Olympic trap shooting sweeping everybody

At a distance, it is sometimes difficult to tell whether a shooter with a firearm has the action locked back when he or she is walking around with it.
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And why Beretta developed the UGB Excel - a break open semi which would make it legal in European competitions. Got to shoot one, nice gun, seemed to be a cross between the Double Auto and a Cosmi.
As to the comment about break open guns being elitist; no, they are more practical and easier to see if they are in a safe condition, and for sporting clays, FITASC, Helice, bunker, etc; the ability to have two different choke constrictions can be very handy
 
I do think mixed drinks and food are a bad idea due to the amount of airborne lead and gsr. I can see a club where you change into your shooting clothes, shoot a few rounds of clays, etc….then come back to the clubhouse, shower and change back into clubhouse clothes, might be appropriate to have a cocktail lounge and food service with guns kept at a secured coat check, etc.
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I managed to finagle the wife into letting me go to Argentina last year for dove and pigeons. We had wine and beer with lunch in the field (grilled pigeon is EXCELLENT), and then we had a break for either sitting around or taking a siesta before going out for the afternoon shooting. No safety issues at all. Blinds were separate enough distance not so much for safety, but to allow everyone to have a lot of shots at those pesky critters.
 
discharging into the ground is better than blowing a head off
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Well they make leather toe guards specifically so you can rest that muzzle on your shoe and not have have do any damage to your shoe (and I know YOU know that ;))
 
stuckinthe60s said:
and...of course one must ask.....how can a gun go off with the finger off the trigger?
teach THAT and a gun wont go off, even loaded.
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Then there is the dreaded tubular magazine explosion I witnessed on our range about 14 years ago.

The shooter used a 357 magnum Henry Golden Boy lever action offhand in the standing field position. I don't know whether he was shooting factory ammo or handloads.

He suffered shrapnel wounds to his left inner forearm and abdomen. He drove himself to the hospital and I never saw him at the range again. I forgot to get his range badge number while the RSO was a quarter mile away at the other range house during the incident.
 
i know it.
but 4h feels toe rests are dangerous. why....because stupid kids rest loaded guns on them with their fingers on the trigger, and when they pick up the gun, they blow their toes off.
so now....all of us are all stupid kids and treated as such.
 
An open O/U is just as safe as a bolt gun with the bolt open, a semi-auto with the slide locked back or a revolver with the cylinder open.

BUT… I dont want any of those pointed at me in that configuration!! And id get down right vocal if somebody at the range did so.

Treat every gun as if its loaded
Dont let the muzzle cover ANYTHING you're not willing to destroy

Hmmm, those sound familiar? I dont recall any of the basic safety rules saying something like “Unless you are on a skeet field”. Or “ Unless you know what youre doing”.
 
44caliberkid said:
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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In 2012 at the London Olympics I watched Michael Diamond of Australia break 125 out of 125 in trap qualifying, setting an Olympic record. Then just to show how much pressure affects Olympic events, he proceeded to miss 5 out of the next 25 in the finals and finished fourth.

Sounds like the format has changed since then.
 
International targets are a little bigger (110 vs 108) and a little heavier due to a thicker rim to withstand the forces from being thrown 50% faster than standard American trap; same for International skeet.
 
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The Brit who got the gold in men's individual trap in Paris broke the current Olympic record by about 5 birds. He got 48 out of 50 in the finals.
 
what makes a skeet/trap range different is that the firing line is always changing. o&u's get broken and muzzle is in front pointing down.
pumps and semis get pulled back/opened and carried down.
it is impossible to walk from station to station with the bbl always downrange.
its a given fact.
so, shooters do their best to avoid sweeping anyone. the ones that usually p-their pants are rifle/pistol visitors who are not familiar with this practice. thus why.....tv sofa shooters get all hot and bothered when they see it.
 
Especially for machine guns, a cook-off round from a hot barrel is always a possibility.
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Not really "always" a possibility. Guns that fire from the open bolt pretty much prevent that. For the rest, its a training issue.

it is impossible to walk from station to station with the bbl always downrange.
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This part has me baffled, I'm not a trap shooter, and cannot imagine any situation where it is impossible to point the barrel downrange. Inconvenient, yes, but impossible????

Can you explain?
 
This part has me baffled, I'm not a trap shooter, and cannot imagine any situation where it is impossible to point the barrel downrange. Inconvenient, yes, but impossible????

Can you explain?
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At some point you will be passing behind other shooters as you change stations.
 
I'm not arguing that the rules are great the way they are.

You asked why it wasn't possible to keep the muzzles downrange at all times. The reason is that you will point the gun at competitors at some point when changing positions if you keep the muzzle downrange at all times.

If you want to know why the rulemakers at some time in the past decided it was ok to open the action and mostly ignore muzzle control as opposed to keeping the muzzles pointed straight up when they can't be pointed downrange, that is a different question and I don't have an answer for that.
 
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At some point you will be passing behind other shooters as you change stations
Ok, so when that is about to happen, wouldn't it be proper to point the muzzle UP and downrange??
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If your gun is broken open (like a good single shot trap gun or a double gun) it is not a problem and never has been.
Bunker shooters shoot one shot and then change stations. While there are 5 shooting stations, there are 6 shooters on the squad to keep things moving along. In International competition (where two shots per target are allowed,) semis are prohibited for the reasons this thread is talking about
 
Snobs and elitists eh?

Yep, plenty of those in this thread for sure. One rule just about always holds true, the less they know about something the more they think they know.
 
I disagree; just because other societies do things differently, doesn't they're wrong and we are right in how it's done. Euro clubs offer food and adult beverages at the clubs and at driven shoots in the field. No issues; American shooters seem to be the ones with all sorts of paranoia; then again, some folks know their abilities and some don't. Neither makes anyone a snob or elitist.
 
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