suckered into buying 'kit' at ridiculous prices.

There are a hundred other hobbies you can look at but I'll hazard a guess that at £27.50 an hour shooting is far, far from the top of the list in terms of cost.

My thoughts on this are that people will find the money to participate and we should encourage participation in sports or some kind of serious hobby far, far more than we do. Sports at school should be far more prevalent and encouraged on an ongoing basis. A pass time where you can meet up with a bunch of like minded people, share some fluffy rabbits and discuss the week, equipment, competitions, gossip and a hundred other things away from the day-to-day of earning a living or looking after the family is absolutely necessary to a healthy existence.

 
orston today 150 plus shooters ,    grimsthorpe was busy  that's pay and clay         so around lincs I would say esp is healthy  ,   but no denying cost for entries and shells  a big factor !! 

 
I was wonder if the numbers of clay shooters (in all it's forms)  is on the decline, I've tried searching google to find an answer, but to no avail.

Because I have noticed there seems to be less people at my local shoot recently but this could just be specific to this shoot. 

I do feel the more people who shoot clay the stronger the voice we have.
Nothing much on registered locally, so ventured over to Barbury for a play. The place was rammed again, as always, so I wouldn't think clay shooting is on the decline. There were people from all age brackets there as well. 

What will make people more selective about when and where they shoot is the spiraling costs. One of the shoots locally has put the cost up to £42 comp, £37 BO. :eek:

 
Not really noticed any difference in the last 10 years or so. There was a big drop off in how many clays were shot when prices of carts rocketed around the mid 2000s (2006- 2009 ish) due to the increase in price of lead was blamed for the increase. I don't think it's recovered much since.  

 
There are a hundred other hobbies you can look at but I'll hazard a guess that at £27.50 an hour shooting is far, far from the top of the list in terms of cost.
Exactly, and as said it's not necessary to buy a £10K gun. There's no shame in a grade 1 MK38.

We like fell walking. Costs nothing much to walk the fells but factor in a 350 mile round trip and a weekend stay in Keswick to get 2 days walking and clay shooting can seem like a bargain.

 
Last edited by a moderator:
Almost every shoot I do (registered) is full and there are more events on than when I started 15 years ago, mainly due to all the mid week events.  Can’t speak for the more informal venues.

 
Last edited by a moderator:
Our local clayground seems to be fairly busy in numbers.Usually the same faces,but after xmas there were some newcomers with new guns.

Hopefully the numbers will continue to grow if they introduce new shooters too.

 
Last edited by a moderator:
Most of those that I have recently introduced to the sport were all of the belief that they could not afford to take up shooting, a £25 'have a go' session at the local ground soon sorted that one out. Problem is the queue at each stand seems to get bigger each week  !     😂

The problem where youngsters are concerned, seems to be the attitude of none shooting parents. I know by my own Grandkids, when I can get them to a shooting ground they thoroughly enjoy every minute of it. The hardest part seems to be getting my Daughter and SiLaw, to allow me to take them  ??

 
What will make people more selective about when and where they shoot is the spiraling costs. One of the shoots locally has put the cost up to £42 comp, £37 BO. :eek:
Blimey, where is that?? I know Bisley is stuck up to 41p a clay on the pay & play, and even though it's supposedly a nice set up that's simply too much for me to want to pay to do it there!

On cost, I come from just hanging up my boots (just) for rugby, football, and other team sports, all of which are way, way cheaper than anything like shooting, but although I could afford to go every week if I wanted, I still have to balance when to go cos it's still a lot of money to spend on a hobby. The wife has this image that I'll be taking our son in 15-20 odd years when he's an adult, but I can't work out how on earth that's gonna happen with costs always going to be slowly rising for shooting, me being retired at that point, and me being a fireman at the mo so not the sort of job where even promotion several ranks up amounts to anything financially decent or even close to the private sector. If others are in a similar boat, then that's not gonna attract youth to the sport, unfortunately.

I don't think startup prices are particularly bad, it's the maintaining the hobby week in, week out that hurts the wallet, moreso if you get a bit competitive and take it for more than just a bit of fun.

All relative though.... I don't go drinking at the weekend, and rarely ever go out so I don't spend a ton in a night like some mates I have on booze they can't remember buying, or like other mates who have season tickets which although aren't too expensive, when you factor in a few beers, food, travel, etc. can easily come to a oner or more for a father & son to go. Easy come, Easy go. :)

 
Nothing much on registered locally, so ventured over to Barbury for a play. The place was rammed again, as always, so I wouldn't think clay shooting is on the decline. There were people from all age brackets there as well. 

What will make people more selective about when and where they shoot is the spiraling costs. One of the shoots locally has put the cost up to £42 comp, £37 BO. :eek:
The £42/37 thing is at a few grounds already. It will be everywhere soon. Reg shoots were £33 Comp 12 years ago so the increase is above inflation and reflects the popularity of the sport (assuming entries stay where they are). 

 
I was wonder if the numbers of clay shooters (in all it's forms)  is on the decline, I've tried searching google to find an answer, but to no avail.

Because I have noticed there seems to be less people at my local shoot recently but this could just be specific to this shoot. 

I do feel the more people who shoot clay the stronger the voice we have.
I don’t think the numbers are declining per se although I do think competitors are shooting less during the week/weekend and saving their money for the big ticket events. Certainly in my discipline (trap) the big competitions are selling out within days of the entries opening.

Others have said the age of competitors is increasing and I think that’s true for a number of reasons. Veterans is now by far the largest category at just about every event I attend.

In many respects it’s a pointless discussion though as I do think organised clay shooting’s time is numbered. My guess is it’s got 10-15 years left, perhaps less. The sport’s caught in a perfect storm of increasing costs, political and environmental pressures, public and media indifference, an ageing demographic and governing body ineffectiveness.

Enjoy the sport whilst you can, it won’t last forever.

 
Last edited by a moderator:
I do notice that down here in France there are not too many young shooters, which given the costs involved in the sport is understandable. One of the problems of shooting as a competitive sport is the constant need for consumables expenditure and young people have problems financing this part of the game... so unless your dad is minted it is not the sport for you!

 
The £42/37 thing is at a few grounds already. It will be everywhere soon. Reg shoots were £33 Comp 12 years ago so the increase is above inflation and reflects the popularity of the sport (assuming entries stay where they are). 
I've not come across any 42/37 shoots yet. Where are  they Will?

Blimey, where is that??
Owls lodge.

 

Latest posts

Back
Top