CHAMPION RANGE AND TARGET EasyBird Auto-Feed Trap

I wanted to buy a trap that I could use when shooting alone & after doing a lot of internet research, I decided on the Champion Easy Bird over another, less expensive similar device. I’ve now shot about a dozen rounds (300) & after a bit of fine tuning, it has performed flawlessly. When the package arrived, I was surprised at how heavy it was. Although I didn’t weigh it, it felt heavier than the 50 lb. I expected. Assembly was pretty straightforward & required under an hour to accomplish. The results of my first attempts to use it were not good. Almost every clay shattered upon release. I called Champion while in the field & was transferred to ‘Matt’ in tech support who immediately diagnosed the problem & offered a simple fix. Once applied, the Easy Bird has performed perfectly. Matt even called back about 15 minutes later to see if everything was working as it should! How’s that for customer service in this day & time? The device is sturdily built & will hopefully last for many years. I haven’t measured the actual distance it will sling a clay, but it rivals anything I have seen on sporting clay courses.A few more observations: 1. Although it is advertised as being “Lightweight & Portable”, it is actually somewhat heavy & bulky. It IS portable, but you had better plan ahead about where you are going to store it & how you are going to transport it to the field. It’s easier to pick up & move if you remove the magazine assembly & the ‘Arm Path Indicating Tubing’ on one side, preferably the side opposite from the throwing arm. 2. The device comes with a permanently attached 50’ remote release cord with foot pedal trigger. After getting the OK from Matt, I cut the cord about 3’ from the housing & added a standard female electrical plug & a male plug to the other end of the cut cord. Using a 100’ 2-wire extension cord, I can now release targets at a distance of up to 150’ from the trap.

I first purchased the Wheely Bird as I had found it locally. When I found out that the wobbler attachments won't work with the Wheely Bird. This was only slightly more expensive here than the Wheely was locally, so I took that one back and ordered the Easy Bird. The foot switch cable is 50' compared to 25 on the Wheely. The reset time is much faster on the Easy Bird as well. This is really a nice thrower. It went together in about 15 minutes and we were off shooting. Foot switch was long enough to run to the bed of a truck for the little ones to be in charge of throwing while staying well clear of shooting. Had zero clays break while being thrown. I put a case and a half through it. At full adjustment, it really tosses them out there. Shooting clay is actually fun again. I am not sure why it took me so long to upgrade from a spring loaded thrower. So much less time messing with the thrower and can now enjoy shooting. Put battery (marine deep cycle) on a meter after an hour or so of shooting and saw no voltage loss. Next I will be adding the wobbler and a cart. This is pretty heavy - without the battery. It fits perfectly in the bed of a mid size Polaris Ranger with room for a case or two of clay, a case of shells, and a cooler. GREAT little trap thrower. We will be shooting a lot more trap now that we have this.

So much fun!!!! Works beautifully. We added the oscillating base and wobbler kit so it throws clays different elevations and side to side locations every other second. They each have a switch so you can run the thrower stationary or just up & down or just side to side or going in all directions. It loads well and clears jammed/broken clays easy on the next cycle. It is an awesome machine for practice or just fun shooting. We can have 4 shooters lined up and throw clays so fast that all of us can have fun either taking turns or backing up the beginners... if you hold the pedal down with your foot it will have 3-4 clays in the air at a time! Or you can push it as slow as you wish while teaching a new shooter or talking or whatever. We only have two concerns with its design. 1st: Sometimes the throw arm cycles when we are turning the off switch and so you must be very careful not to be in front of it or have any part of your body in the path of that throwing arm, as it WILL break an arm or head or cut it off if you are in the way!!! (I would recommend they design an enclosed cover on the back 2/3 of the unit so nobody can accidentally get hurt or killed...like my hay baler has over the plunger and chains...this is a dangerous tool and the exposed path of the throw arm needs covered somehow! 2nd: the plastic tubes that remind you to keep all body parts away from the throwing arm path kept coming off just from the vibration of the unit throwing repeatedly. I fixed this by putting self tapping screws in 6 spots to hold them in place. I highly recommend this throwing system, as it is well made and works great and is a ton of fun!!!! Just be careful...and don't let anyone run the controls without detailed instructions how to do so safely!

This is such a well constructed piece of equipment. The steel stand seems to be 1/8" and powder coated. The fittings were all well adjusted - it assembled easily but tightly. It throws targets farther than we can hit them - 65 yards easily.There are no unnecessary bells and whistles - which is great considering we intend to store this outside (covered). The cables seem to be selected for outdoor use - I don't have any concern about laying them over mud etc.The product we received had anchor plates & holes welded to the feet - a welcome surprise (the image on amazon doesn't show this).Assembly was not difficult - but you'll want a socket wrench.I'm so pleased with this product. It's clearly designed to be the last trap thrower you buy.I'm not sure I could improve this product beyond the optional oscillator or stand taxi.I usually shoot at a gun club, and I can honestly say this thrower throws as far and as consistently as the commercial grade equipment we use at the club.FYI, there is a rebate on the Champion website for this now - $25 back through Dec 31, 2014.