Who owns a clay thrower and how do you rate it ?

Calling any forum members who own or have owned clay throwers, manual or auto, excluding the old hand thrower. :D

So after another exciting session in a paddock with a manual clay thrower, I'm now looking at buying one myself.

What are people using these days and how do you rate, review them ?

I see the usual GC selling their brand, but when you look at it, it looks like a generic setup branded by a couple of companies as well which are listed on trade me.

There are some pyramid framed manual throwers, I assume they are better than the ground based ones?
Do I go for the easy 3/4 cocked with one hand or choose the full cock that requires a bit of a work out.

I see the auto throwers look great but it's all those pesky add ons that make them great.


Any suggestions, pictures, pros-cons would be helpful.

I have 2 acorn rapid fire traps.
Had them for over 10 years.
They will throw any type of target you want including rabbits.
Never looked after or maintained them. They still work perfectly.
Great machines imo and experience with them.

Sent from my SM-G900F using Tapatalk

We have mainly Promatic's 8 of them out of the 9 we have. Not sure what brand the remaining one it but has 300 clay "magazine" as do all the others .
They get well used and generally give no trouble.

Originally had release button on 50m cable but now all are wireless release via a single controller

We really only shoot Sporting Clays in our little group so the setup is really tuned to that

Thanks R93 and mikee, those brand names popped up on my search, autos are undoubtedly fantastic, but I don't think I could part with the $$ just yet without the missus noticing especially if it's supposed to be my first clay thrower.

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Originally Posted by Survy

Thanks R93 and mikee, those brand names popped up on my search, autos are undoubtedly fantastic, but I don't think I could part with the $$ just yet without the missus noticing especially if it's supposed to be my first clay thrower.

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If you buy one and it can be fired with a push button, (even a button on the end of a wire then its not hard to modify to wireless using remote activated relays (a la central locking kit or similar) You don't need as flash harry as we have like this. One of the guys brought it and donated it to the group, lucky us

MT 4300 & MT4300-C

http://www.reloaders.co.nz/shop/Acce...tep+Trap.htmls

$269 from Reloaders Supplies. Awesome for single person use/practice.

Oops! Try this https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=76_o_Kt2glo

Ive got one of GCs simple units .admittedly i chose to beef it up with 1"od steel tube and mounted it on a chipboard 900mmbase but apart from that its seen many a happy hour of use with our shooting crew. Alright it doesnt thro the clay that far but its stillquick enough to induce a little overconfidence and a shit eatin miss at times.
C404 has one also _?brand so often its really good to combine the two to keep shooters on their toes.

Thanks for the info kotuku, do you have any photos of Ye setup ? And mod ?

Ive also got a G.C Thrower ... Its also is ment to be pushed into the ground and held down by kinda "tent pegs"(but I found that was pretty much useless as every time it threw a clay,it would jump out of the ground)So I Mounted it to a old tyre and rim and I also bolted two 5kg weights to the underside of tyre to make it a lot more stable ...It takes a fair bit of effort to reset the arm each throw ,but is easily operated buy a pull string ... It works ok ,you can throw singles or double (stacked or side by side) it hasn't got the best distance but its always a good afternoon of shooting.. also use a hand thrower to mix things up a bit and its throws a lot further ..
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Wow thanks seano for taking the time to post the pics, I heard about the tyre mounts and frankly I was stumped as to how you would do it, but now I see the rim makes the difference, and you're right, it's all about the fun you have with it.

GC does the full cock on a pyramid base, I wonder if they throw further than the base model like you posted, they got them priced around $249

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Originally Posted by Survy

Wow thanks seano for taking the time to post the pics, I heard about the tyre mounts and frankly I was stumped as to how you would do it, but now I see the rim makes the difference, and you're right, it's all about the fun you have with it.

GC does the full cock on a pyramid base, I wonder if they throw further than the base model like you posted, they got them priced around $249

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No prob @Survy
Ive aslo seen them mounted/bolted/welded to the top of a "44 Gallon Drum" (but for portability the tyre works mint) ... then you can mod it to operate it yourself by simply making the lanyard longer and attach a piece of wood .. that acts as a "pedel to step on to activate check it out in the link
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2xbJquLhVjw

p.s the spring on my unit can be tighten, as it gets some use and stretches ... this is simply done by using a pair pliers and tightening a butterfly nut :)

@Survy if you live in CHCH or nearby .. you could borrow mine for a couple weeks ? give it a whurl :)

Lol just watched the vid, lmao , it's so hill billy, and at the end the guy swears cause his clays keep breaking, good ideas though

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Originally Posted by Survy

Lol just watched the vid, lmao , it's so hill billy, and at the end the guy swears cause his clays keep breaking, good ideas though

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Yeah vid is "Hillbilly As" but a good idea and simple

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Originally Posted by seano

@Survy if you live in CHCH or nearby .. you could borrow mine for a couple weeks ? give it a whurl :)

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Thanks for the offer, I'm up in the big smoke, but seeing what you can do with these things I am narrowing down my choices

mine is same as seanos but reinforcedwith steel tube .Ive got a bolt &hook for tying it to a tyre cause as seano says if you dig it into the ground and fire a clay ,the recoilmakes it jumpout and nearly turn itself inside out.I made up a lever with a no*wire linkage to fire it-though a rope is also fine.
im going to redo base of mine in heabvy duty ply with holes for 3x pegs of reinforcing steel to secure it.
Unfortunately its buried under heaps of decoys etc in the garden shed at present.

