Olympic trap shooting sweeping everybody

M

Metal god

New member
I was just watching the Olympics and the competitors are sweeping everybody . I guess when you’re in competition , safety goes out the window. Guns pointed at the crowd , guns pointed at the competitor, pointed at the official. Yes they’re clearly unloaded, but I still it was my understanding you don’t ever have a gun point at anybody for any reason.

I only bring this up because of the Alec Baldwin thing and everybody’s saying you never point a gun at somebody so these Olympians are quite unsafe ! lol
 
a shotgun range is not a rifle pistol range.
the olympics isnt a 1st timer 4h class where kids blow their toes off.
trust me...the right people are watching those shooters.
action open...end of story.
 
Yes, the actions were always open. Wife and I were watching and we couldn’t see the birds. Finally I was picking up the puffs of the bird being broken. I kept staring at the trap house and finally saw a few birds come out. They were traveling extremely fast, a lot quicker than at my local trap range. The gold medalist set a new record breaking 48 out of 50. I was surprised no one had ever broken 50 out of 50. They mentioned the contestants had done 50/50 in world competition, just not the Olympics. In club competitions I’ve been to guys are breaking 100 out of 100. The Olympic game must be slightly different. Now try watching 10 meter air rifle, that’s like watching paint dry.
 
The Olympic game is different

Trap at the Olympics and ATA (American) trap has many differences. Not an expert by any stretch, I believe the Olympic game is FITASC and it is a different game. Far more difficult IMO.
 
International Trap is considerably different from ATA, and harder.
It is properly shot over the "trench" with three traps at each of the five stands. Each of the 15 traps is set for a different angle, horizontal AND vertical. Traps are programmed so everybody gets the same targets, but not in the same order.

Targets are faster, too.
You do get two shots - except in Finals - but top shooters hardly ever need the second. Once upon a time, it was usual to fire the second shot at a piece of the target so as to preserve the second shot reflex but nobody that I have seen in videos does that any more.

There are 5 stands but 6 shooters on the squad, you change stands every shot and no. 6 has moved from stand 5 to wait at stand 1.

So a 25 straight in ISSF is probably less common than a 100 straight in ATA.
 
The shotgun sports, in large part, have an elitist mentality. A lot of folks shoot break actions so they can be lazy with muzzle control. I don't say that to be mean. I consider Derrick to be a friend and I've shot with him. I even got up early to watch.

BUT, as a coach of a HS shotgun team, I hammer safety into them. We don't allow the muzzle to rest on feet, and we require strict muzzle awareness. Many of the youth shotgun sports leagues are working to rectify the lack of safety in the shotgun sports.

So a 25 straight in ISSF is probably less common than a 100 straight in ATA.
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Absolutely.
 
The shotgun sports, in large part, have an elitist mentality.
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I've seen this in action. Many years ago I applied for membership at a range that was fairly close to where I live. They claimed to support all firearms sport--but the membership was primarily rich people with very expensive custom fancy shotguns, so the majority of what they did was trap and skeet. But I was willing to jump through their hoops to have a place to shoot. In order to be accepted into their fold, I had to be voted in--and that required coming out and volunteering to help work events, go to several meetings to be interviewed and answer their questions. After all that I could apply and pay their pretty hefty fees.

My first volunteer event was a shotgun event and I helped feed the clay throwers. These events were timed and it was hard to predict where the clays would be thrown. While the clays were always thrown up in the air--they still routinely swept the direction of the sidelines where people were not restricted from entering. I decided then and there no way I wanted to be part of that and declined any further involvement with them.
 
Yes, the actions were always open. Wife and I were watching and we couldn’t see the birds. Finally I was picking up the puffs of the bird being broken. I kept staring at the trap house and finally saw a few birds come out. They were traveling extremely fast, a lot quicker than at my local trap range. The gold medalist set a new record breaking 48 out of 50. I was surprised no one had ever broken 50 out of 50. They mentioned the contestants had done 50/50 in world competition, just not the Olympics. In club competitions I’ve been to guys are breaking 100 out of 100. The Olympic game must be slightly different. Now try watching 10 meter air rifle, that’s like watching paint dry.
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International bunker targets are slightly larger, and thicker because they travel 50% faster than American trap

Not an expert by any stretch, I believe the Olympic game is FITASC and it is a different game. Far more difficult IMO.
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No, FITASC is a very different game than Olympic trap[ it is more appropriately called European Sporting mandating a low gun. A Parcour is 25 targets; either 4 (100 targets) or 8 (200 targets) make up a tournament

Here are the rules for Sporting - which we in the US call FITASC; the regular sporting here is the UK version - much different

OOPS! Left out the link:
https://www.fitasc.com/upload/images/reglements/2024_rglt_pc_eng_20240301.pdf
 
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The shotgun sports, in large part, have an elitist mentality.
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Not even close to true; are there some folks who act a tad snobby? Yep, just like in rifle and pistol competitions; as well as racing, and any other competitive sport. Most folks shooting shotguns do it for fun and as practice for hunting; I can't the same for those rifle folks shooting 1000 yard targets
 
There is community of trap shooters at our club. The match is open to all. But they don't seem to be delighted when I brought my pump gun.

The trap range overlaps with the rifle range. When people need to go down range, both ranges go cold and guns are to be racked. They sometimes think high ready is adequate. I had to get the head RSO involved a couple times. I just choose not to overlap with them if I don't have to.

-TL

Sent from my SM-N960U using Tapatalk
 
FITASC said:
Whose bright idea was to overlap those two regimens?
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Lack of land. No choice. We are behind enemy line in CA.

Maybe that's where the snob came from. The trap range was built first. The 100yd rifle range was added next to it. It is not a lot of overlap. The rifle target zone is just in the line of fire from the shotgun, something like 75yd out.

-TL

Sent from my SM-N960U using Tapatalk
 
I was just watching the Olympics and the competitors are sweeping everybody.
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Yeah, it's not an ideal situation, but with the gun unloaded and the gun "broken open", it's pretty much an inert piece of metal and can be verified as such with a glance, even from a distance. Quite a different situation even from an unloaded firearm with the bolt removed or the action locked open.

If I were making the rules, I would place more emphasis on muzzle control, or maybe require some kind of chamber flags when the gun is being handled away from the line, but it's not that hard to understand why things are the way they are.
 
Think of what king of people make the rules. Hell they're letting guys boxing with girls. Smart people.
 
JohnKSa said:
Yeah, it's not an ideal situation, but with the gun unloaded and the gun "broken open", it's pretty much an inert piece of metal and can be verified as such with a glance, even from a distance. Quite a different situation even from an unloaded firearm with the bolt removed or the action locked open.

If I were making the rules, I would place more emphasis on muzzle control, or maybe require some kind of chamber flags when the gun is being handled away from the line, but it's not that hard to understand why things are the way they are.
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Agree.

What I teach the kids on the shotgun team is that the 4 Laws of Gun Safety don't have an asterisk for the clay sports. You either follow the 4 Laws of Gun Safety and are a responsible and considerate gun owner OR you are not. There is no middle ground. Complacency in one discipline can lead to a disaster in another.
 
Teaching young kids is one thing; dealing with professionals with decades of experience is another. A break open gun is perfectly safe when broken open
 
FITASC said:
Teaching young kids is one thing; dealing with professionals with decades of experience is another. A break open gun is perfectly safe when broken open
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Thankfully, not everyone shares that cavalier attitude. Many ranges are starting to reel in the muzzle control issues. And, FWIW, the last case I was retained on, as an expert, was a 40 year clay shooter with a break open shotgun who blew off his friends hand. No one knows how the shell got in there.
 
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