Research Post No. 6: An Introduction to Trap

I've mentioned trapshooting on several occasions on this blog, but I haven't done a particularly good job of explaining what exactly it is. American Trap is arguably the most popular of the four most common shotgun sports in the United States, which include Trap, Skeet, Sporting Clays, and 5-Stand. Like all of the other shotgun sports, Trap is focused on using shotguns to hit orange clay targets (pigeons), thrown by a machine; the shooter who hits the most targets "wins," though the game is not always a competition.

(http://www.oregonsportsmans.com/about/facilities/)

A Trap field consists of two parts: the trap house, which houses the target throwing machines (traps), and a set of five shooting lanes, arranged in an arc behind the trap house. Each shooting lane stretches from 16 yards to 27 yards away from the center of the trap house, although most shooting takes place at the 16 yard line. During a round of Trap, one shooter stands in each of the five lanes; when it is their turn to shoot, a shooter will call "pull," and a target or pair of targets will be thrown from the trap house. Each shooter will fire a total of 25 times, taking turns one after the other down the line (lane one fires, then lane two, and so on), and after each shooter has fired 5 times, they will rotate to the next shooting lane (one goes to two, two to three, five to one), in order to give every shooter an equal opportunity to fire at a variety of angles.

The number of targets thrown during each turn depends on the particular "discipline" of Trap being participated in, the three disciplines being "singles," "doubles," and "handicap." In singles, only one target is thrown per turn, and all shooting takes place at the 16 yard line; each shooter fires at a total of 25 targets, 5 at each shooting lane. In doubles, two targets are thrown per turn, and all shooting takes place at the 16 yard line; each shooter fires at a total of 50 targets, 10 at each shooting lane. Handicap is a slightly modified version of singles, that places shooters at varying distances, from 18 to 27 yards from the trap house, based on their shooting ability (shooters with consistently higher scores must stand further back); this is to create a more level playing field between experienced and amateur shooters. A typical Trap competition will consist of four rounds of each discipline, for a grand total of 400 targets, though this is not always the case. Of course, one can always just go to their local gun club (this would be the Corpus Christi Pistol and Rifle Club in my case) and shoot a few rounds of Trap casually, if they have no desire to actually compete, or just want to practice.

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For this blog post, I selected three different sources, each of which helped to form a cohesive picture of how Trap works. I found the first article (For the New Shooter) on the same website that I found the article I used for my last post, the Amateur Trapshooting Association (ATA) Hall of Fame, under the "General Information" section. The second source (Trapshooting Disciplines) is from the ATA's website, which I found by Google searching for "trapshooting disciplines," as the Hall of Fame article did not thoroughly explain each discipline and I wanted to know more. The last article (Trapshooting Overview) I found under the "General Information" section of the ATA website, and mostly just helped tie everything together.

“For the New Shooter.” Trapshooting Hall of Fame, 8 Apr. 2010,

http://www.traphof.org/General-Information/for-the-new-shooter/All-Pages.html.

“Trapshooting Disciplines.” Amateur Trapshooting Association,

http://www.shootata.com/GeneralInformation/TrapshootingDisciplines.aspx.

“Trapshooting Overview.” Amateur Trapshooting Association,

http://www.shootata.com/GeneralInformation/TrapshootingOverview.aspx.

All of these articles would most likely be classified as trade pieces, as they are not scholarly, but were produced and published by associations that specialize specifically in trapshooting. Their primary audience is people who trying to get into the sport of Trap, and are looking for introductory information; as such, the articles contain a significant amount of very specific information, but are still fairly easy to understand without much background knowledge. The purpose of these articles is primarily informative, although the first one (For the New Shooter) could also be considered slightly persuasive, as it tells the reader not to be discouraged by low scores, to practice, not to worry about having the fanciest equipment, and to just go out and "have the time of your life."

Before I read these articles, I thought I had a pretty solid understanding of Trap, but I had no idea that there were three separate disciplines; I thought it was just singles, and that the reason the shooting lanes are so long is for observers, coaches, etc. to have a place to stand off of the grass. I especially found the concept of the handicap discipline intriguing; in no other sport have I seen a component of actual competition that adjusts based on skill level, instead of just separating participants into groups. All in all, this was an interesting learning experience, and I'm looking forward to breaking down Skeet and Sporting Clays.

Research Post No. 5: The Evolution of Traps and Targets

While shotgun sports are ubiquitously known for their use of the little orange disks as targets, few know about how those clay disks came to be, why they are referred to as "clay pigeons," and why the machines that throw them are called "traps."

In the early nineteenth century, English duck hunters began developing the first forms of modern shotgun sports as a means to hone their shooting skills and compete against one another, in an environment with a greater degree of consistency than a hunting field. They would place live birds, usually pigeons, in wooden boxes, or "traps," which could be opened by pulling on a cord (hence the command "pull"), releasing the pigeon to be shot down by the hunter. This act of shooting live pigeons released from traps evolved into the international sport of "trapshooting," which would later lead to the development of the multitude of other shotgun sports, like American skeet, Sporting Clays, and 5-Stand.