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Originally Posted by seano

Ive also got a G.C Thrower ... Its also is ment to be pushed into the ground and held down by kinda "tent pegs"(but I found that was pretty much useless as every time it threw a clay,it would jump out of the ground)So I Mounted it to a old tyre and rim and I also bolted two 5kg weights to the underside of tyre to make it a lot more stable ...It takes a fair bit of effort to reset the arm each throw ,but is easily operated buy a pull string ... It works ok ,you can throw singles or double (stacked or side by side) it hasn't got the best distance but its always a good afternoon of shooting.. also use a hand thrower to mix things up a bit and its throws a lot further ..
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ive got one of these it throws clays i shoot them its not fashionable but what else do you need

Our club has Promatics (S.I. Sporting clay Shooters) all up 33 or so, thanks also to Target Products (Timaru) who are the agent.
They are good traps, and we don't have much trouble with them, like everything mechanical they have to be set up properly to work day in, day out.
They make the big Super Sporter 400's, Falcons (the ones we have) holding 400 clays, and then 'Personal use' traps: Super Hawks, Single stacker -65 clays, Harrier XTS 200 clays on a rotating carousel and Merlin's holding 150 clays.
Check out their web site:Promatic | Sporting Traps

promatics are great but the new MEC traps are essentially promatic traps now as they now have promatics old head designer and are really good quality and are a bit cheaper than the promatics and you can order any spare bits you want of MECs website

Yes saw them in the USA, while not wanting to knock them as I've never use them, they appear not to be as robust as the Promatic, especially the SS, and Falcons.
They look like fairly light alloy frames, but basically appear to be the same as Promatic otherwise.
I suppose it depends what you want from your trap, semi commercial use or just a fun day occasionally.

we borrowed a promatic from a member but the club brought a MEC use one at our range no issues they are faster on the second bird than a promatic

Our club has a Promatic Superhawk on the water now. Will let tou know how it goes. We got it for its range and rate of fire given we only have a small six stand sporting range.

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Originally Posted by Survy

Thanks for the offer, I'm up in the big smoke, but seeing what you can do with these things I am narrowing down my choices

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I have one of the standard spring loaded ones that works fine something like this:
Allen ClayMaster Clay Thrower #227 - Clay bird Shooting - Accessories - Reloaders Supplies Ltd
They are definitely NOT as good as an automatic but still good practice. I think they throw the slightly lighter "American Trap" targets a bit better that the heavier Euro ones or the horrible cheap Chinese ones.

I'm up in the big smoke also if you wanted to try it out.

@300CALMAN thanks for the offer, and also the info about the weight differences with the clays, something I didn't even consider.
What are the Chinese ones to stay away from ?

OK don't have a box in front of me but one of the "American Trap" type i purchased was thicker (higher) but lighter, slightly and with the golf ball dimpling on the surface. The other standard ones are thinner and don't have the dimpling. The Chinese ones looked like the standard ones but have "Made in China" stamped on the box. I am sure they are heavier and harder to break (with shot) but broke in the thrower more often. I wont be buying any more of thoes:angry: they look something like the ones in the link below, as you can see the "clay" is white/grey and only colored on top.

High Quality Wholesale Thower For Sale Clay Target - Buy Clay Target,Clay Targets For Sale,Mexican Clay Pots Product on Alibaba.com

The European made ones are completely painted orange or have an underlying balck material. I have some new boxes of decent targets to try out once the weather settles a little.

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Originally Posted by Survy

@300CALMAN thanks for the offer, and also the info about the weight differences with the clays, something I didn't even consider.
What are the Chinese ones to stay away from ?

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Chinese clays are indestructible. you can shoot them, see holes appear in them but they don't break. Reusable maybe!!

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Originally Posted by mikee

Chinese clays are indestructible. you can shoot them, see holes appear in them but they don't break. Reusable maybe!!

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Number 2 3inch steel do the business :burnt:

I have a Winchester, with a western retro conversion, just pricing up, to convert the cocking motor and wobble to 240 volt from 110, as undecided if I am bring it to NZ or selling it,
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Looking pretty narly in black there, must be good if your thinking of bringing it to NZ

Yea mate they are a very good thrower, the Winchester trap machine was the standard for gun clubs for 50 years, the western retro mod is for the auto feed, voice trigger etc, with wobble as well as sweep, it will throw, all over the show, and if spring is wound up to full tension very fast, replacement cost is about 4.5g, its bought me and a few mates hours of entertainment, only a couple hundred for the two motors, so if I cant get good money, I would rather keep it, or give it to a gun club, I was active at.

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Originally Posted by Krameranzac

Our club has a Promatic Superhawk on the water now. Will let tou know how it goes. We got it for its range and rate of fire given we only have a small six stand sporting range.

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New Superhawk has proven to be awesome. Long range, simple and a hell of a rate of fire in full auto mode.