What is Trap ?

The Heartland Public Shooting Park currently has four northeast facing trap fields equipped with “PAT” TRAPS.  All fields are equipped with ventriloquist operated throwers and each trap can be set as wobble traps for a fun twist to the ever popular trap game. The trap fields are well lit for night shooting and all walkways are concrete and are ADA compliant.

Trap is a clay pigeon shooting sport, one of the ISSF shooting events. It is a recreational and competitive activity where participants use a shotgun to attempt to break a clay disk flung away from the shooter at high speed. The modern game of trap is in some ways a replacement for a game where the targets were live pigeons. Indeed, one of the names for the clay targets used in shooting games is clay pigeons.

The layout of modern trap shooting is different from skeet shooting in that there is only one house that releases targets and the shooters only move through 5 different positions. There are two basic forms of trap: International and American.

In international Trap competitions, the course of fire is 125 shots for men and 75 shots for women. There is also a 25-shot final for the top six competitors.

American Trap is popular in the United States and different from International Trap. Official events and rules are governed by the Amateur Trap Shooting Association or ATA. The ATA also runs the Grand American Trap Shoot Championship in Vandalia, Ohio. American trap is broken down into three categories: 16 yd singles, 16 yd doubles and, handicap which is shot between 19 and 27 yds.

In singles each shooter takes one shot at five targets in each of the five positions in sequence and is shot while standing 16 yards back from the trap house. The trap rotates back and forth so it is impossible to know which way the target is going to come out.

Handicap is the same as singles but shot from further away. You start at the 20 yd line and work your way back as your average improves over time. Extra yardages may be given if you win a championship or other major event. No two shooters on the same squad should have a difference of more than three yards between them.

Doubles is shot from 16 yards and the trap is fixed to fire straight away. Two targets are thrown at the same time and you get one shot per target. There is no second shot on any target in American trap singles or handicap.

International events require a shooter to shoot at 125 targets with a 25 bird run-off in the event of a tie. When shooting American trap for practice or fun a squad of five will shoot 25 targets each for a total of 125. Registered ATA shoots require shooters to shoot 100 targets per squad and they are allowed to shoot as many squads as they wish during non event shoots. Most of these shoots are for your personal average or handicap yardage. In order to qualify for the Grand a shooter must shoot 2000 singles, 1500 doubles, and 2000 handicap targets.

Source: ShotgunSports.com

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