Home made Sporting Clays cart

[Patrick L]

This is not about casting, but we are all a resourceful bunch and I think we all enjoy seeing each other's clever money saving projects.

I started shooting sporting clays about 10-12 years ago, after a lifetime of skeet and bird hunting. While I liked the neat sporting clays carts some guys had, I was never going to pay $300-$400 for one. That's a lot of shells or components!

But then this appeared in someone's garbage. It's a jogging stroller.


I removed a lot of the extraneous stuff like the canopy and the safety straps, most of which were just tied up out of the way. It wouldn't release to fold, so I flooded the mechanism with G96 to free it up. Now it folds! I cleaned up a lot of rust. The hand brake was completely out of adjustment, but that was easy to fix. I spent about $20 for some ATV gun mounts, and ended up with this


Man that looks like a sporting clays cart!

The exposed muzzles made me uneasy


So I got two 2" rubber Fernco caps. I removed the clamps, and used black zip ties to secure them to the bottom gun mounts




About the only thing I'm still trying to do is salvage the cupholder tray that that went up by and between the handles. Right now I can put it on, but the guns lie right over where a drink would go. And while a cold drink or water bottle would be nice, more importantly there is a neat storage compartment that would be perfect for choke tubes etc. and that's the main reason I want to try to salvage that. I'll keep working on it.

[Jack Stanley]

Well , there's always the "Bar buoy" holder like they use on boats to keep from spilling beverages . Probably can find one to clamp on the steel somewhere .

Jack

[country gent]

What if you turned the clamps each 180* so the firearms ride outside the frame? This would free up access to the seat for storage and possibly the cup holders that you want.

[Butzbach]

Fore!

[Patrick L]

Country gent,

I considered that. But it really shifts the balance a lot, putting the weight of the guns too far to the outside. Usually I just have 1 gun on the cart, and that really makes things lopsided.

I'm considering just mounting the holder for that very reason. If I only have one gun, I CAN have a spot for a bottle of water, and I get my accessory compartment too

[Half Dog]

That is awesome. I was wanting to do the same thing.

[slim1836]

We sold a stroller when we had a garage sale. I thought about making one like yours but after sitting in the garage for 2 years it was time to get rid of it.

I can back up to the shooting benches at our private range so it just isn't needed.

Slim

[Patrick L]

Slim,

Yeah I can do the same thing for metallic at my club. This is strictly for sporting clays, where you wander around the property from stand to stand. Like today, probably walked a mile and a half over the course of the day to shoot 100 targets

[megasupermagnum]

Do you bring a lot of gear with you? I only shoot sporting clays for practice, and all I bring is some ammo, the clipboard for scoring, and a water bottle, which I put in a backpack. The shotgun I just carry in the case. It seems to me that pushing around a cart would be more work than that.

[Patrick L]

Not a ton, but it's nice to have a place to set the gun, plus 100 or so rounds of ammo. If the course is particularly long or hilly, it's nice not to have all that weight on your shoulders. Cart pushes super easy.

You generally will also get a friend to literally call "shotgun" and will utilize the other rack. Or, very occasionally I'll take two different guns, just for fun. Like maybe a SxS when bird season is drawing near.

[stumpjumper]

i made a wood bed for mine hope it shows up

[Patrick L]

It sure does! Nice job. Is it permanently attached, or can you remove it and still fold up the cart?

[single shot jimmy]

I rented a cart at a sporting clays range and decided I had to have one. I did about the same as yours but with a 4 wheel cart.
They are awesome! I'll take 2 shotguns, ammo, water, hearing protection, and clipboard. Think I gave $20 for the cart.

[megasupermagnum]

I wish I could find a sporting clays course that I had to worry about the walk. The best I ever shot at was near Palmer, MN, and that was nothing for a walk. They had golf carts if you wanted. I haven't found a single sporting clays course within 150 miles of Aberdeen, SD.

[Hogtamer]

I usually leave with more than I brought, picking up hulls as I go.

[W.R.Buchanan]

I did something similar for my Sporting Clays Cart. Except I used a cheap Golf Club Cart as the basis for mine.

The Tool Bag at the bottom will hold 4 boxes of shells plus any accessories or tools I might need. It also weighs the front end down so the cart won't tip over backwards.. I used the same basic type of ATV gun mounts attached to the cart, however I covered them with Socks so that the rubber on the gun clamps can't leave blemishes on the wood of my nice Shotguns. Saw that problem the first time I tested it.

The Water Bottle Carrier is self explanatory.

The whole thing folds up just like before it was modified and is pretty light weight. Can't seem to make that picture rotate? Cock your head to the left to view it in the correct orientation.

Randy