Shotgun Sports facts for kids
Shotgun Sports are exciting competitions where people use shotguns to hit targets. These targets are usually made of clay and are thrown into the air. There are different types of shotgun sports, and each one has its own special rules and ways of throwing the targets. The main goal is always to break the clay target!
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Discover Sporting Clays
Sporting Clays is a fun shotgun sport where you walk through a special course. This course usually has ten different spots, called "stations." At each station, two clay targets are thrown. Sometimes they are thrown at the same time (a "true pair"), or one is thrown, and then the second is thrown when you shoot your gun (a "report pair"). Your score in Sporting Clays is usually out of 100 targets.
Learn About Trap Shooting
Trap is another popular clay target event. In a game of Trap, you try to hit 25 targets. A full Trap competition often includes four games, meaning you shoot at 100 targets in total. In this game, a team of five shooters stands in a line behind a small building called a "trap house." Inside the trap house, a machine throws a clay target out in a random direction when someone calls "pull." To make the game harder, shooters can stand farther away from the trap house.
How Skeet Shooting Works
Skeet shooting is a fast-paced event where you move around a semi-circle field. Like Trap, a Skeet game also involves 25 targets. A typical Skeet competition has four games. There are eight different shooting spots, or "stations," on the field.
On one side of the field, there's a tall building called the "high house." On the other side, there's a shorter building called the "low house."
- At stations 1, 2, 6, and 7, you shoot at a single target from the high house, a single target from the low house, and then two targets at the same time (a "double").
- At stations 3, 4, and 5, you shoot at one target from the high house and one from the low house.
- Station 8 is right in the middle of the high and low houses. Here, you first face the high house and shoot a target. Then, you quickly turn to face the low house and shoot another target.
This adds up to 24 targets. The 25th target is called the "option." If you miss any target during the game, you get to shoot that same target again as your option. But if you hit all 24 targets without missing, you shoot a second low single target at station 8 to complete your perfect score of 25!
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