Now that 2012 Olympic tickets are on sale, interest will start to rise in the shooting disciplines – and at ShootClay, we want to make sure that we have you covered – so we’ll be posting a series outlining the three shotgun disciplines that will be featured in London – and explaining some of the rules.
Olympic Trap (often shortened to just ‘trap’) consists of 6 shooters competing at a time – a trench, 15 meters in fron of the shooting line conceals 15 traps arranged in in 5 groups of 3. The traps are set to fire going away birds to a distance of 76 meters at varying elevations and with a maximum horizontal angle of 45 degrees either side of the center line. Shooters take tunes to shoot a target each, and then move along the shooting line – a shooting pattern is in place to ensure that all competitors shoot exactly the same birds – but in a randomised order.
Olympic Trap Overview – Click to Enlarge
The scoring is based on 1 point per kill – but shooters have full use of the gun, so can score the point regardless of whether the kill is with the first or second shot from the gun. Mens trap consists of 125 birds, with a 25 bird shoot-off for the best shooters. Women shoot 75 + 25.
A full guide to the rules of Olympic trap is available on the ISSF website.
Olympic Trap shooting is said to be one of the hardest disciplines – due to the speed and acceleration of the birds, and the distance they have to be hit at.
The current mens Olympic Champion is Dabid Kostelecky from the Czech Republic, the Womens title is held by Satu Makela-Nummela from Finland.
In 2012 – the Trap finals will be held at the Royal Artillery Barracks in London on the 4th, 5th and 6th of August. Full schedule is here. Ticket details are here.
