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By Shari LeGate,
But just like understanding the shotgun itself, it's equally important to understand the games, or disciplines, available in clay target shooting. What the differences are between them and how they got started. In the end, it will help you in shooting that particular discipline and you'll understand the nuances of each game. A point to notice is that all the people who created these disciplines did so because they wanted to improve their hunting skills. So even if you don't actually hunt, you'll get a feel and understanding for those who do. The Clay Target There are several types of targets that are used in all the disciplines. But, for Trap and Skeet, only the standard 110 mm target is used. Sporting Clays features the full range of targets, which is why many shooters prefer that discipline and think it's more challenging. A breakdown of the targets looks like this: Standard: The most commonly used target. Uses the inverted saucer shape and has an overall diameter of 110 mm and is 25-26 mm in height. Usually orange is the only target used for all trap and skeet disciplines. Midi: Same saucer shape as the standard but has a diameter of only 90 mm. Mini: Even though it uses the same inverted saucer shape, it is sometimes likened to a flying bumblebee because it is only 60 mm in diameter and 20 mm in height. Battue: A very thin, flat, wafer of a target about 110 mm in diameter. It flies very fast and falls off its trajectory very suddenly. Rabbit: A standard size, but much thicker flat target in the shape of a wheel designed to run fast along the ground, simulating a rabbit. It's important to know and understand the make up of the targets and what they are used for because when shooting Sporting Clays, you have to know which ammunition to use on what target. As an example, when shooting the Mini, you want to use ammunition that has a much higher density in the pattern because the target is so small it will slip through a larger pattern. And when you shoot a rabbit, the ammunition of choice is a heavier load and larger shot because the target is thicker and needs the extra force to break. When we discuss ballistics and which ammunition to use in what sport, this will make more sense. But now, let's play some games! Trap A club in Cincinnati, Ohio, first introduced the practice of shooting live birds from traps in the United States in 1831. Around the time of the Civil War, clay targets replaced the live birds. Some of the first targets used were a metal "bird" with rotary wings and another version included a feather-filled glass ball thrown from traps that looked like medieval catapults. In the 1880s, clay targets like today's were used, having been invented by George Ligowskey of Cincinnati. American Trap is very popular in the United States. The association that oversees American Trap is the ATA, the Amateur Trapshooting Association, and they have about 180,000 members. American trap is broken down into three categories: 16-yard Singles, 16-yard Doubles and Handicap, which is shot between 19 and 27 yards.
Doubles is a modified version of Singles, also shot at a distance of 16 yards, but it is more difficult because shooters must break two targets thrown from the trap house simultaneously. The trap is fixed-meaning it does not oscillate as Singles. One clay target flies to the left while the other flies to the right. The target path remains constant, but the challenge is if the shooter can hit both targets before they hit the ground. Each target is scored individually, not as a pair. Usually, an Over/Under shotgun is used at Doubles, but a semi-automatic will also work. Handicap is considered the most prestigious event in trapshooting. As in other sports, handicapping strives to make the competition equal. This is accomplished by having the more skilled competitors stand further away from the trap house. Based on a shooter's past performances, a shooter is assigned a handicap distance, which she must shoot. A competitor with a high handicap will shoot no closer than the 19-yard line, while the most skilled shooter is placed at the 27-yard line. It is extremely difficult to win an event from the 27-yard line. For safety reasons, no two shooters on the same squad should have a difference of more than three yards between them.
