Launching device for clay targets

Abstract

A launching device for a clay target including a throwing arm supported to be rotatable continuously about an axis, and including means to load a clay target substantially at said axis, wherein the throwing arm includes an escapement mechanism operable between a first position in which a clay target is prevented from being launched from the throwing arm and a second position in which a clay target is permitted to be launched from the throwing arm. Loading means may be provided including a resilient loading receptacle located substantially at the axis to provide cushioning to a clay target as it is loaded. Further, the throwing arm may include a base portion for bearing a clay target and a top cover spaced from the base portion and adapted to disrupt the airflow over the clay target.

Description

TECHNICAL FIELD[0001]This invention relates to a launching device for clay pigeons, also known as clay targets, or skeets.BACKGROUND TO THE INVENTION[0002]Whilst the term “game bird” may include partridge, pigeon, pheasant or fowl for example, in this specification the term pheasant will be used for game bird as the sport of pheasant shooting is currently the most popular and widespread.[0003]The majority of pheasant shooting in United Kingdom (UK) occurs on private estates and by far the largest number of these birds are harvested on ‘driven shoots’. Generally, a driven shoot involves a line of ‘guns’ or ‘marksmen’ who are positioned in formation in a location close to an area of wooded or covered land. A team of beaters proceeds to flush the pheasants from cover whereby the pheasants are urged to fly over the formation of guns and so are presented as flying targets to the row of marksmen below.[0004]In a sporting sense, it is preferable to have wild pheasant as targets. This is be...

AI Technical Summary

Benefits of technology

[0025]An object of the present invention is to provide a trap, herein referred to as a ‘launching device’ that can launch a clay target over a greater flight range than is possible using conventional traps, and to increase the rate at which it is possible to launch clay targets into the air accurately along a predetermined trajectory. Moreover, a further object is to provide a safer launching device with a reduced risk of injury to the operator.

Problems solved by technology

Today, the scale of the sport of pheasant shooting is such that stocks of wild pheasant cannot sustain the vast numbers of organised shoots that occur.

During rearing, pheasant hens are typically kept in large numbers in a controlled environment and as a result, unnaturally large numbers of eggs are laid.

However, artificially rearing pheasants in close proximity and in increasingly large numbers and releasing them into the wild creates problems and carries with it a number of consequences, as will now be explained.

Evidence shows that overstocking of captivity reared pheasants tends to suppress rather than supplement wild bird productivity.

There is also evidence of negative ecological consequences.

Firstly, habitat degradation tends to result from the increased number of birds in a given area as the pheasants forage for food and root up various indigenous woodland plant species, so depleting the soil and removing various species of insect that provide a food source to native birds and mammals.

In addition, unnaturally high bird populations and high ground density increases the pheasants susceptibility to parasitic infections and other diseases and thereby the number of cases and types of infections and disease resulting in the significant growth in usage of medical compounds to combat the occurrence of such infections and disease.

However, there are concerns about the direct effect of the favoured chemicals on the pheasants and the wider effect on general animal and human populations.

However, Emtryl® was banned by the European Union in 1995 since its active ingredient DMZ (dimetridazole) was found to be carcinogenic, with there being no set safe maximum residue level and so posing a possible risk to human health whatever the concentration.

As will now be appreciated, the intensive farming techniques employed to produce the elevated numbers of pheasants to sustain the pheasant shooting industry with live targets has numerous negative effects.

Unfortunately, however, these practices are dubious to say the least because they not only affect the environment but also the behaviour and performance of the pheasants as will be more readily apparent from the following.

Crowded breeding units are an integral part of general intensive farming techniques and their use is well known by the public and heavily publicised and criticised by animal rights activists and action groups.

The general close proximity to other birds and frequent movement from breeding unit to acclimatisation runs to release sites are a subsequent cause of stress among the birds, such stress manifesting itself in various ways.

As an example, stress can interrupt feeding patterns and can also lead to aggression and bird-on-bird fighting.

Because of their higher susceptibility to disease, captivity-reared pheasants suffer a greatly increased mortality rate when in the wild and in consequence comparatively few birds survive to continue to breed.

Clearly the practice of artificially rearing pheasants in captivity, for what some would contest as essentially a blood sport, has many disadvantages and numerous negative effects on the environment, health of native wildlife, humans, not to mention the humanitarian issue of the cruelty experienced by the pheasants whose only purpose to their short life is to be driven into the air to be shot down.

In addition, as the numbers of birds destroyed per year grows, increasing proportions of birds are simply buried by virtue of the decreasing market for pheasant meat, so reducing the justification for such a sport still further.

Although clay pigeons avoid many of the above mentioned problems with live captivity reared pheasants, they also exhibit a number of characteristics that are undesirable from the view of an exponent of the sport of pheasant shooting.

Firstly, since the typical clay pigeon has a relatively low mass and relatively high drag coefficient, velocity and rotational energy is eroded rapidly following initial release from the trap.

This causes a clay pigeon to lose a significant amount of flight speed and hence height in the vicinity of the marksmen.

Commonly however, pheasants are driven over the heads of the line of marksmen and it is in this scenario that clay pigeons are most ineffective.

The fragile nature of the clay pigeon limits both its speed and range and the power that may be used to launch it.

Firstly, increasing the initial velocity imparted to the clay pigeon raises the likelihood of it disintegrating upon release.

However, simply making a clay pigeon heavier and stronger is undesirable since this reduces the chance of the clay pigeon fracturing when hit.

Secondly, a clay pigeon is commonly manufactured with ridges or sharp angles in order to register hits from shot gun pellets with substantially shallow angles of incidence, such features reducing its aerodynamic properties.

Another problem is presented by the nature of the trap itself.

This action is time consuming and limits the firing speed of the trap undesirably.

Furthermore, the potential energy stored by the cocked throwing arm is a significant danger to the operator and accidents are common.

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