Clay pigeon shooting
Clay pigeon shooting, also known as clay target shooting, is a shooting sport involving shooting at special flying targets known as "clay pigeons" or "clay targets" with a shotgun. Despite their name, the targets are usually inverted saucers made of pulverized limestone mixed with pitch and a brightly colored pigment.
History
Clay targets began to be used in place of live pigeons around 1875. Asphalt targets were later developed, but the name "clay targets" stuck. In 1893, the Inanimate Bird Shooting Association was formed in England. It was renamed to the Clay Bird Shooting Association in 1903. It held annual clay-pigeon-shooting contests and lasted until the outbreak of World War I. In 1921, the British parliament passed a bill without opposition making it illegal to shoot birds from traps. A decorative clay pigeon shooting stand at Plaue Castle in Germany, built around 1900 and decorated with animal figures, is one of the oldest of its kind.Clay shooters may still use terminology that originated from the use of live pigeons. A target may be called a "bird", a hit may be referred to as a "kill", and a missed target as a "bird away"; the machine which projects the targets is still known as a "trap".
Disciplines
Clay pigeon shooting has at least 20 different forms of regulated competition called disciplines, although most can be grouped under the main headings of trap, skeet, and sporting.- In the trap shooting, the targets are launched from a single "house" or machine, generally away from the shooter.
- In skeet shooting, targets are launched from two houses in somewhat sideways paths that intersect in front of the shooter.
- Sporting clays includes a more complex course, with many launch points.
Sporting clays
This discipline can have an infinite variety of "stands". English sporting is the most popular form of clay shooting in the UK, and a course or competition will feature a given number of stands each of which has a predetermined number of targets, all traveling along the same path and speed, either as singles or doubles.
Each stand will feature a different type of target; e.g., crosser, driven, quartering, etc. International sporting gives a much greater variety of targets in terms of trajectory and speed, and is shot by squads of six competitors in rounds of 25 targets at a time. Super Sporting is a hybrid of the two preceding varieties. There are also other formats such as Compak sporting and sportrap in which five cages are surrounded by a number of traps, and shooters fire a specific combinations or singles from each stand according to a program displayed in front of the cage.
Maze clays shooting
This is a new shotgun game that offers sporting clays and FITASC target presentations on a skeet/trap or open field. This is possible by using a movable support system that carries the release buttons from 6 to 9 traps and the dual safety screen in any place on the field. As a result, the shooter can shoot in safe conditions upon target presentations in varying range and varying angles.Trap shooting
Targets are thrown either as singles or doubles from one or more traps situated some 15 m in front of the shooter, and are generally going away from the firing point at varying speeds, angles and elevations. The most common disciplines in this group are:- Down-The-Line Single Barrel
- Double Rise
- Automatic Ball Trap
- Olympic Trap
- Double Trap
- Helice
Down-the-Line
Olympic trap
As its name indicates, this is one of the disciplines which form part of the shooting programme at the Olympic Games. A trench in front of the shooting stands conceals 15 traps arranged in five groups of three. Shooters take turns to shoot at a target each, before moving in a clockwise direction to the next stand in the line. Targets for each shooter are thrown immediately upon the shooter's call and are selected by a shooting scheme that ensures all competitors receive exactly the same target selection, but in an unpredictable randomised order to the extent that there will be one straight, two left and two right targets for each stand from any one of the three traps directly in front of the shooter; guessing which one is next is impossible unless the shooter is on his/her last five targets.Olympic trap targets are set to travel at the top of trench level marker peg, unless the terrain is dead flat, at varying elevations and with a maximum horizontal angle of 45 degrees either side of the centre line. Scoring is on the basis of one point per target killed, regardless of whether this is achieved with the first or with the second barrel unless it is a final where the top six scorers shoot off as a single barrel event, regardless of local club grades if any.
A simpler and cheaper to install variation of this discipline is known as automatic ball trap where only one trap is used and target variation is obtained by the continuous oscillation of the trap in both horizontal and vertical directions in order to give the same spread of targets as in Olympic trap. Similarly, the targets are also thrown to a maximum of 76 metres.
Universal trench
A variation on the theme of trap shooting, sometimes known as five trap. Five traps are installed in a trench in front of the shooting stands, all set at different angles, elevations and speeds, and upon the call of "Pull!" by the shooter any one of the five machines, selected at random, will be released.Horizontal angles can vary from 0 degrees to 45 degrees either side of the centre line and target distance is between. Elevations can vary, as in other trap disciplines, between above ground level.
