Olympic Trap Shooting

The first ever Olympic trap shooting event was held in the 1900 Olympics program. However, the current version of this shooting sport was officially introduced in the year 1950. Since then, this particular shooting sport has earned massive popularity and techniques are even utilized by hunters during their hunting expeditions due to the sheer accuracy when hitting targets.

Since the introduction of this sport, several Olympic trap shooting events have been included in various competitions, such as the ISSF shooting events and the ATA/PITA trap shooting competitions. This has also helped increase the number of participants to this recreational sport and the number continues to increase with each passing year.

General Mechanics

In Olympic trap shooting, each round goes as follows. There are 6 shooters positioned at their respective stations. The 6th shooter will start off at a holding station with the 1st shooter directly behind him. At the first round, test firing is done with the permission of the referee.

Once the start signal has been launched, the first shooter will be given 10 seconds to try and hit the target. Once the first shooter has fired, he must wait for the second shooter to finish firing before he can move onto the next station. Thus, the 6th shooter has to move to the first station, and so forth. This process is continued on until the round is completed.

There is usually one person on the line to serve as referee. A bicycle-type of horn is used for signaling the shooters when they are ready to start a firing round.

Rules on Guns

All of the guns between stations 1 until 5 are loaded but open-auctioned. However, each shooter must unload the gun then walk back for each station in a series of rotations. It is important that each shooter must unload before they step into the station. It is for this same reason that the use of auto-loading shotguns are not permitted in Olympic trap shooting.

Each of the shooting stands will be facing a trench wherein all 15 traps are concealed from the view of the shooters. These traps are grouped into 5 with 3 traps for each group. Once the traps are launched, each shooter will take a turn in attempting to shoot the target. To make it easier, the shooter is the one to make the call as to when the target should be launched. The target is dependent on a specific shooting scheme to ensure equal target selection for all shooters.