Champion WheelyBird Auto-Feed Trap

I grew up having to hand throw most clays or rely on really crappy, hard to load, and unreliable manual units. Usually they heavy and unwieldy, but this one is great with the little wheels and handle. It's heavy to hold steady, but not so much you can't throw it in the back of your truck or cart and go. It does take up a lot of space, but you can remove the chute and guard ring easily. The handle doesn't fold, but you can get some quick release pins for cheap and it'll make it a lot more compact. As to the clay chute, I ended up making an aluminum horseshoe to keep it from being flimsy. Plus it looks nicer that way. Assembly overall was fairly simple and instructions were sufficient. Now, if I could've done it all over again, I would've opted to get the remote control right out of the gates. The foot control works, but it's pretty awful. You have to stand on it the whole time to cycle, which means you have to wait to hear it fling the clay out, regain your shooting stance, acquire the target, and fire. Maybe other people can do it, but none of us liked having to "pull" and shoot at the same time. It goes without saying I ended up purchasing the wireless remote and it's fantastic! You push the button once and it cycles the thrower all the way through. You set the delay if you want one, but it's one simple press and wait for the clay to fly. Stupid. Simple. Easy!! Love it! Lastly, I got the wobble unit to add on. They didn't have one of the handle holes drilled, so I had to create one, but it went together great otherwise. The variability that it adds is soooo much better than repositioning it every time you want to try different angles (trust me, the unit is so stinking accurate, the flight path is virtually identical every throw, so it gets too predictable, too quickly, and it makes shooting very boring). I didn't research it all too see if it comes as one big package, but you should buy it that way, if possible. Better go buy a few cases of shells and clays because you're going to need them! The chute holds so many clays you get sore from shooting after a while. I think we went through 180 clays on our first outing

This is the second unit I have bought and very pleased with both. Each were packaged very well, included all parts and assembled without any issues. The DVD included was very helpful on how to make adjustments for drop and release. Each worked right out the box and no adjustments were needed. Both traps throw great and the same every time. With over 20 boxes of clays run thru each breakage was minimal with maybe 1 out of 300 if at all. I have used and shot trap with a unit twice this price. The only difference is the cycle speed between birds. If you are a weekend warrior and don't mind the 1 second delay between birds go for it you can't beat the price. On a side note the spring is still under tension in the released position. Over time this could decrease the range as the spring ages. My personal opinion is it could be a safety concern as well even though it is off and in released position the spring is still under load and could injure someone if something were to break. On the Champion 2.0 they have updated the plastic clay holder retainer at the top now to stamped steel.

Very nice skeet thrower. We have had it for several months and use it frequently. No issues at all with it.

This works like it should. Not too hard to assemble. Good instructions on how to adjust in order to keep clays from breaking. I expect it to last a long time.

This is the first auto-thrower I've ever had. I've used several manual machines (spring-loaded, not the hand-wand things) over the years and this thing throws way faster and farther than any of the manual units I've used. That may be because I didn't crank the spring up on the manual units high enough, I'm not sure. But this thing *throws* the clays really well. My buddies and I threw about 150+ one afternoon, almost non-stop throwing and had zero problems. We're not the best of marksmen and some of them were about 3 sheets to the wind and some clays didn't get hit at all (you'd think with as many as four 12 gauges blasting that there'd be no way to miss one...but we did it). Those that didn't get hit landed in a circle maybe 3 to 5 feet in diameter; really consistent, I felt. The only clays which broke in the throwing were those we retrieved which hadn't been hit and they, obviously, had suffered trauma from hitting the ground so it's not unexpected that some of them would break; not all of the re-thrown clays broke on launch. All "virgin" clays thrown successfully launched. I can't compare the cycle-times to other units because I've not used other units but I thought it was plenty fast. Also, a friend's kid was operating the thrower and I think he was sometimes just standing on the remote, basically "full-auto" throwing the clays. It threw the clays fast enough that I couldn't keep my shotgun loaded; the cycle times were too fast to stop, shove a shell or two in, and be ready. The remote cord is long enough to shoot by yourself but the battery cables are short; the battery will need to be sitting very close (within say, 3 feet) of the machine. I had hoped to be able to set it near my pickup and run it from the battery there but that wasn't going to happen. Not a big deal and not a complaint. I bought a wireless winch controller from "made in china" store and will attempt to wire it in to allow wireless operation of the unit. That remote hasn't arrived yet but should be a fairly simple thing to hook up, allowing operation at greater distance from the machine. I mention that just to pass along the idea. You can buy something like that from Champion but I seem to recall I saw it for near $200 (I could be mistaken). The wireless winch remote was less than $50. :) I'm happy with this and wish I'd bought one years ago. Wish it'd have been made in the USA, though.

