MILROY — With its long fairways and multiple stations, shooting sporting clays is often described as “golf with a gun” because a typical course includes 10 to 15 different shooting stops laid out over natural grass.

Like golf courses, no two sporting clays courses are alike, and terrain and background have a lot to do with how targets are presented. Sporting clays simulates the unpredictability of live-quarry shooting, offering a great variety of trajectories, angles, speeds, elevations, distances, and target sizes.

“Shooting sporting clays has been my hobby for the better part of 15 years,” said Bill Ozanich, who lives in Reedsville and is the director in charge of sporting clays at East End Blue Rock Sportsmen’s Club in Milroy. “I used to hunt when I was little. Now, I try to shoot every weekend at different places.”

Ozanich says there’s no better thrill or chill than pulling the trigger at a sporting clay shoot. It’s been his passion for years now.

The first time he tried shooting clays he got hooked. He took over the organizing of the Blue Rock sporting clay shoots a few years ago.

Enthusiasts sometimes spend the early part of their day on the 50-target course. “The guys go out in groups,” he explained. “There are eight call stations, each with a pair of targets, and in various configurations.”

The club sees anywhere from 30 to 130 rounds shot during one of the monthly events.

“It really is like golf with a gun,” Ozanich joked. “Some guys go out and shoot 50 (targets) then come back as the kitchen’s open and have breakfast with the early birds.”

They return to the range then head back to the club for a sandwich for lunch before taking a final shootaround.

“It’s definitely popular,” Ozanich says of the popularity of shooting sporting clays. “It’s been growing every year.”

Since no two courses are alike, shooters, like Ozanich, travel to different courses to experience variety.

There are six assorted sizes of targets, ranging from minis to standards. Usually, 6 to 10 targets are shot at each station by a group of up to six shooters for a total outing of 50 to 100 targets per person.

Targets are thrown in pairs. A pair of targets might be thrown at the same time or sequentially. The second clay also can be launched on the firing of the shooter’s gun.

Numerous hunting conditions can be simulated by combining various speeds and angles with several types of clay targets. Each station is unique. Throughout a course, shooters might see targets crossing from either side, coming inward, going outward, flying straight up, rolling on the ground, arcing high in the air or thrown from towers.

The possible target presentations are limited only by safety conditions, terrain and imagination of the course designer. The configuration of the stations is often changed to maintain interest for the shooters and for environmental preservation of the course.

The outdoor ranges at Blue Rock certainly provide a natural backdrop with realistic animal targets for their scheduled shoots.

3-D archery shoots are generally the first weekend of each month at Blue Rock, followed by the sporting clays on the second weekend and the silhouette shoots on the fourth weekend of the month. Trap shoots are Sunday and Wednesday nights to fill the monthly calendar.

Blue Rock’s schedule through the end of 2023:

Sporting clays,

9 a.m. to 2 p.m.

Sundays

• Sept 10

• Oct. 8 (shooter appreciation)

• Nov. 12

Turkey shoots, 7:30 p.m. Thursdays

• Sept. 21 and Sept. 28

• Oct. 5, Oct. 12, Oct. 19 and Oct. 26

• Nov. 2, Nov. 9, Nov. 16 (shooter appreciation)

3-D archery shoots, 8 a.m. to 1 p.m. Sundays

• Sept. 17 (shooter appreciation)

Outdoor .22

silhouette,

10 a.m. Sundays

• Aug. 27

• Sept. 24 (shooter appreciation)

Trap shoots,

6 p.m. Sundays

• Aug. 20 and Aug. 27

• Sept. 3, Sept. 10, Sept. 17 (shooter appreciation) and Sept. 24

The club’s regular monthly meeting is scheduled for the fourth Sunday of each month at 2 p.m. at the gun range. For more information, find the Blue Rock Sportsmen’s Club’s page on Facebook.