Doesn't the target also drop? This is something no one seems able to answer. We know now much shot drops but how much do the spinning targets drop?
Come on Randy!! Another episode of this???? How many times do we need to explain to you that shot pellets are
ballistic objects and a spinning clay target is a
flying device?
Short answer:
"Drop" values apply only to ballistic objects such as bullets and shot pellets. An aerodynamic flying device (i.e., a clay target) behaves completely different in the atmosphere.
"Drop" values aren't even relevant for a clay target, so please stop asking for them. A table of Target Drop versus distance doesn't exist and never will, because the mere concept is senseless and absurd.
Long answer:
I suggest you re-read a couple of the earlier discussions here on shotgunworld and on the other trapshooting website (especially your famous "How much does a Trap Target Rise?" and "How much does a Trap Target Drop?" threads). You've received the correct answer multiple times. I have previously posted highly-detailed and informative diagrams answering these questions for you. Did you read them? Also see this other thread
Preferred POI thread
After a couple of years of this discussion, you really, really need to apply the necessary mental effort to understand this topic. If you don't believe us, I suggest you go to your local university, corral the first sophomore-level engineering students you encounter, and they can also explain it to you.
As posted numerous times before, a clay target, being an aerodynamic flying device, is greatly affected by the speed and direction of the relative wind over its surface.
Diagram below:
a = "normal" target flight path of an ATA 50-yard target thrown in dead-calm air.
b = one example (of an almost infinite number of possibilities) of what the target flight path can be if you throw that target into a strong
headwind.
c = one example (of an almost infinite number of possibilities) of what the target flight path can be if you throw that target into a strong
tailwind.
You've shot Trap targets when a strong headwind was blowing, correct?
Summary: in the real world, the variables are so great and numerous on a clay target that attempting to quantify "drop data" for a clay target (especially for every point along its flight path) would be a ridiculous, meaningless exercise. And the variables not only change day-to-day, and gun club to gun club, they can change from target-to-target during a round of Trap.
So, as mentioned above . . . "Drop" values apply only to ballistic objects. An aerodynamic flying device behaves completely different in the atmosphere.
"Drop" values aren't even relevant for a clay target, so please stop asking for them.
They don't exist and never will. Otherwise, somebody would have written them down after all these centuries, and you would be able to find them in a couple of nanoseconds via an internet search.
It's impossible for anyone to develop the "Target Drop Data" that you keep incessantly asking for. OK, maybe something could be done with a supercomputer to cover the bazillion different variables and possible flight paths, but to what end? And even then, you couldn't possibly get some simple table of "Drop values" . . . you'd only get extremely complex differential equations that describe a Trap target's flight paths.