(An early live pigeon trap)

In 1866, an American named Charles Portlock, introduced the use of hollow glass balls (much like Christmas ornaments) as a substitute target for live birds, and in 1877, Adam Bogardus produced the first successful mechanical thrower (which was essentially a small, metal catapult). While glass ball shooting offered a significantly more consistent target presentation, and removed the need for thousands of live pigeons to be captured and killed for competitions, live bird shooting remained popular alongside glass balls until the very end of the nineteenth century.

(The Bogardus glass ball trap, circa 1877)

Glass targets had several key downsides, though, namely that they tended to be very expensive, and left fields strewn with broken glass, which often injured livestock. In response, a man named George Ligowsky invented the first clay targets and an accompanying thrower in 1880; though their popularity was slow growing, by the 1920's, "clay pigeons" had become the standard target for trapshooting, and glass balls were discontinued. Modern clay targets are made of colorful, non-toxic, biodegradable materials, and are usually thrown by sophisticated, voice activated machines.

(The Ligowsky clay trap, circa 1882)

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I selected the source that I used because it contained a relatively comprehensive and chronological history of the targets used in shotgun sports, despite being primarily about glass ball shooting; it was also published by an affiliate of the Amateur Trapshooting Association, making it fairly credible.

Kerr, Alex. “History of Glass Target Balls.” Trapshooting Hall of Fame, 2 June 2010,

http://www.traphof.org/Equipment-Artifacts/history-of-glass-target-balls.html.

This source would be classified as a credible writing, as even though it was produced by an expert in his field (as is noted in the article), it probably did not undergo the peer review process, and is not part of an academic publication.

The purpose of this source is to inform the reader of the history and development of the various styles of targets used in shotgun sports. The intended audience of this article is likely those like myself, who are interested in the history and development of various aspects of shotgun sports, but are not necessarily experienced participants, as such the writing style is relatively informal and does not contain excessive technical terminology. I found this source by running a Google search for "evolution of target throwers OR traps," where I came across the Trapshooting Hall of Fame website; in the "Equipment and Artifacts" tab, I found the "History of Glass Target Balls" article.

I learned a great deal from this article, as I had no idea that glass targets ever existed; I knew that live birds were used, as they were the target of choice for the first Olympic shotgun events, but I assumed people went straight from birds to clays. I was also unaware of the etymology behind many of the terms used in shotgun sports, and I had never really thought to ask.

(Images were taken from the Trapshooting Hall of Fame's "A Look at Traps" gallery: http://www.traphof.org/a-look-at-traps.html)

Research Post No. 4: The Value of 4-H Shooting Programs

4-H is a nationwide youth organization that aims to help teach children life skills through an extensive variety of in-school and extracurricular programs, including, but certainly not limited to, community service projects, outdoor activities, career classes, and sports. In 2003, Sarah Jenke conducted a study for her Master's thesis, analyzing the impact that the shooting programs in the Texas branch of 4-H have on the State of Texas and its youth. Through a series of surveys in 1991 and 2002, in which several hundred youth, parents, and coaches, were asked to evaluate various aspects of the programs and their effectiveness, Jenke concluded that Texas 4-H shooting programs have a highly positive impact on their participants.

According to Jenke's study, “Impact of Texas 4-H Shooting Sports on Youth and the State,” participants in Texas' 4-H shooting programs demonstrate significant improvements in a host of ethical, social, and leadership skills, including having deeper respect for other people and the environment, willingness to teach and help guide others, taking responsibility for one's actions, the ability to work well with diverse groups, and the ability to set and take pride in accomplishing goals, to name a few. Furthermore, the study showed that relationships between parents and children improved with parent involvement, including better communication between parent and child, and more quality time spent together outside of the programs. Essentially, while the 4-H shooting programs do an excellent job of teaching firearm safety and sportsmanship, their real value lies in the life skills that they instill into participants, helping them prepare to function as effective members of society.

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I cannot recall exactly how I first came across this paper (as I found it several weeks ago, for use in a different assignment), but I was able to find it again by running a Google Scholar search for "impact 4-h shooting jenke," which yielded it as the first result; I would imagine I had searched for something similar the first time I came across it.

Jenke, Sarah Lynne. “Impact of Texas 4-H Shooting Sports on Youth and the State.” OAKTrust

Home, Texas A&M University, 9 Sept. 2004,

http://oaktrust.library.tamu.edu/handle/1969.1/252

I selected this paper because it specifically addresses one of the topics I wanted to cover in my continuing research on shotgun sports; while the study covers a variety of shooting programs, including archery, air rifle, target pistol and rifle, and hunting, the majority of the data came from shotgun programs. My existing knowledge of the 4-H programs was very limited; I knew that they existed, and that they are generally highly praised, but I never understood their purpose, other than to give kids something to be a part of, until now.

This paper would be considered a scholarly source, because it must have been reviewed and approved by Jenke's Master's committee before publication. Accordingly, the intended audience of the paper was most likely the committee alone, but I could see it also being useful as an argument for maintaining funding for 4-H programs (which is partially through federal grants), as a proof of their value. The primary purpose of the paper is to inform readers of the social and civil impacts of one component of the Texas 4-H programs, and as such, is written in a purely academic, matter-of-fact style; Jenke leaves out her personal feelings about the topic and sticks to empirical data.