Electric Pairs

Probably the most difficult of targets to hit consistently is a pair, double trouble you might say. An easy way to throw a pair with a single auto trap is to press the button on the shooter's call and hold it down untill the second bird appears. Depending on what sort of trap you've got and the time it takes to reload itself, you are going to have a pair of clays in the air together, albeit one behind the other. A variation on this is a carousel capable of hold and throwing a standard, midi and even a mini in any combination, one behind the other to give an interesting pair which the keenest shooter will have difficulty in remembering the sequence - one of Bidwell's High Lodge traps is ideal for this when using any number of different inserts within one carousel.
Your next step is to find two traps so you can provide a true pair, i.e. two separate clays thrown at exactly the same time. This is easy to do if you have a standard button and lead arrangement, set the traps to throw what you want and push both buttons together. Another way I've found to do this is to make a multi-button box with Duraplugs fitted - that way you can use as many traps as you like with one person in control. The trouble comes when you've invested in a more sophisticated radio remote control system. You may well find that the majority of the time both clays come out of the traps together but sometimes there's only one: this is more than likely because two single radio release transmitters can block each other out if they're both used in the same millisecond, you'd be surprised how often I've seen this happen when radio systems are bought singly and not all at the same time when the manufacturer will allow them to specifically work together. If the money is available and you want pairs, always buy three button radio controls.
I have come up with a way to get the traps to fire at the same time consistently with only one button - I made up a lead from one trap to the other and then to a single button for the trapper - there is then no mistake and a true pair every time. Before you try this yourself, you must be aware that unless the proper circuit is built into the connecting lead both traps will become live and fire continually until the conection is broken between traps. If you want to go down this route I would advise you to speak to the trap manufacturer and ask for his help to throw pairs from single traps.
You could go out and buy a double trap which is essentially a single trap with a big carousel and two throwing arms that collect a clay each from alternate stacks and throw together. I'm not too impressed with the double throwers that I've seen - they have never seemed to throw consistent pairs because they are fiddley to set up.

Please come back soon to find some articles or ask me about traps.

Copyright of this page belongs to Andy, How to Break Clays.com - the website for the amateur clay shooter, July 2007