How much stock is there in the notion that you have to turn a target into fine dust or "smoke"? Very few of them it seems break that way no matter it seems which of the shooters in my orbit is shooting at them. But then you look at the olympic class folks, and every target they break is a smoked target.

Speaking of those folks, it seems that the olympic skeet folks fire when both targets are lined up like buttons on a shirt. And it is so quick you really can not make out some times the individual reports.

Notions?

If I make two smaller pieces out of one big piece it's a dead bird.
My expectations may not be as high as others however.

tp

I may be wrong, but I believe they are using FLASH targets. And they will smoke whenever you hit them.

Top shooters do two things differently from the weekend masses: one is they simply center their pattern better on the target; second is they generally use more choke. Both together lead to a lot more smoke.

Jacks is exactly right.

My question to those that disagree is........ How does a shooter learn how to center targets properly? Answer is a tight choke to know when the shot was placed center core. How the target is broken will remain the only info feedback to judge by. Chips chunks and star bursts tell you nothing other than the target got hit by a few pellets somewhere in the pattern. Or the choke was too open to crush the target even if in the center core of the pattern. A good analogy is the rifle shooter saying "aim small to hit small".

Then again.....confidence kills more targets than 3 dram 7 1/2s

Maltz

Get ready for the "breaks tell you nothing, I know a guy who filmed them in slow motion" in 3, 2, 1. and yes Olympic shooters are shooting at flash clays. They have a colored powder trapped in the dome with a sticker.

they are using FLASH targets.

Not ALWAYS!

(And you get a lot of smoke from standafds when you hit em hard — aka “duck farts” )

Does that mean the big pieces of clay are “duck dookie”?

Flash targets are only used to enhance video for TV programming.

The only value to smoking the target is that it shows up better when televised. As most have said the televised Olympic events you are watching are using FLASH targets for a much greater visual on TV. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aN2uumzNz84

Watch the same shooters on the practice field on YouTube and you will see a much different situation.

Your breaks are not graded. A tiny visible chip off the target looks exactly the same as a smoked target on the score card.

I would rather chip 100 targets than smoke 99.

Well, I like me some smoke. It makes me feel good. Doesn’t mean anything else, just makes me feel good.

Man I LOVE smoking targets! So much confidence when you can do it! Just tighten up on choke and get ready for a show!

The final rounds in the Olympics, the ones that are televised or streamed, use flash targets. It's easy to look up. Unless your going to ISSF events in person, that is what you are seeing.

In the finals of all ISSF shoots , flash targets are used.

When I practice I like to smoke the targets , so I practice w/ tight chokes.

I have to agree that seeing a big PUFF and watching the target disappear is very confidence inspiring.

My buddy keeping score at a Social Shoot the other day asked, "Did you break that". I replied that it was a crappy break, but that it did break. A little more focus on the next one resulted in smoke, but there were 2 slashes on the scorecard.

I will take 99 ink balls, over 100 chips any day.
Best,
Breakemall
Western North Carolina

Word up!

Honestly, I'd prolly still take the 100 chips (After all, they are all /'s on the score-card!)

And you will lose the big trophy, money, groupies, etc. to the guy that gets 100 chips...