Champion WheelyBird Auto-Feed Trap

I was surprised by how well this thing was made. I love the design and it functions as well as higher dollar skeet throwers. It was easy to assemble and we were able to use it right away.

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 unit is great out of the box.. very well made, all the nuts and bolts are tight (I cked them), and it is very stable, even on a hard flat surface.However, as I watched videos of people using it, I wanted to improve on single direction firing. It's better than many units in this respect. It's on wheels, so simple to just lift the back handle and turn the unit in a different direction.. but I wanted something more controllable, and from a distance.Champion makes an oscillation unit that can be added to some of their throwers, but it doesn't work w/ this one, and even if it did, it's over $200.So I ordered an 18" linear actuator w/ a remote control, w/ the intention of attaching it on one end to the back handle just in front of the caster wheel, and the other end to an angle iron stake w/ an attachment point for the actuator.I also welded up a 2" longer new cross member/front axle to accept 10" fat tires.. far better than the 6" hard plastic ones that come stock (had to find sleeves to fit the 5/8" holes), and installed push clamps as brakes on each side that press in between the bolts that hold the tire hubs together.I built a mount for a 4" swivel caster off the back handle, and attachment points on both sides for the actuator. I put the brake on either front wheel (I prefer the right, as that provides the greatest radius, and so a more direct line of travel for the actuator, as the handle that comes back is left of center of the thrower.I attach one end of the actuator to a pin on the stake, and the other to the attachment point just forward of the caster. I can vary the throw angle by more than 45 degrees, controllable from a wireless remote that operates the actuator.I also bought a mighty max deep cell battery on amazon. It's a thin profile, and sealed, so it can be mounted in any configuration. It just happens to fit perfectly on it's side facing forward in the bay under the thrower assembly. I built a holder for it out of 1/2" hdpe and used the front axle bolts to hold it in place. It's directly under the thrower, w/ c.o.g. just behind the front axle, so adds stability by virtue of it's weight.The footpad is great, but I bought a 12v wireless remote, set it to momentary, and wired it to the 2 points on the terminal bar that the footpedal microswitch closes (blue and brown wires at positions 4 and 6 on the terminal bar.. easier to get to when it's upside down on a table), and it does have to be a momentary switch.. not just a single click.Everything is wired up w/ 2 pin waterproof disconnects I bought on amazon, w/ the thrower, the actuator, and the wireless remote all powered by the battery through 2 pin waterproof connectors, a disconnect switch to power it off, and a separate connector to hook up to the charger.I'll try to get some pictures to add to this. I'm embarrassed to say I haven't tried it all out. Has been cold here, so all I've done is trick it out in the garage and dry fire it to make sure everything works. Hoping to get out this wkend or next.

Really nice product! The first one I received had been opened and some of the components were damaged and/or missing. I returned that item and ordered a second one. It arrived in NEW condition, was easy to assemble and worked perfectly the first throw - no adjustments required.