There are 10 different schemes available.
Skeet shooting
Skeet is a word of Scandinavian origin, though the discipline originated in America. Targets are thrown in singles and doubles from two trap houses situated some apart, at opposite ends of a semicircular arc on which there are seven shooting positions. The targets are thrown at set trajectories and speeds. The main disciplines in this group are English skeet, Olympic skeet and American skeet, the latter of which is governed by the National Skeet Shooting Association.In NSSA discipline, targets are released in a combination of singles and doubles, adding up to a total of 25 targets per round, from the High and Low trap houses on a fixed trajectory and speed. Variety is achieved by shooting round the seven stations on the semicircle, followed by an eighth station, located between stations one and seven. Scoring is on the basis of one point per target killed, up to a maximum of 25.
In English skeet, the gun position is optional and the targets are released immediately upon the shooter's call.
In Olympic skeet, the targets travel at a considerably faster speed, the release of the target can be delayed up to three seconds after calling and the gun-down position is compulsory. There is also an eighth shooting station, midway between the two houses.
NSSA and English version of Skeet have the concept of option targets, where the shooter has to repeat the first missed target. In the situation where the first 24 targets are all hit, the last target is considered the option. Here is a representation of for all variations.
Electrocibles or helice shooting
Originating in Belgium during the 1960s, Electrocibles is similar to trap shooting, but the clays are equipped with a helice that will give the clay an erratic and unpredictable flight. The helice is composed of two winged plastic propellers with a white clay in the centre. Now the sport is named helice shooting.Plastic propellers holding a detachable centre piece are rotated at high speed and released randomly from one of five traps. They fly out in an unpredictable way; so-said buzzing through the air. It is designed specifically to simulate as closely as possible the old sport of live pigeon shooting. Its original name of ZZ comes from the inventor who made them out of zinc, and had previously shot a specific breed of pigeon called a zurito; hence the term the zinc zurito. World and European Championships are held every year organized by FITASC.
Targets
The targets used for the sport are usually in the shape of an inverted saucer, made from a mixture of pitch and pulverized limestone rock designed to withstand being thrown from traps at very high speeds, but at the same time being easily broken when hit by just a very few lead or steel pellets from a shotgun.The targets are usually fluorescent orange or black, but other colours such as white, or yellow are frequently used in order that they can be clearly seen against varying backgrounds and/or light conditions.
Targets are made to very exacting specifications with regard to their weight and dimensions and must conform to set international standards.
There are several types of targets that are used for the various disciplines, with a standard 108 mm size being the most common used in American Trap, Skeet, and Sporting Clays while International disciplines of these same games use a slightly larger 110 mm diameter size. Only the standard 108/110 mm target is used in all of the trap and skeet disciplines. Sporting shoots feature the full range of targets to provide the variety that is a hallmark of the discipline.
All three sports use a shotgun, and in the sporting disciplines are sub-classified by the type of game the clay target represents. The two primary methods of projecting clay targets are airborne and ground.
Naturally, the simplest method of throwing a clay target is by hand, either into the air or along the ground. This method is the simplest, and many "trick shot" shooters throw their own targets. However, a multitude of devices have been developed to throw the birds more easily and with more consistency. A plastic sling-like device is the simplest, though modern shooting ranges will usually have machines that throw the clay targets in consistent arcs at the push of a button.
;Standard: The most commonly used target of all, must weigh 105 g and be of 110 mm overall diameter and 25–26 mm in height for International competitions and for American competitions they must weigh approximately and be of overall diameter and in height.
;Midi: Same saucer shape as the standard but with a diameter of only 90 mm; these targets are faster than the standard types.
;Mini: This target is sometimes likened to a flying bumblebee at only 60 mm in diameter and 20 mm in height.
;Battue: A very thin target measuring about 108–110 mm in diameter, it flies very fast and falls off very suddenly simulating a duck landing. They are generally more expensive than other targets.
;Rabbit: A thicker, but standard 108–110 mm diameter flat target in the shape of a wheel designed to run along the ground.
;ZZ: This is a plastic, standard sized target attached to the center of a two-blade propeller of different color designed to zigzag in flight in a totally unpredictable manner.