How the sport of trap shooting really took off
Clay traps today are super-powerful, complex, remotely controlled and capable of throwing clays on many different flight patterns to simulate a variety of birds.
Their journey has been long and storied, from the earliest days of competitive shooting at captive birds placed under old top hats to modern Olympic disciplines, requiring faultless repetition. The invention and ingenuity of each age has always shaped the machinery.
In the beginning, there was live-pigeon trap shooting. Competitive as human beings are, boasts of who was the best shot demanded proof and the field was too random. It required a scenario in which multiple, repeated flying objects (captured birds) could be shot and a venue (usually behind a pub) where spectators could observe and bet on the outcome.
Given that the original clays were live birds, the original traps were containers from
