Just shot my first round of sporting clays after 6 months of trap and I'm absolutely hooked. SO MUCH fun, and sporting clays is now going to be the monthly reward for all the time spent practicing on the trap and skeet fields (which I also enjoy a TON, but sporting clays is just so bonkers crazy / unpredictable in the best possible way).

I'm glad I tried Sporting before going big on a "nice" trap gun--my 45 year-old BT-99 is fine for singles, and for skeet, I think I'd like to use the same gun I'll eventually use for sporting.

Currently, I have a 1970 SKB 600 Trap (fixed chokes) for my O/U. I had MAJOR fit issues with it that were mostly corrected by some adjustments in my stance and mount during a coaching session yesterday (shoutout to Bob Murata for those of you in WA). Still, it's not SUPER-comfortable with my long neck/skinny face/high cheekbones, I can't adjust the chokes, etc., so while I'm not in a hurry, I do want to buy a dedicated sporting clays gun in the next 6-12 months.

Things I know I want:

• An adjustable comb, just to help handle my cheekbone issue
• An O/U -- I'm just not a semi-auto guy
• screw-in chokes (so no more 40-50 year-old guns)

Things I THINK I want:

• The ability to participate in low gun events at some point

So what I'm wondering is:

• Does a traditional sloped comb hurt me much? It seems that you only mount your cheek to one spot, so what's happening behind that isn't a huge deal, and a sloped stock seems like it would be easier to mount quickly. With that said, both my guns have monte carlo stocks, so I don't know. There seem to be a number of solid sub-$2k guns (like the Cynergy CX) that come with traditional stocks and an adjustable comb.
• What do you think of high ribs for sporting? With my long neck, a high rib would allow me to keep my head a bit more upright. Not anything like unsingle crazy, but maybe something like the Carerra One HR. Or is that always going to result in a high trap-style POI?
• If I'm going to use a gun for sporting clays and some skeet, should I aim for 50/50 (like a Citori CXS) or 60/40 (like a CX)?

Thanks so much!

If you are a tall, lanky guy with a long neck, then the single most thing you could do to improve gun fit is to install an adjustable butt pad that you can drop about 1" to 1.5". Some of these can also be adjusted for LOP and for "cant".

If you just want to "try before you buy", then remove the recoil pad from your gun and position it on the butt of the gun about 1" lower. No drilling necessary. Just stick it in place with 3M two sided auto-body tape. If this doesn't hold, then drill one small hole for the top screw of the pad and use the auto-body tape to hold the rest of it in place.

If you haven't tried shooting with a lower (dropped) recoil pad, you're in for a pleasant surprise. You may not need to change a thing with regard to the comb or the rib. For a few minutes of work and a few dollars worth of tape, you can find out how much better a lowered recoil pad will fit you. Best of all, if it doesn't suit you, you can change it back with no damage done.

Thanks! My BT-99 has an adjustable Morgan pad on it and I have the pad slid down all the way. It definitely helps. I'll give that a shot on my SKB.

Maybe what I have to say doesn't apply, but here goes. I'm 6' 4" and shoot gun down - not premounted for everything except trap. I like OLD SxSs that usually have 3" DAH, with a sloping stock. I also shoot very erect - head straight up and with this style I mount the gun more to my jaw than the cheek. I bent all my guns [ well almost all ] to the same dimensions - 10 old SxSs. The only one I didn't bend was a new Dickerson 410 SxS [ the damn thing has a through bolt and just kept wanting to go back to where it was ] and on that I did as Ulysses suggested, used a Morgen pad adjusted all the way down. I would also suggest an adjustable recoil pad to try first. You could always remove it if necessary. As far as chokes go just have someone ream both barrels to LM and forget about it. Those will do for almost all your shots. Good luck and try some simple inexpensive things before the big plunge. Maybe some friends have guns you could try.

A lot good sporting clays shooters have high rib guns and a lot use low rib guns. There are several high rib guns that can be set up for a flat 50/50 POI while others are ramped and the fattest they can go is 60/40. It really comes down to what you are comfortable with. My gun has 10mm "mid rib" but shoots 50/50 if mounted in line with the rib.

In terms of sloped comb goes again depends on what your comfortable with however the prevailing trends/logic is that a parallel comb is more suited to skeet than Sporting clays due to the overhead and below the feet shots. Most of the monte carlo stocks on Sporting clay guns still have a sloped comb unlike most skeet guns.

Good luck in finding a setup that you enjoy. Glad you found Sporting to be so enjoyable....before you know it you will be shooting it more than trap as you will become bored with trap.

Thank you! This is the single best explanation of sloping comb logic I've ever heard (and also something I can use to justify a new gun purchase to my wife!).