Trap Shooting

OPEN TO THE PUBLIC

Shooters always welcome!
Any of our Member Trap Shooters will be more than glad to help explain our Safety Rules and Trap Shooting techniques and pointers.

New shooters are required to sign the Manville Sportsmen’s Rod & Gun Club Waiver form, demonstrate firearm proficiency, and qualify before shooting on a regular trap line. New shooters should stop by and talk to the range officers first. They will be happy to help you get started and answer all questions.

Contact: John Chartier – jac1jac2@verizon.net

DATES

Sundays* – (*Except: On some holidays and on Sundays when there is a monthly club meeting. Please check our Facebook Page for details).
Sign-up from 9:00 a.m. until 10:30 a.m. – Shooting Starts at 9:30 a.m.
– Upper Trap Field

Wednesdays – Sign-up from 4:30 p.m. until 6:00 p.m. – Shooting Starts at 5:00 p.m.
– March thru October – Lower Trap Field
– November thru February – Upper Trap Field

FEES

Members: $3.50 per 25 shot round
Non Members: $4.00 per 25 shot round
Juniors: $3.00 per 25 shot round

Our Equipment:

PAT-TRAP® Automatic Doubles Machine with Wobble.
CANTERBURY® Wireless Voice Release System.
High Output Flood Lights for Wed evenings
Well maintained Club House on each Trap Field with wood burning stove.

Background Information

Trap shooting is one of the three major forms of competitive clay pigeon shooting (shotgun shooting at clay targets). The others are Skeet shooting and sporting clays. The sport is in some ways a replacement for a game where the targets were live pigeons. Indeed, one of the names for the clay targets used in shooting games is clay pigeons. The layout of modern trap shooting is different from skeet shooting in that there is only one house that releases targets and the shooters only move through 5 different positions.

Trap shooting has been a sport since at least 1793 when it used real birds, usually the Passenger Pigeon, which was extremely abundant at the time. Fake birds were introduced around the time of the American Civil War as the Passenger Pigeon was nearing extinction and sufficient numbers were not reliably available. Clay targets were introduced in the 1880’s.