AAR: Coyote Valley Clays "Experience Package"

See 
http://www.coyoteclays.com/Instruction.htm for more details.

Coyote Valley sporting clays in Morgan Hill CA has a very nice sporting clays facility, and I believe it's the only sporting clays facility in the Bay Area. (Sporting Clays refers to a specific sport, as opposed to trap or skeet).

The experience package is a relatively inexpensive package where if you get a group of 3 or more people, you can get one instructor per 5 people, 50 targets, 50 rounds of ammo, rental of a shotgun, and eye and ear protection.   It's a good way to get introduced to sporting clays.   You have to book it at least a week in advance, and I found that Saturdays are often unavailable, with Sundays and weekdays being available pretty reliably.

I did the experience package twice, with two different instructors.  Both times, the instructor got there late.  The instructors went briefly over safety and the operation of the shotgun.   They explained basically how to shoot the clays and what to look for, but I felt that they were not really 'instructors' so much as shooters who did not necessarily have a lot of experience teaching how to do it in a detailed way or diagnosing problems.  The first time I went, we used a 20 gauge over/under, and the second time we used a 12 gauge over/under.   They were selected by the instructor, so I guess it's up to the instructor's preference.  

At each station, they explained the trajectory of the clays and the basic strategy for hitting them, and we shot 10 rounds at each station, for 5 stations total.   Since the facility has 16 stations, you only get to hit 5 out of the 16, which is just enough to get a taste of it.

I feel like the instructors were not that good, but they were certainly adequate for just giving a basic idea of how it works and having a fun afternoon shooting.  I intend to try their full day seminar some time in the future.