(Note: there is a $25 rebate available on ChampionTarget web site purchased from anywhere (called them and asked) purchased between August 1, 2013 and December 31, 2014.) There were three problems initially: 1) The CD that came with my unit came blank and the on-line version is for windows player only so other operating system users are stuck -- why they don't post that on YouTube to avoid this issue is a mystery. 2) A washer short in the kit. 3) My unit had the issue of continually launching, which required over a half an hour of trial and error adjusting. (Hint: fine movements make a big difference.) This puts you at the business end of the device, so JOB #1 is to DISCONNECT THE POWER beforehand. Be sure to dry fire this at home to verify the arm is working correctly - it was bad enough to adjust in the garage; bing in the field would have been miserable. There is a tremendous amount of energy released during launch. A post through the rear bracket as mentioned in the manual is definitely needed, otherwise the unit bounces around too much. I use a long, old screwdriver and works great. This also tells me that one should always have wrenching and philips screwdriver with you in the field for adjustments and tightening. You'll definitely need to think about cable management -- the power and switch cables tangle. I used to mesh bags with ties on the cables. Some of the minor modifications I made: The adjusting bolts and washers (metric) where exchanged for stainless - the stock bolts and washers don't appear to be of high quality and wanted something that will hold up to adjustments and weather. Also put a dab of grease on the threads to prevent binding. I have a car, so to fit in the trunk, I also replaced the handle bolt nuts with wing nuts so I can more easily remove the handle for transport, which as worked out well. Regarding battery needed -- I've been using either a battery booster/starter unit or a small battery from a mobility scooter and can easily get through a couple boxes of clays. so unless you're spending all day continually launching, you can save some money (and your back) and use a smaller battery. Lastly, the clay magazine rods can be a little fidelity to attach, but you get the hang of it fairly quickly. To launch clays, press and hold momentarily the foot pedal, which will launch one clay and ready the next (you can not launch more than one clay at a time.) If you hold down the pedal, it unit will launch continuously; about every 2 to 3 seconds. Overall, this device works great and throws the clays fast and long. Putting a good number of clays in the holder, moves things along and is very convenient. Much better experience than manual foot operated units. Really nice. Highly recommended!

works well except our trigger broke after the second use. It would throw and just keep throwing wasting a lot of clay pigeons until we could run up and safely turn it off. The reason why this is 5 stars is because Champion helped us greatly. We called their support and they sent us a replacement switch with very little hassle.

There will never be enough positive things to say about this clay thrower. I searched endlessly and tried to get as much information as humanly possible before making a purchase. I finally pulled the trigger (ha ha see what I did there?) on this one and I couldn't be happier. If you are looking for a reliable and consistent machine this is the one. It is very affordable, durable, very easy to put together, and it throws clays far and fast! I can get three clays in the air at the same time before the first one hits the ground. This adds a whole new dimension to shooting with friends! The games you can play are infinite as far as I am concerned. My favorite is just playing pickup and first to miss! Sometimes those go for a while. The only thing I will tell you is make sure you are ready to invest in clays! You will run out and want more! I have had zero issues with this unit and I have used it to throw about 140 boxes of clays now. that is 12 THOUSAND 600 clays! I have had 4 breakages. FOUR! I would say that is beyond acceptable. There is also a rebate running right now through the end of 2014 so make sure you get that! Extra savings!!! This is a great personal gift or a gift for someone you know that wants to bust and dust some orange birdies! Also check out the youtube vids on how to mod clays to make colored dust! DOUBLE POINTS!