Intro to Clay Sports: Skeet & Trap
This may just be my opinion, but one of the most fun things you can do in the shooting world is participating in any of the clay sports. Don’t get me wrong, it’s all fun but clay sports are just…different. With pistols, you’re typically shooting at paper printouts or steel plates. They do go “ding” when you hit them but that’s about it. Rifle shooting is about the precision and control. Fun, but not for everyone. Both can be spiced up a bit with some competition but beyond that, it’s a very static shooting environment. Clays are much more dynamic. You’re having to hit moving targets. Tiny moving targets at that. Hitting a bullseye is exciting but hitting a fast moving clay with your last shot just before it hits the ground? That will have you cheering every time.
Entry is easy. You need a shotgun, a couple boxes of target shells, a shell holder (either a vest or a belt sack) and a clay range. Technique is also necessary and we’ll go over that later. For now, we’re looking at the sport itself. The term “clay sports” is a very general term, really. It encompasses a bunch of distinctly different games that all revolve around the same principle: shotgun, clay disk and destroying said disk. It’s kind of like how Taco Bell has an entire menu revolving around 3 or 4 ingredients. In clay sports, you have Skeet & Trap, Sporting Clays and Five Stand. All have different rules and styles. Today, we’re going to look at skeet shooting & trap shooting.
Ultimately, all of the clay sports are meant to simulate some form of hunting. It’s one of the reasons why those disks are called “clay pigeons”. While skeet and trap are different in that the pigeons are launched differently, they’re still scored similarly with similar rules overall. So much so that many competitions cover both styles. Some competitions will split it out having only skeet or only trap (like the Olympics, for example).
As far as how it works, let’s start with skeet.
Two houses, both alike in dignity.
You have two launchers (called “trap houses”) that will launch the clays in a criss-cross path. They’re also launched in the same directions and speed every time. On of the trap houses fires at a higher angle and the other at a lower angle (called “high house” and “low house”).
Shooters will fire at the clays from various positions around a semicircle. Each of these positions is called a “station” and there 8 stations in total. You shoot a total of 25 targets per round. If you’re just shooting on your own for fun and practice, it doesn’t really matter how you go about it. If you’re wanting to stick to the rules, however, each station has a set of launches.
- When shooting from 1 and 2, you do 1 target from the high house, then one from the low house then one where the targets are launched from both houses at the same time.
- When you’re on stations 3 through 5, it’s just a single from both houses.
- On 6 and 7, follow the same pattern as 1 and 2
- Finally, on station 8, you just do one high target and one low target.
On the picky rules side, they don’t seem to want you walking away with any shells in your pouch. The rules say that, once you’re all done, you get to reshoot your first missed target. If you were awesome and hit all your shots, then you have to shoot your 25th shot at the low house while standing at station number 8.
He shoots he scores!
You get 1 point for every target hit up to a maximum of 25 points. Now, “target hit” is an important distinction. You don’t have to obliterate the clay in order to score. As long as you get a piece of it, it’s a point. That’s why having a good (and honest) person spotting is important.
Take evasive action! Green Group, stay close to holding section MD-7. It’s a trap!
Trap shooting is played almost exactly the same except different. Instead of two crossing launchers, you have a single launcher in the middle that fires away from the shooter. For American Trap (as opposed to Olympic), you shoot from 5 stations and you shoot at 5 targets from each station. The launcher in trap changes the direction (to the left or right) that it points with each shot. This means you never really know which way it’s going to come out of the trap house. There’s also Wobble Trap which will move up and down as well as side to side.
I mentioned the Olympics a couple of times here. There is a separate set of rules and guidelines for Olympic style shooting. For starters, the clays move faster. I’m talking A LOT faster. There’s also strict rules as to where you have to hold the gun starting out. Very few ranges have launchers that are to Olympic regulations, mainly because it’s too difficult for the average shooter.
Before I forget, there is one unofficial rule for any time you’re shooting any kind of clay sport outside of a competition: never end the day on a missed target. It’s bad luck.
Next time, we’re going to look at Sporting Clays or, as I like to call it, the Golf of the Shooting World.
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