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Blasting clay pigeons at hunting camp or on the back 40 is a good way to get tuned up for bird hunting season, but more importantly, it’s just good old fashioned fun. And while there’s a whole bunch of gadgets and gizmos that will hurl a clay pigeon, many of them are sketchy to use and will break more clays than they actually throw. However, the best clay pigeon throwers will keep the good times rolling and the guns blazing.
With the intent of differentiating quality products from the gimmicks, my hunting buddy Todd Gifford and I reviewed several products from a handful of manufacturers. We reviewed battery-powered automatic models, manual throwers, and some handheld options.
We stuck with the more affordable consumer-level clay pigeon throwers that you might roll out at the family duck camp, not the high-dollar, Bluetooth-enabled models you’d find at a gun club. These are our top picks.
Hand Held Clay Pigeon Throwers (Jump to this section)
How We Tested the Best Clay Pigeon Throwers
Photo by Alex Robinson
I searched around online for the most popular consumer-level clay pigeon throwers on the market. Then I sent them all to Gifford’s shop, where he set them up and began the evaluation process. When they were all assembled, we simply loaded each up with clays to see how they functioned in the field during a day of shooting. We scored each thrower on its ease of assembly, ease of use, reliability, value, and versatility (based on different target presentations and the number of clays it could throw). Each category was scored on a 1 to 5 scale:
- 1 = Poor
- 2= Fair
- 3 = Good
- 4 = Very Good
- 5 = Excellent
The Best Clay Pigeon Throwers: Reviews and Recommendations
Best Overall: Caldwell Claymore
Key Features
- Cocking Mechanism: Manual / foot pedal
- Clay capacity: 50
- Weight: 35 pounds
- Price: $330
Score Card
- Ease of Assembly: Excellent
- Ease of Use: Excellent
- Reliability: Very Good
- Versatility: Excellent
- Value: Excellent
Pros
- Minimal setup required
- Foldable and portable
- Throws high and fast-flying targets
- No batteries required
Cons
- Foot pedal does require a certain touch
If you want a no-fuss clay pigeon thrower that will toss a good target and allow you to shoot solo, the Caldwell Claymore is tough to beat. The setup process was the easiest in the test. Simply pull it out of the box, unfold it, load it up with clays, and start shooting.
You fire the Claymore by using your foot to push down on the pedal. A straightforward pin system allows you to adjust target height/angle. We noticed that the Claymore threw targets just as fast as the automatic throwers and could match their rate of throwing, too. And unlike the auto throwers, you won’t have to mess with a battery or a remote. We were impressed to find that it didn’t jump or shift position while throwing like many of the manual throwers tend to do.
The Claymore has a “flurry mode” which will launch clays as quickly as you can step on the pedal. This is especially fun when you’re throwing for multiple shooters and want to keep the action going.
While there was no tensioning system for us to mess with like in some of the auto throwers, we did notice that you had to get a certain feel for the pedal or you’d end up breaking clays. If you stomped down too aggressively or pressed too gently on the foot pedal, the clay wouldn’t drop into the arm properly and it would break. But once we got the hang of it, clays were flying and gunpowder was burning.
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Best Automatic Clay Pigeon Thrower: Do All Outdoors Flyway 80
Key Features
- Cocking Mechanism: Automatic
- Clay capacity: 80
- 15-foot pedal release cord and remote
- Price: $450
Score Card
- Ease of Assembly: Good
- Ease of Use: Very Good
- Reliability: Very Good
- Versatility: Excellent
- Value: Excellent
Pros
- Best build quality
- Foot pedal and remote allow for variety of shot angles even when shooting solo
- Holds lots of targets
- Relatively compact
Cons
- It’s a pain to set up
- Was missing some parts
The Flyway 80 is a good choice if you want a quality remote clay pigeon thrower but don’t want to step up in price to the competition-level throwers. It launches clays at angles from 5 degrees to 35 degrees. You can load it up with 80 clays and then get to gunning.
If you shoot by yourself, the foot pedal or remote options are really nice features because they allow you to change up your shot angle (with the Claymore and other manual throwers you only get a straightaway shot). The remote has a 300-foot range, so if you wanted, you could position the thrower out in a field and have it throw high incoming targets. We experienced relatively few broken clays while using the Flyway 80.
On the downside, this thrower required a more complicated setup.
“You need a tool set, and you want to build this thing in your shop,” Gifford says. “You’re not going to just go out into the field, pull it out of the box and start shooting. Our model was missing a few small parts (the screws that connect the orange plastic guard to the body of the machine). But, this wasn’t a fatal flaw as we were able to make it work with some spare screws.
Best Value: Trius One Step
Key Features
- Cocking Mechanism: Manual
- Clay capacity: 1
- Weight: 21 pounds
- Price: $98
Score Card
- Ease of Assembly: Fair
- Ease of Use: Good
- Reliability: Excellent
- Versatility: Good
- Value: Excellent
Pros
- Easy cocking for a manual thrower
- Throws fast targets
- Very reliable
Cons
- Assembly required
- Does not throw 2 clays well
There are several models of manual clay pigeon throwers out there that require you to pull the arm back to cock it. You then load a clay onto the arm and pull a lever or string to throw it. The Trius One Step is similar to this, but better. Instead of pulling back against the resistance of the spring, you cock the arm without tension. It’s your foot pressing down on the pedal that creates the tension required to launch the clay.
