"Personal Use"

Are you trying to hone your shooting skills? Maybe in your backyard or on a piece of property with some friends.  These traps are designed with the individual and small group shooter in mind.  They are affordable, yet rugged enough to handle everyday usage.  They are also excellent entry level traps for small clubs that are moving from manual traps. 

Recommended traps for personal use:

Champion Easy Bird     Champion Easybird Doubles  Champion Six Packer  

Champion SST    Champion 180 Sporter    Champion SST Rabbit 

Atlas Patriot   Atlas AT50     Atlas AT250

Laporte TAH 85 PRO

Due//matic Single Stack

Skeet Shooting

In 1920, an upland hunter named Charles Davies set up a small shooting course to practice the shots he had missed on his hunts. The original course was a circle with a radius of 25 yards with its circumference marked off like the face of a clock and a trap set at the 12 o’clock position. Two shots were fired from each of the 12 stations and the final, 25th shot, included because a box of cartridges contained 25 shells, was taken from the center of the circle. The practice of shooting from all directions had to cease, however, when a chicken farm started next door. One of the shooters, William Foster, solved the problem by placing a second trap at the 6 o’clock position and cutting the course in half. Foster quickly noticed the appeal of this kind of competition shooting, and set out to make it a national sport. The game was introduced in the February 1926 issue of National Sportsman and Hunting and Fishing magazines and a prize of 100 dollars was offered to anyone who could come up with a name for the new sport. Out of more than 10,000 ideas received, “Skeet” - an old Scandinavian form of the word “shoot” - was chosen. The modern skeet field is a half-circle with two trap houses: the “high house” on the shooter’s left, and the “low house” on the right. Eight stations are arrayed around the circle’s curve, each with a specific set of shots to be made. Squads of five shooters fire from each of the stations. The traditional 25th shot, called an “option,” is taken at the time of the first miss, or after 24 consecutive broken targets and may be taken from any position on the field.

Traps recommended for Skeet:

Champion Model Sk                        Laporte 185 Skeet Pair          

Beomat MS                                   Pat Trap Skeet

Promatic Skeet

Trap Shooting

Trap shooting began around 1850 when groups of hunters would compete at shooting small, feather-filled glass balls thrown by hand. This grew in popularity, and Adam Bogardu invented the first catapult to launch these balls at shooting shows. This early launcher was termed a “ball trap,” and gained fame when it was used in events such as Buffalo Bill’s “Wild West Show.” The glass ball remained in use until the first flat clay target, called a “clay pigeon,” was introduced around 1880. The trap shooting field consists of five stations arranged in a tight semi-circle behind the trap house, which throws clays in a random pattern within a 44 degree horizontal arc. The term “station” is a little misleading, because each station is really a path with distances marked on it from 16 to 27 yards. There are three common events in trap shooting: Singles, Handicap and Doubles. Shooters in the Singles event shoot from the closest distance (16 yards) and break clays that are thrown one at a time. Handicap is played much the same as Singles, except that the shooters are positioned at various distances depending on their level of skill. In Doubles, two clays are launched at once and shot from 16 yards. For more information on trap shooting, visit the ATA (Amateur Trapshooting Association) online at www.shootata.com

Traps recommended for Trap Shooting

Champion Model ATA Wobble       Champion AT Singles       Champion ATDII Doubles

Laporte 185 TAHLB                   Laporte 185 TALB       Laporte 2000 Doubles

Lincoln AW2002                 

Beomat MT, MJT and WDT

Atlas AT 400 Wobble and 3 Axis Wobble

Sporting Clays

Developed in England in the 18th Century, sporting clays initially used live pigeons as targets (leading to the use of the term “trap” for any launcher
of targets). The birds were eventually replaced by feather filled glass balls. This remained the dominant target until around 1880 when George Ligowski developed the first baked clay target. The increasing interest in the sport and the versatility of the new target led to the development of many shooting schools. These schools adapted Ligowski’s invention for use on practice ranges that simulated the flight of live quarry. Despite its growing popularity in England, it wasn’t until the 1980’s that the game officially arrived in America. Designed to simulate true field shooting, the difference between sporting clays and other shooting sports is the flight of the targets. As with live animals, the paths taken by the clays are unpredictable; they may come through trees, low to the ground, high overhead, quartering, outgoing, incoming, turning left or right, etc. The course is laid out in natural surroundings and organized into stations, numbering anywhere from five to 14, with each station using different types of targets to represent a specific type or combination of game. For more information on sporting clays, visit the NSCA (National Sporting Clays Association) online at www.mynsca.com

Traps Recommended for Sporting Clays

Atlas AT400

Due//Matic Compact 8

Champion Model SC     Champion Model SC Rabbit

Laporte 185 PC          Laporte 185 Rabbit               Laporte Battue

Laporte Midi (90mm)     Laporte Mini (60mm)

Lincoln AS2002           Lincoln AR2002

Promatic