Down the Line, known as DTL, is a form of trap very popular in Great Britain, Australia and South Africa. It is almost exactly like American Trap Singles except that two shots are allowed, with three points awarded for a first-barrel hit and two for a second-barrel hit. A double-barrel gun is best used for this discipline. Trap shooting is one of the three main competitive shotgun
shooting sports, and there are a few versions of Trap, including
Olympic Trap, Olympic Double Trap, both of which are Olympic
events. The layout of trap is different from skeet in that there
is only one house that releases targets and the shooters only
move to five different positions. An Olympic Bunker has 15 fixed-angle trap machines as opposed to the single oscillating machine used in American Trap. The reason for the 15 machines is that it makes the game fair and equitable for all. Every shooter gets the same shot throughout the round. The 15-machine fixed-angle format eliminates the luck of the draw problem, insuring that all shooters will receive exactly the same targets as all other shooters, thereby providing equal difficulty for all In Olympic Trap, a microphone release system is used to call for the target, insuring there are no bad pulls or anything else that might create an unfair advantage for another shooter. In Olympic Trap there are six shooters, one to each station, with the sixth shooter initially starting at a holding station immediately behind the 1st shooter. Unlike American trap, the shooter here shoots and then immediately moves to the next position so no rhythm can be reached. You are allowed two shots at each target, so you might think this game is easier because, "hey, I got two shots." Not hardly. Because there are 15 machines, the differences in the targets are much more extreme than even in Wobble trap. I assure you, this is a difficult game and takes many years to learn and even longer to master. Skeet Almost immediately, Skeet Fields began to spring up around the country and competitive shooters were right there with the practicing hunters. Quickly, people realized that there were records to be set and that local tournaments would lead to State and National competitions. Mr. H.M. Jackson, Jr. of Garner, North Carolina, is officially recorded as the first person to break a 25 straight. By the end of that year, a National Skeet Shooting Association had formed, which is the forerunner of the organization today that sanctions skeet shooting in America and other foreign countries, the NSSA, located in San Antonio, TX. So how is the game played? There are two traphouses of different heights, known as the Low House and the High House. Spaced about 42 yards apart, they face one another and are connected by a semi-circle walkway, which has seven evenly spaced shooting stations. Both traphouses throw targets at the same speed and trajectory, but at different heights. The shooter shoots from those 7 positions and on the 8th position that's halfway between stations 1 and 7 on the walkway. Station 8 is actually two stations butted together. The one most distant from each traphouse is the one used when shooting the target from that house. The course of fire is a total of 25 targets with a high target and a low target shot from every station. Doubles are shot at stations 1, 2, 6 & 7. If the shooter misses a target he gets an "option," the chance to shoot the target again. If the shooter has hit all the targets by the time he gets to station 8, he takes the extra shot, the 25th target at the Low house for a perfect score. The gun is mounted in the shoulder before the target is called for and the target is released immediately, so the shooter knows where the target is coming from and when. This may sound complicated, but its really quite simple and easy to remember once you're on the field. Within the game of skeet, there are two disciplines; American Skeet and Olympic Skeet also called International Skeet, and the basics of the two games are the same. Olympic Skeet can be shot on the same field with the same traphouses but the targets are thrown at a much faster speed. And unlike American Skeet, there are doubles at every station except station 8. But the biggest difference is gun position. In Olympic Skeet, the starting position of the gun must be at the hip bone and it cannot be mounted to the shoulder and face until after the target is released from the trap, Plus, there is a random 0-3 second delay from the time the shooter calls Pull, so the shooter doesn't know when the target is coming. It is a technically more difficult game than American Skeet and doesn't have much following in the United States. Like Olympic Trap, I don't suggest that you start out on this game. It's another one that you should grow into. Sporting Clays A typical course will consist of 8-14 stations spread out over many acres of land. Course designers use natural features like ponds, wooded ravines and hedgerows to create shooting stations that simulate bird hunting. For example, a popular station found on many courses is known as the "duck blind," where the shooter must hit targets descending over a pond like landing Mallards. At each station is a shooting position with a shooting cage usually made from wood that the shooter enters and calls for the target. Different numbers of clay pairs are shot at each station with the total shots adding up to 50 or 100. Advanced shooters have the clays thrown as simultaneous pairs, while novice or intermediate shooters can opt for the clays to be thrown on report, meaning the second target is released after the first shot is fired. Targets are thrown from different angles and speeds, but the lingo is pretty simple. Targets going across the shooter's vision are called Crossers. Targets coming towards the shooter are called Incomers and targets going away from the shooter are called Outgoers. Pretty simple! All these shots are intended to simulate bird hunting, both upland and waterfowl, and other types of game. There are targets that roll and bounce along the ground to simulate rabbits. There are also targets that loop in the air such as battues which really don't mimic any particular animal, but it's a really hard target. Sporting Clays will test the skill and composure of even the most experienced shooter and it might be a wise choice to begin on a 5-Stand before tackling a sporting course. 5 -Stand Sporting ZZ Birds or Helice
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In the
world of shotgun, there are many choices. Not just which equipment
and what accessories, but which clay target game you choose to
play. And one of the many fun aspects about shooting shotgun
is that you can shoot all the games with the same gun. Sure,
you might have to change the chokes (a subject for later discussion)
now and then, but you can still have a lot of fun with the same
equipment.
This is the discipline that most first time shooters
gravitate to, as it really is the most accessible and the easiest
to learn. Notice I said easy to learn, but not master. It gets
its name from the machine that throws the clay targets into the
air. Trap simulates the flight of a game bird flushed ahead of
the shooter. When the sport was first created, live birds were
released from holes in the ground covered with silk top hats.
