Clay Pigeon Trap

A Clay Pigeon Trap is merely a machine for throwing clay targets for different types of competitive target shooting.  Below is a picture of a typical automatic clay pigeon trap.

Some believe the clay pigeon trap is so named because the Trap Shooting sport is in many ways a replacement for the old game where live pigeons were used as the targets. It throws targets made from a mixture of clay; these targets take the place of live pigeons so the name clay pigeon was born.

In the USA American Trap is one of the more popular games or sporting events. There are several different variations of this sport but in the USA the most popular is usually just referred to as a Trap Shoot or Trap Shooting.  American trap is most popular in the United States and Canada and is closely tied to the Amateur Trapshooting Association which sets the rules for registered shoots. The Amateur Trapshooting Association sanctions shoots in the United States and Canada.

The layout of a modern trap field has five shooting positions and the targets are released from one trap house by the Clay Pigeon Trap. The shooting pads are arranged equal distance from the target release point starting at 16 yards and going on back to 27 yards. A round of trap consists of shooting at 25 targets, five from each shooting position.

The three most popular events are singles, doubles and handicap. Singles and doubles are both shot from the 16 yard line and the name describes how the targets are thrown. Singles represents one target at a time and doubles indicates two targets at once. Handicap is a singles event but the shooter is farther from the targets. Based on their ability arrived at by their previous averages of broken targets the shooters are assigned a handicap that moves them back. It takes a really good shooter to gain a 27 yard line handicap; these could easily be called “All Pro Shooters.”  See the picture below for a typical Trap Field layout.

The Clay Pigeon Trap is situated in the trap house kind of semi underground so that the trajectory of targets starts out at ground level.