Target Shooting 101
Skeet Shooting
In 1920, an upland hunter named Charles Davies set up a small shooting
course to practice the shots he had missed on his hunts. The original
course was a circle with a radius of 25 yards with its circumference marked
off like the face of a clock and a trap set at the 12 o’clock position.
Two shots were fired from each of the 12 stations and the final, 25th
shot, included because a box of cartridges contained 25 shells, was taken
from the center of the circle. The practice of shooting from all directions
had to cease, however, when a chicken farm started next door. One of the
shooters, William Foster, solved the problem by placing a second trap
at the 6 o’clock position and cutting the course in half. Foster
quickly noticed the appeal of this kind of competition shooting, and set
out to make it a national sport. The game was introduced in the February
1926 issue of National Sportsman and Hunting and Fishing magazines and
a prize of 100 dollars was offered to anyone who could come up with a
name for the new sport. Out of more than 10,000 ideas received, “Skeet”
- an old Scandinavian form of the word “shoot” - was chosen.
The modern skeet field is a half-circle with two trap houses: the “high
house” on the shooter’s left, and the “low house”
on the right. Eight stations are arrayed around the circle’s curve,
each with a specific set of shots to be made. Squads of five shooters
fire from each of the stations. The traditional 25th shot, called an “option,”
is taken at the time of the first miss, or after 24 consecutive broken
targets and may be taken from any position on the field.
Trap Shooting
Trap shooting began around 1850 when groups of hunters would compete at
shooting small, feather-filled glass balls thrown by hand. This grew in
popularity, and Adam Bogardu invented the first catapult to launch these
balls at shooting shows. This early launcher was termed a “ball
trap,” and gained fame when it was used in events such as Buffalo
Bill’s “Wild West Show.” The glass ball remained in
use until the first flat clay target, called a “clay pigeon,”
was introduced around 1880. The trap shooting field consists of five stations
arranged in a tight semi-circle behind the trap house, which throws clays
in a random pattern within a 44 degree horizontal arc. The term “station”
is a little misleading, because each station is really a path with distances
marked on it from 16 to 27 yards. There are three common events in trap
shooting: Singles, Handicap and Doubles. Shooters in the Singles event
shoot from the closest distance (16 yards) and break clays that are thrown
one at a time. Handicap is played much the same as Singles, except that
the shooters are positioned at various distances depending on their level
of skill. In Doubles, two clays are launched at once and shot from 16
yards. For more information on trap shooting, visit the ATA (Amateur Trapshooting
Association) online at www.shootata.com
Sporting Clays
Developed in England in the 18th Century, sporting clays initially used
live pigeons as targets (leading to the use of the term “trap”
for any launcher
of targets). The birds were eventually replaced by feather filled glass
balls. This remained the dominant target until around 1880 when George
Ligowski developed the first baked clay target. The increasing interest
in the sport and the versatility of the new target led to the development
of many shooting schools. These schools adapted Ligowski’s invention
for use on practice ranges that simulated the flight of live quarry. Despite
its growing popularity in England, it wasn’t until the 1980’s
that the game officially arrived in America. Designed to simulate true
field shooting, the difference between sporting clays and other shooting
sports is the flight of the targets. As with live animals, the paths taken
by the clays are unpredictable; they may come through trees, low to the
ground, high overhead, quartering, outgoing, incoming, turning left or
right, etc. The course is laid out in natural surroundings and organized
into stations, numbering anywhere from five to 14, with each station using
different types of targets to represent a specific type or combination
of game. For more information on sporting clays, visit the NSCA (National
Sporting Clays Association) online at www.mynsca.com
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