Trap and Skeet Are Complementary
Many of us have heard something like, “Skeet targets always fly in the same place, so skeet is easier” or “Trap is just so boring.” Another saying goes like this. “Trap is easier to learn and harder to master than skeet.” There are many people that try to show that their sport is better than another one, but I believe that if it’s with a shotgun, it’s fun and that it takes a level of skill to be proficient at whichever sport it is.
I have shot most of the clay target sports at one time or another. I call myself a ‘homeless bunker shooter,’ as that was a game that I most enjoyed other than skeet and sometimes American trap. The reason I use ‘homeless’ is that there isn’t a bunker trap I’m aware of within a two-hour drive of Tulsa where I moved about a dozen years ago. For many years I was a cross-shooter (please don’t tell my mother). Yes, I shot both trap and skeet at a point in my shooting life when I was breaking a good score in both sports at the same time. But I digress; this hint is about the complementary nature of skeet and trap.
When I would have students of trap that were having a difficult time hitting hard right or hard left targets, I’d take them to a skeet field and teach them to shoot high 2 or low 6. This always helped their trap shooting, and it sometimes made them like skeet shooting, too. Conversely, when I’d have new skeet shooters that were having a difficult time with one target or another, I’d take them to a trap field, lock the machine in place, and teach them how to hit targets from all five stations before returning to the skeet field. This seemed to get their minds focused on seeing and breaking the targets.
The two games are complementary in that both games have moving targets, and you must look at the target in both sports in order to see them hit. Both games have hold points, look points, and foot positions that make it easier to hit the targets and to follow through. In both games, gun fit, mount, and stance are important. Both games take a high level of concentration.
The main difference between the games is the distance at which you shoot the targets and their flight paths. In trap, the targets are always flying away from you so you have a similar look at the target at all five stations. I say similar, as they never seem to fly in the same place twice, and as you change stations the angles are different. Also, trap machines for American trap have an ‘interrupter’ that makes it difficult, if not impossible, to know which way the next target will be thrown. In skeet you have more severe angles than in trap. Skeet also has going-away targets, some incoming targets and several crossing targets. There are some similar and some different presentations in the two games. In competitions, trap shooters also shoot three games, singles (16-yard), handicap and doubles, while skeet is two events, which I call ‘regular’ and doubles.
Some skeet shooters seem to think that shooting 200 targets in a day is tiresome, but trap shooters will shoot 300 targets per day if they shoot all three of their events. When I attended trap shoots, I would shoot all three, and I was wiped out by the time we finished a single day’s shooting. Sometimes trap shoots have the same format two days in a row, and that is a lot of work — fun, but still work. A gentleman I used to shoot with, Roman Warren, was in one trap shoot where he shot a thousand targets in a shoot-off after two days of shooting. That’s a lot of work.
The next time you have a chance to shoot either trap or skeet, do it. You’ll find that they are both fun and that either one can improve your shooting skills if you concentrate.
Barry Hartmann is an NSSA Master Level and NRA Certified shotgun instructor who can help you improve your skills at American skeet and wingshooting. To contact Barry, email him at threeat8@aol.com or give him a call at 918-803-2393.