In our testing, this manual thrower sent clays faster and higher than others in its class. The only ding we had for the One Step is that it does not throw two clays very well. One will shoot straight out, while the other flies meekly off to the side. But for throwing one clay at a time, the Trius One Step is the ticket.
Champion Wheely Bird 3.0
Key Features
- Cocking Mechanism: Auto
- Clay capacity: 60
- Pedal with 25-foot cord, and remote
- Price: $600
Score Card
- Ease of Assembly: Very Good
- Ease of Use: Good
- Reliability: Fair
- Versatility: Excellent
- Value: Fair
Pros
- Very durable and well made
- Designed with battery holder
- Throws great targets
Cons
- Expensive
- Tendency to break clays
The Wheelybird 3.0 is a popular workhorse clay pigeon thrower. It’s sturdy and well made. It comes with a foot pedal and long cord plus a remote, so you can set it up for whatever shot angle you like. Like the Flyway 80, it requires some serious assembly that must be done in the shop or garage. You won’t want to put this bad boy together in the field.
Our model had some issues with broken clays. We tweaked the tensioning spring to all varieties of positions and found that less tension seemed to work better. But it was a bit frustrating given the price of the machine.
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Do All Outdoors Professional
Key Features
- Cocking Mechanism: Manual
- Clay capacity: 2
- Attaches to a trailer hitch receiver
- Price: $250
Score Card
- Ease of Assembly: Fair
- Ease of Use: Very Good
- Reliability: Very Good
- Versatility: Good
- Value: Good
Pros
- Throws doubles
- Faster than manual throwers that anchor into the ground
Cons
- Very tippy (be careful sitting down!)
- It was a pain to set up
First, the good stuff: It’s relatively affordable. It throws two clays nicely, which many manual throwers fail to do. Also, it’s a lot easier to operate a thrower quickly when you’re sitting down and it’s right in front of you (compared to manual throwers that are positioned on the ground).
On the other hand, this thrower felt a little dangerous, which is maybe why it’s named the professional — it’s better if operated by professionals. When Gifford first sat on it, he nearly tipped over. This wouldn’t have resulted in a serious injury, but it would have made for one pissed off hunting buddy. Even though I watched it all unfold, when I sat on the seat, I nearly tipped over as well. This wouldn’t be an issue if it were attached to a trailer hitch receiver as designed, but that’s a bit of a hassle — you’ve got to back your truck up to the spot you want to throw from.
Champion High Fly
Key Features
- Cocking Mechanism: Manual
- Clay capacity: 2
- Pull string launches clay
- Price: $42
Score Card
- Ease of Assembly: Good
- Ease of Use: Good
- Reliability: Very Good
- Versatility: Good
- Value: Excellent
Pros
- Minimal setup required
- Very affordable
Cons
- Did not throw two clays effectively
- Slow moving targets
If you just want an affordable thrower to get in the game, the Champion High Fly is a fine option. I could see this being a good clay pigeon thrower for the dad who wants to toss some targets for his kids at the farm.
But a high-performance clay pigeon thrower, this is not. We were not able to get it to throw doubles effectively. The singles it threw were slow fliers (which is great for kids who are learning to shoot). But hey, for 40 bucks, it worked consistently, and that’s about all we expected.
Hand Throwers
We also tested out two hand-held clay pigeon throwers: the Birchwood Casey WingOne and the Do All Outdoors Triple.
The WingOne is super simple to use. It doesn’t take a ton of effort to casually toss clays straight away from the shooter.
You swing The Do All Outdoors Triple like you would a baseball bat. It takes much more effort to launch clays out of, but it’s also way more fun. We were able to toss doubles with it, but could not effectively throw three clays at once as advertised.
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FAQs
All clay pigeon throwers in this review (minus the handheld products) have a launching arm that holds the clay. Then with spring tension, the arm flies forward throwing the clay pigeon skyward.
With manual throwers you cock the arm, load a clay, and then pull a lever, string, or push a foot pedal. With auto throwers, you simply load a bunch of clays into the holder and then press a button on the remote or foot pedal to send a target. Be careful to not stand in front of the thrower or to the side of it while active as broken clays fling out sideways and potentially hit bystanders.
That depends on who is operating them. If you’re not careful, you could seriously injure yourself while using a clay pigeon thrower. The arms move quickly and powerfully. Most of them do not have safeties. Never store or move a clay pigeon thrower that is cocked. If you are going to tweak an auto clay pigeon thrower for any reason, disconnect it from the battery.
Photo by Alex Robinson
Final Thoughts on the Best Clay Pigeon Throwers
Most of us could use some more wingshooting practice. And while it’s fun to go to shoot a formal round of skeet or sporting clays, that can be time consuming and spendy. With one of the best clay pigeon throwers you can get in a good tune up at camp or at the farm. You’re guaranteed to have fun, and you’ll shoot better in the field.
