How to break clays .com

These are pages about clays, what they are and how they can be used. There are a couple of big name manufacturers whose clays are probably the industry standard and I'll give you all a few tips on their use.

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Battues

A battue is a thin clay the same size as a 110mm standard and shaped a bit like a saucer without the cup standing on it. When thrown, it usually start off as a very fast target that travels edge on to the shooter and can be difficult to see but as it slows down it twists 90 degrees to show a large plate slowing down and turning into a looping target. Once it's turned it looks deceptively easy, although by then it is losing speed and drops fairly quickly; if you take on the target when it's edge on there is the chance that your pattern will carry stright on past the clay into thin air. Battues can also be thrown edge on to show the full face of the clay during all it's flight, once again it looks to be an easy target but it doesn't half travel at a good rate of knots.

Downside up and upside down. Note how thin the clay is.

Rabbits

Rabbit clays are the same size as standards and battues at 110mm but they are heavier and flat with a much stronger outer rib to withstand the force of being thrown onto the ground to roll and bounce along its flight path. They are strong enough to hold up to several journeys through a trap and can probably be used again and again. If you pick up any rabbits that have been shot at but not killed, you are more than likely to find several with up to four shot holes right through them. When you come across a rabbit at a shoot, watch someone else have a go and it will probably roll gently across the ground; when it comes to your turn the clays will throw a wobbly and bounce up to 10 feet into the air - don't worry it's still a score on your card!

Here are an orange and a black rabbit, rib out is the rule for throwing them from
any trap. Note the thicker outside edge for a stronger clay.

Flash

When you watch the all to rare clay competitions on television the targets aren't just broken, they disappear into a ball of dust, usually pink, red or orange. Don't go to your local straw bale shoot and expect to see the same because it won't happen; the only time you see dust is when you hit a clay square in the pattern at close range so it turns to black smoke. Telly targets are round about five times more expensive than ordinary clays although the expense is justified when they're used a large events because there is an audience. If you watch clay shooting as an outsider there isn't much to see, we as shooters know it's exciting because there are bits broken off when lead makes contact but to draw coverage and ensure audience participation the a clay must be seen to be hit, hence the use of flash clays.
Commonwealth and Olympic shoots are spectacular examples of the use of these clays, the guns rarely miss and the hits are guaranteed to make explosive impacts. There are different way to make smokey clays and they can be done relatively easily at home with a bit of time and patience if you don't want the expense of buying a full box at a time. Major clay manufacturers such as CCI and Laporte take a standard clay and trap a small amount of water based luminous paint powder inside it. Some use a round clay disc glued underneath the standard with the paint in the cavity, a newer version has a slightly deeper crater in the top of the standard which is filled with paint and then covered over with a self adhesive paper disc.
However they're made, we only need to crack the clay in flight for the powder to be released in a cloud for a colourful change to our routine. I use flash clays loaded intermittently in electric traps to add spice to a Christmas or BBQ shoot. One turret is filled with orange flash and the rest are black so when an orange comes out the shooter appears to be under enormous pressure from his 'friends' in the squad. Great fun for me watching, not quite so good when I have to prove they are really pink inside.

Here are two different ways that paint powder can be held inside a clay.

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