Shotgun

How to play

Five shooters stand in a curved line behind a low building called the trap house. When it’s your turn, you call “pull,” and one clay flies out. It always goes away from you and climbs, but you never know if it will go left, right, or straight. You get one shot, and every clay you break is a point. After everyone has shot five times, the whole group moves one station to the right. Five stations with five shots each makes 25 targets, which is one round.

Where it came from

Trap started in England more than 200 years ago, when shooters fired at live pigeons let out of boxes called traps. Clay targets took their place around 1880, and trap has been in the Olympics since 1900.

How to play

Your group walks the course together and stops at each station. A card on the post tells you what’s coming, and you can watch the clays fly once before anyone shoots. Then you take turns stepping into the stand, calling “pull,” and shooting.

The clays usually come two at a time, and each station throws something different, like a bird crossing off the hill or a rabbit bouncing along the ground. Every broken clay is a point, and you add them up at the end of 50 or 100 targets. Sixteen stations wait along the ridge, and the map below shows the way.

Where it came from

Hunters in England built sporting clays in the early 1900s to practice on birds in flight. It reached the U.S. in the 1980s and grew fast. People call it golf with a shotgun.

The targets

• Standard. The regular clay.
• Midi and mini. Smaller and faster.
• Battue. Thin, and flies on its edge.
• Rabbit. Tough enough to bounce along the ground.

Pairs

• True pair. Both clays launch at once.
• Following pair. The second comes right after the first.
• Report pair. The second launches at the sound of your first shot.