Clay Shooting

Clay shooting covers the shotgun sports in which shooters break clay targets thrown into the air by machines called traps. The targets are discs about 11 centimetres (4¼ inches) across, and every hit is easy to see: the clay breaks.

The main forms

• Trap: targets are thrown away from the shooter, from a trap house in front of them. The Shotgun page explains how trapshooting works.
• Skeet: targets cross in front of the shooter from two houses, one high and one low, while the shooter moves around a half circle of stations.
• Sporting clays: often called golf with a shotgun. Shooters walk a course of stations, each set up to imitate a different flight: rising, crossing, dropping or rolling along the ground.

Trap and skeet are both Olympic events.

Safety

Everyone on the range wears eye and ear protection. Guns stay open and unloaded until it is your turn on the station, and you load only when you are ready to call for your target.