Trap and Skeet

Trap and Skeet

      Skeet shooting is a target game developed in 1920 by a group of Massachusetts sportsmen seeking to improve their shooting skills. The field has eight shooting stations from which the gunner breaks targets thrown from two trap houses—a "high house" located behind station 1 and a "low house" behind station 7. During a round of skeet, a shooter will fire at 25 targets consisting of singles thrown, one at a time from the high or low house and doubles targets thrown, one from each house, simultaneously. A high and low house single is shot from each station and doubles are fired from stations 1, 2, 6 and 7. This totals 24 shots. The 25th target is called the "option" and is a repeat of your first miss. 

      Trapshooting had its earliest beginnings in 18th century England where noblemen would shoot live pigeons released from under a hat. Over the years other targets were developed to replace live birds.

      A round of modern trap consists at shooting 25 clay targets through five stations thrown from a "low house" 16 yards in front of the firing line. Targets fly at various angles which cannot be predicted by the shooter. Beginning with station 1, each shooter fires one shot in turn until all have fired five times. With guns open and pointed in a safe direction, shooters rotate to the next station, continuing this patter until each shooter has shot all five stations.