Five Stand
Five Stand is a type of shotgun sport shooting similar to sporting clays, trap and skeet. There are five stations, or stands and six to eighteen strategically placed clay target throwers (called traps). Shooters shoot in turn at various combinations of clay birds. Each station will have a menu card that lets the shooter know the sequence of clay birds he or she will be shooting at (i.e. which trap the clay bird will be coming from). The shooter is presented with 5 targets at each station, first a single bird followed by two pairs. Pairs can be either “report pairs,” in which the second bird will be launched after the shooter fires at the first; or “true pairs” when both birds launch at the same time. After shooting at the 5 birds on the menu at that station, the shooter proceeds to the next stand, where they find a new menu of 5 targets.
Typical five stand targets are a rabbit, chandelle, overhead, standard skeet high house and low house shots, teal (launched straight up into the air), trap (straight ahead from ground level), and an incoming bird.
What is 5 Stand?
by Mia Anstine
5 stand is a cross between trap, skeet and sporting clays with the advantage that it is more action packed than trap, has more crossing/flying patterns than skeet and is faster and less expensive than sporting clays.
I mention 5 stand in comparison to sporting clays because of the wide variety of targets thrown. No 5 stand set up you shoot will be exactly alike. One similarity they will all have is that there will be 5 shooting stands, or stations, to shoot from.
How to Shoot 5 Stand
The clays will be thrown from between 6 to 8 throwers. Throwers can be placed ahead of the shooting stations, to the left, right, straight ahead and even behind the shooter at assorted yardages. The traps will be aligned to throw various crossing, sliding, dropping, and some of the most challenging (and my favorite) stand and fall patterns that replicate overhead teal.
5 stand shooters take turns at each of the 5 stands, shooting three combinations then rotating to the next stand. The combinations are listed as “menus” and placed on or in front of each stand. The combination may begin with a single thrown from station 6 on their first shoot to a double (3-7) on their second shot and another double (1-5) on the third. Each stand will have a different combination listed on the menu at their location.
Participants shoot the first menu line combination. Then they wait for the next four shooters to take their turn. After the other shooters have completed line 1, they shoot menu line 2, wait for the other shooters, then line 3 and then each shooter rotates to the next stand.
The shooters rotate from one stand to the next until they are back at their starting stand.
Here is part of the fun of 5 stand. While, clays are flying from the left, from the right, shooting straight up in the air and zipping overhead, a scorekeeper is keeping track. Score is kept as to who busted the most clays. Scoring is quite simple. Whoever broke the most clays in the end wins!
Tiebreakers are sometimes necessary because you simply cannot have two winners. In the event of a tie, a shoot off will take place with the top scorers taking a stand. The shooters will shoot the menu lines at their stands, starting with line one and progressing to line three. Whichever shooter misses a clay first gives up the chance at first place to their competitor.