[SiegeX]

My father and I just got serious into trap shooting as it apparently runs in our blood (Ken Robertson, father of Scott Robertson, is my dad's cousin). In any case, we've had about 4 weekend outings, each about 4-6 rounds of trap. Our first outing was at the Sunnyvale gun-club where to our surprise we were hitting between 18-21 each round at the 16yd line; not bad for the first time out. On a tip from one of my friends, the next outing we headed to Coyote Clays in Morgan Hill which has a self-serve trap range which seemed ideal for target practice. Unfortunately, at this location both my father and I did quite poorly at the 16yd line, hitting about 10-12 out of 6 rounds. We've been back to Coyote Clays 2 more times since then and are doing better, but still nowhere near as good as we did at Sunnyvale; we are both streaky and not consistent. Without any proof to back it up, my Father and I both swear that Coyote Clays' trap range feels like the birds are being sent out a lot faster and perhaps at a higher angle than Sunnyvale. Does anybody know if this really is the case, or was our first time out just beginners luck for the both of us?

 

[Calskeet939]

It most likely is the back ground coyote valley has a tough background to pick up the targets. Can't see them early makes a longer shot harder to hit.

 

[B-Boy]

I don't know what's going on at Sunnyvale gun club, but I have found Coyote Valley SC goes to great lengths to assure everything they do is according to the book. Having said that, the background can make it hard to pick-up the clays at certain times of the day.

 

[Sardine]

Just go right up the street off Bailey Rd to Metcalf range. I think it's actually called Santa Clara County Sports Shooting Park or something like that now. You can see it from the freeway across from that little peaker power plant. Google it. It is the best place to shoot trap and skeet in the area. I'm not to impressed with Coyote for trap, skeet is okay though. in fact it's my last choice for trap and skeet. It's great for sporting clays though. We find it most difficult to shoot the trap range there too. Sunnyvale is lots of fun too but a tad far coming up from Salinas area.

 

[casonet]

I've shot Coyote several times and have found that on the lower sporting clays course that a lot of the targets are "gimmies" while some others are quite difficult, a real mixed bag. The upper (Mountain Range) I only shot once and I found it most difficult.

 

[Frank12us]

I enjoy shooting at Coyote Valley. Lower clays could course has about 20 stations which are a good mix for public course. Need easy stations to get people to learn the game and there are some toughies thrown in (stations 4, 6, 9, 12, 18), particularly if you are shooting gun down and true pairs.

Trap and Skeet are ok theare. Prefer Stockton and Martínez for that.

 

[Sardine]

Rumor has it that the birds on the upper course are smaller and move faster. I haven't tried it yet because no wants to with me. They want to stay on the lower course which we just love as we are kind of beginners at the "sporting clay" stuff. Actually most of the people that go there with me are beginners at everything shotgun.

 

[claytbuster]

You may be right. If I remember correctly, the trap field at Coyote Valley was set up to through Modified Clays/Wobble trap targets with the flip of an extra switch to run the vertical motor. They may have set the target speed between ATA speed and Modified Clays speed to accommodate both games.

 

[DocWong]

I shoot Trap mainly at Sunnyvale Rod and Gun Club where it's well maintained and ATA regulation with lots of members who compete. When I shoot Trap at Coyote, the targets are thrown off. I was tempted to go in and adjust it, but resisted. Next time I'll go down with someone authorized to reset the trap house. They are thrown too low and it's an easy adjustment to get them thrown higher.

 

[oneounceload]

IF the background is that bad, perhaps they need to throw a different colored target.

back when Sage Hill was still open in Reno, the trap ranges had a HUGE hill as a background that was brown most of the year. It was the first place I saw those neon green targets used and they were easily visible