If you can't imagine yourself shooting driven pheasants with the privileged on an estate in the English countryside, neither could most English.

As early as the 1860s, shooters who found themselves uninvited to such uppity outings, and couldn't afford to organize their own, devised the sport of shooting at glass spheres filled with feathers and thrown in the air. By the early 1900s, something like the modern clay disc target was flying, and breaking, in the British mist.

Clay targets prompted the rise of highly structured shooting games like trap and skeet, but shooters still hungered for some semblance of hunting wild birds. Sporting Clays arose in Britain in the 1960s to satisfy the hunting lure. Courses ran through woods and over moors, and thrown "birds" mimicked flushing grouse and settling ducks.

Sporting Clays hopped the Atlantic in the late 1980s and grasped the devotion of American shooters, even more accustomed to swinging on feathered quarry.

Today, according to the National Sporting Clays Association, Sporting Clays is the fastest growing shooting sport in the United States, available at thousands of clubs, private courses and resorts nationwide. It's a hit in southwestern Pennsylvania.

"I started shooting clays because I just like to shoot," said master clays shooter Harry Neil of Murrysville. "I can remember the first state championship we had about 10 years ago at a place called Laurel Springs. I just walked on the course to see what it was like. I watched about 20 people shoot with a hodgepodge of equipment -- mostly hunting guns -- and I thought, wow, this looks like fun."

It's fun that's within reach of most hunters and shooters, at least occasionally.

"A normal round of clays is going to cost $30 to $40 at most places," said Rob Crow, director of the Shooting Academy at Nemacolin Woodlands in Fayette County. "Lead prices have jumped recently, and that is contributing to higher costs. But it's still in line with what you pay to shoot a round at most golf courses, and a lot less expensive than some."

Aside from course fees, shooters who would like to sample Sporting Clays do not need to commit a big investment.

"You don't need to go out and buy the top-end expensive shotguns," said Shooting Academy Sporting Clays course supervisor Chuck Groff. "You can use your current hunting equipment until you get better and decide if you want to go further, and nobody will ever criticize you for that approach. This is first and foremost about fun."

Crow, a master class shooter and Level 2 clays instructor, attributes the growth of Sporting Clays in America to its family-friendly nature.

"This is not something that involves a lot of brute strength," Crow said. "You can have four generations out shooting together, from the great-grandparent to the great-grandchild. It's not just dads and sons anymore. Now you also see the wives, mothers, daughters and girlfriends. The way things are going, with hectic schedules and limited time, the only way any sport will thrive is if the whole family can do it together. Sporting Clays fills that need."

Crow estimates that the number of women shooting Sporting Clays has grown by 300 percent in the past 5 years.

Groff observed that the trend toward Sporting Clays courses at resorts, such as Nemacolin Woodlands, exposes guests -- some of whom would never otherwise even hold a firearm -- to shooting in a positive setting.

"We offer it as part of the menu of things to do here," Groff said. "Some of our guests have never shot a gun, but they're curious and they try it. The good thing about that is that they see, maybe for the first time, that guns are not necessarily about violence. The gun becomes another piece of equipment, not a weapon, and that opens their eyes."

Learning to break clays consistently is more a matter of instinct than technical process.

"Look at the bird and point. If you point your finger [on the lead gun hand] at the target you are going to hit it," Groff said. "We try to keep it simple. We tell people to look for the leading edge of the target and remember to follow through. Anything that is flying is going to be somewhere else if you stop the gun."

One of the things that Neil likes about Sporting Clays is the camaraderie and acceptance of all skill levels.

"In clays, an average guy who enters a tournament can shoot with the top pros," Neil said. "The pros in this sport have a reputation much like professional golfers, but you can end up shooting with the equivalent of Tiger Woods. I like that."

Shooters contemplating a taste of Sporting Clays do not need to enter a tournament or travel to a resort.

Numerous clubs in the Pittsburgh region open their ranges at specified times for a nominal fee.

For instance, the Sporting Clays course at the Sportsmen's Association of Greensburg is open to the public Wednesdays at 5 p.m.

"It's family oriented and fun," said Ray Wertz, the former manager of the course. "There are generally about 20 people who show up to shoot."