The silk hats later were replaced with a box that had a sliding
lid that "trapped" the bird. On the call of the shooter,
a person standing beside them known as the "trapper"
would pull the string that slid the lid off and released the
bird. The first mention of the sport of trapshooting dates all
the way back to 1793 in Sporting Magazine, an English publication.
Singles
is considered to be the easiest of the three disciplines. In
singles, the shooter stands 16 yards away from the center of
the "trap house" and shoots at random targets that
fly at various angles in front of her. Each shooter takes only
one shot at the target, which is why you will see many single-barrel
guns in trap. Shooters are grouped into squads, usually consisting
of up to five people. There are five positions that each shooter
shoots from, for five shots, or one round of 25 total. This gives
participants a different view of the target flying through the
air. The trap rotates back and forth and side-to-side, so it
is impossible to know which way the target is going to come out.
It can be very challenging. As I said, Trap is easy to learn,
but hard to master. Each position is a constant 16 yards from
the trap house; each one is spaced three feet apart forming a
small arc. Squads rotate between four trap fields called a "bank."
When the shooter is finished shooting at targets from those four
trap houses, they have completed a round of 100 targets, 25 at
each bank. 
A variant
of standard trap is Wobble Trap. The main difference is a much
more extreme target flight path than in standard trap shooting.
The trap oscillates up and down as well as side-to-side. Shooters
are allowed two shots per target and shooters at stations 1 and
5 stand at the 18-yard mark while positions 2-4 stand at the
17-yard mark. When a Bunker or Olympic Trap field is not available,
many shooters use this as a substitute. I don't suggest that
you start out on Wobble Trap. This is a game that you move up
to. 
If you know anything of my career, you'll know that
Skeet is my favorite game. The history of Skeet is similar to
that of trap as it was created to help wing shooters improve
there hunting skills. In 1920 in Andover, Massachusetts, Charles
Davies, a retired businessman and avid hunter, was also a very
dedicated upland shooter. Like all great shooters, he was a perfectionist
going to great lengths to constantly improve his shooting. He
tried trap shooting as a way to warm up for the hunting season,
but it really didn't help his wing shooting skills. In 1915,
Davies and his son came up with an idea to systematize the shooting
of the clay targets from different positions to simulate bird
hunting and could be combined with a competition program. The
skeet game was born! It evolved to its current setup by 1923
and like trap, it originally used live pigeons, but eventually
changed to clay targets. The game was still unnamed, so a competition
was launched to give the sport a name. About 10,000 entries were
received and Mrs. Gertrude Hurlbutt of Dayton, Montana, won the
$100.00 prize for her suggestion of "Skeet," an old
Scandinavian relative of the English word "Shoot."
Often described as golf with a shotgun, Sporting Clays
is different from Skeet and Trap in that it involves shooting
clays at various locations, and targets are launched at different
velocities and angles. It got its start in the latter half of
the 19th century in England as the shooting of released live
birds and the clay target games of Trap and Skeet gained popularity.
Sporting Clays grew very quickly in the United States and within
a short period eclipsed Trap & Skeet, becoming the premier
clay target sport.
An alternative
to clay target shooting, ZZ Birds are very, very challenging.
The game takes place in a semi-circle. You stand in one designated
spot at the edge of the circle. Five or seven green boxes are
in front of you at 27 meters. Twenty-one meters beyond that is
a twenty-four inch high fence that outlines the semi-circle.
The gun is mounted into the shoulder and you call "Pull."
You have no idea which box will send out the target, so once
the target is released, you have to see it and hit hard enough
for the orange wings to fall away from the white top and land
inside the twenty-four inch high fence line. If it falls outside
of the fence, there are no points. This is a game for advanced
shooters as it is very expensive. You can shoot it with any kind
of shotgun, but if the gun is not set up specifically for this
game, you wind up losing a lot of money. It is a lot of fun and
I encourage you to try it at some point in your shotgun journey.
In the
beginning of this article, I said all of these games can be shot
with the same gun with just a few modifications and that's very
true. Each discipline has its own level of difficulty and the
best thing to do is try each one to determine which one you like
the best. When you decide which one you want to shoot, then you
can start modifying your gun for that game to give you a better
advantage. Just remember, it will take a little bit of time to
reach some level of proficiency. Walking out on the field and
becoming a champion in a matter of days or weeks is not realistic,
but walking out on the field is a start. Just have fun and always
remember to be safe when you're out on the field.
