July and August are ideal months for shotgunners to practice for the coming dove season. Shooters have the option of going to either a commercial skeet range, sporting clay range or improvising their own clay target course. The cost of shooting on a commercial sporting clay range is not exorbitant, but it can get a bit expensive if you like to shoot a lot. The alternative is to buy an inexpensive hand and/or spring trap and you can launch your own clay birds.

Hand traps can cost less than $10, an inexpensive hand trap can be had for less than $50. If you really get into shooting clay birds, a battery powered portable unit that can launch targets as fast as one can push a button are available, but they are much more expensive.