Best range bags for sporting clays: one bag stays on the cart, one comes with you

Every other page in this hub assumes you drive to a bench, put a bag on it, and shoot from one spot. Sporting clays is not that. It is a walking course with a dozen or more stations, usually with a cart, and you cannot take a 43-liter duffel from stand to stand.

So the clays answer is two containers with two jobs: a base that holds the day and stays with the cart, and something small that carries the shells you need for the next station. Get that split right and the rest is detail. Every pick is currently sold and every spec comes from the maker's own page, linked in Sources.

Why clays needs two bags

A round of sporting clays is typically 100 targets. That means:

• About a hundred shells to start with, plus spares, which is heavy and bulky and stays put.
• Five to ten shells at a time in your hand or on your belt, reloaded at each stand.
• A hundred empty hulls by the end, which a lot of clubs ask you to collect and which you certainly want if you reload.
• Chokes, a choke wrench, glasses, muffs or plugs, water and a towel, which live with the cart.

One bag cannot do all of that, and trying is how people end up walking back to the cart mid-station. Our what to put in a range bag page covers the general checklist; clays adds shells-on-body and hull collection to it.

How we picked

Bench & Berm does not test gear, so nothing here is a test result. Picks are researched from published maker information and scored on the bag rubric published on how we pick: capacity, organization, lockability, materials and build, and carry options.

For clays, three things came first:

1. A published shell capacity, in rounds and gauge. Not liters. MTM publishes 100 rounds of 12 gauge for both of its cases, and lists the other gauges the trays suit.
2. A way to carry shells to the stand. A lift-out tray, a belt clip, or a small tote. This is the spec that separates a clays product from a general range bag.
3. Somewhere for hulls that is not your pockets. Which is why a two-sided tote and a bag with a removable brass bag both make the list.

We did not rank on price. The site shows live prices where it can and a "check price" link where it cannot, because a number typed into an article is stale the week after it is published.

The shell problem

A hundred 12 gauge shells is a real weight and an awkward shape, and cardboard boxes of 25 do not survive a damp cart. Two published approaches:

The practical setup a lot of clays shooters land on is both: the sealed SFRC as the base that lives in the cart, and a tray on your hip for the next few stands. If you would rather buy one, take the SH100 and accept that it is not sealed, or take the SFRC and carry the lift-out tray by hand.

Hulls, and where they go

By the end of a round you have a hundred empty hulls. Three reasons not to put them in your pocket: they are dirty, they are bulky, and many clubs expect them picked up.

The Armageddon Gear Range Utility Bag is on this page for exactly this. Armageddon Gear's own suggested use is to "keep your loaded ammo on one side and then put your empties on the other side as you shoot 'em up" ( Armageddon Gear), which is a description of a clays round whether they meant it that way or not. It is 9 by 7.5 by 8 inches, in Cordura, made in the USA of Milspec materials, with a lifetime warranty.

The other route is the removable brass bag that comes with the 5.11 Range Ready Bag (5.11 Tactical). It is sold for pistol brass and works identically for hulls.

One hygiene note that applies whether you reload or not: hulls have been through a combustion cycle and your hands are on all hundred of them. NIOSH's guidance for indoor firing ranges recommends washing hands with soap and water or using lead decontamination wipes after shooting or handling spent cartridge cases, and the habit is worth keeping outdoors too. Our lead exposure at the shooting range page covers it.

What stays on the cart

This is where an ordinary range bag earns its place, and where you do not need anything clays-specific. What you want is a bag that stands up on its own in a cart bed, because everything you own is going on top of it.

The Allen Eliminator Rangemaster is the sensible club bag: 23 liters with a rigid bottom and feet and three molded zippered external pockets (Allen). The 5.11 Range Ready Bag at 43 liters is the squad-day option, and its removable tote is genuinely useful for carrying shared kit to a stand.

Neither mentions lockable zippers, which for a clays club is usually fine, but it is worth knowing. Our best range bags page covers the wider field if you want a different base bag.

Chokes, tools and the small stuff

The things a clays shooter carries that a pistol shooter does not, and where each goes:

• Chokes and a choke wrench. Small, metal, easy to lose, and you will want them at the stand rather than the cart. A zippered external pocket on the base bag, and the wrench on a lanyard.
• A towel and a snap cap or two. Wet hands and a wet stock are most of a fall morning. Our snap caps vs dummy rounds page covers what a snap cap is actually for.
• Eye and ear protection, including a spare lens. Clays changes light from station to station, which is why our best shooting glasses for sporting clays page recommends a frame you can change lenses on.
• Water, and a hat. A hundred targets is a two-hour walk.

The gun itself

Worth saying explicitly because no bag on this page carries it. At a clays club a shotgun usually travels from the car in a slip or a hard case and then lives open and empty in a cart rack or a stand rack between stations, which is what the club rules and the NSSF's rules of firearm safety expect. Actions open, muzzles up or down per the club, unloaded between stands, following the NRA's rules.

For the drive there and back, and especially for flying to a shoot, a case matters and the rules are written down. Our best gun cases for air travel page covers what TSA actually requires, and how to transport a gun to the range covers the drive.

Which one for which shooter

• You want one clays purchase: MTM SFRC. Sealed, padlockable, a hundred rounds, lift-out tray.
• You hate walking back to the cart: MTM SH100, on your belt.
• You reload, or your club collects hulls: Armageddon Gear Range Utility Bag.
• You need a base bag for everything else: Allen Eliminator Rangemaster.
• You shoot as a squad and end up carrying for everyone: 5.11 Range Ready Bag 43 L.

What to look for in clays gear

1. A published capacity in rounds and gauge. Liters tell you nothing about shells.
2. A lift-out tray or a belt mount. The single feature that makes a shell case a clays case.
3. Shell length. The SFRC tray takes up to 3 inches; the SH100 takes up to 3.5. If you shoot target loads this never matters, and if you also hunt it does.
4. A seal, if your season is wet. MTM publishes an O-ring seal for the SFRC and not for the SH100.
5. Somewhere for hulls. A second compartment, a removable bag, or a separate tote.
6. A rigid bottom on the base bag, so it stands up in a cart with kit piled on it.
7. Padlock tabs, if the case lives in a vehicle. The SFRC has dual tabs.

Beginner mistakes at a clays club

• Carrying the whole bag to the stand. Take shells and chokes. Leave the bag on the cart.
• Relying on cardboard boxes of 25. They split, they get wet, and they do not present shells for a quick reload.
• Mixing loaded shells and hulls in one pocket. You will chamber a hull eventually, and it stops the round while you sort it out.
• Forgetting the choke wrench. The one small metal item whose absence ends your ability to change anything.
• Buying a 43-liter bag as your only clays purchase. Capacity is not the problem on a walking course; portability is.
• Skipping the hand wash before lunch. A hundred hulls have been through your fingers.