16 
FOREST AND STREAM 
How to Learn Trap Shooting 
A Few Chapters on How to become an Expert 
By Edward Banks. 
There are. strictly speaking, two classes of “be¬ 
ginners,” among those who start shooting at clay 
targets thrown from traps, and these two classes 
are about as widely different as they could pos¬ 
sibly be. 
One class (and quite a large one) is made up 
of field shots, more or less expert, men accus¬ 
tomed to and skilled in the handling of a shot¬ 
gun. From the ranks of such have come most 
of the best professional trap shots in the world, 
men who have made wonderful records and 
demonstrated what hand and eye can do when 
backed up by perfection in gun and ammunition. 
With a beginner of this class but few hints are 
necessary, and only comparatively small space 
will be devoted to his requirements later on. 
With the other class, however, the beginner 
pure and simple—the man, woman or child who 
perhaps has never had a gun in hand before, 
much has to be learned before the “novice” 
graduates and becomes an “expert.” In this 
class are many town and city-bred men, who 
have all the qualifications so far as hand and eye 
are concerned, who may excel or hold their own 
with others at billiards, tennis, etc., but who have 
never had an opportunity to become acquainted 
with a gun. Given the chance, and the necessary 
amount of practice, there is no reason why they 
should not find places high up in the ranks of 
the experts. 
Choosing a Gun. 
The first and most important step along the 
road to success in trap shooting is the choice of 
a gun—not so much its make, but its fitness for 
the work it will have to do. Clay targets are 
small objects to aim at, and unlike game birds 
and animals, have no wingbones or legs to break 
and put them out of commission. A clay target 
must be hit solidly, and With several pellets of 
shot, if it is to be counted on the score sheet. In 
the field a wounded bird or animal can often be 
retrieved and put in the game sack after having 
been only lightly hit; but a clay target, even 
when “dusted” heavily, cannot be retrieved and 
counted on the score sheet. Hence a close-shoot¬ 
ing gun, one full choke, is a necessity if ultimate 
success at the traps is desired. 
Experience has taught that a 12-gauge gun, 
weighing in the neighborhood of 7% or 7% lbs., 
is the right thing for trap work. Guns of lighter 
weight give too heavy a recoil even with the 
moderate load of three drams of a “bulk” powder 
(or 24 grains o»f a “dense” powder) and 1% oz. 
of chilled shot. Nothing puts a man to the bad 
when trap shooting so quickly and so completely 
as heavy recoil (or “kick”). 
Select, therefore, for trap work a 12-gauge gun, 
about 7% lbs. in weight, and either a single-shot, 
a repeater or a double-barrel, for all these guns 
have their firm adherents, and no one style seems 
to be much more preferable than another, except, 
of course, that doubles cannot be shot with a 
single-shot gun. 
Another very important point to remember 
when' selecting a gun is to be sure that it has 
what is known as a “straight” stock; that is, one 
that has not too much “drop”* to it. Formerly 
guns were made with considerable drop to them, 
but the growth of trap shooting and the experi¬ 
ence it has brought show that, at the traps at 
least (and we are now dealing with that branch 
of sport with a shotgun) the stock of a gun 
should be straight. For a beginner we would 
recommend a gun with a drop of 1% to 1% inches 
at the “comb” and 2 to 2% inches at the “heel.” 
Some experts use even straighter stocks, but it 
is better for a beginner to select -one within the 
dimensions suggested. If it turns out to be too 
straight, it is quite an easy matter for a gun¬ 
smith (or the owner od the gun himself for that 
matter) to tinker with it, shaving it down to what 
he finds to be the drop best suited to his use. 
The thickness of the stock is another matter 
to be considered. As a general proposition it 
may be said that a thin-faced man does not re¬ 
quire as thin a stock, that is, thin at the comb, 
as one who has plump cheeks; in other words, 
a man who has a thin face would probably shoot 
better with a thick, well-rounded comb than he 
would if the stock were thin, or wedge-shaped 
at the comb. He would also be much less likely 
to have his cheek punished by the recoil. The 
idea is, of course, that when a man puts his gun 
to his shoulder, drops his cheek against the stock 
and looks along the barrel, he should find that 
he is looking straight down the rib to the sight. 
If he is not doing so, then he is liable to “cross 
shoot” at any time, and his gun cannot be said 
to fit him, and the stock must be altered to suit. 
The length of the stock is another very im¬ 
portant feature to be considered when selecting 
a gun. This length depends upon the length of 
the gunner’s arm, and naturally a long-armed 
man would need, and should have, a longer stock 
than a short-armed man. The length of the 
stock is measured from the front trigger in a 
straight line to the center of the butt. 
A rough-and-ready, but still fairly accurate 
way of finding out whether your gunstock fits 
you, is to place the gun to your shoulder and put 
your finger naturally on the trigger as if about 
to pull it. Then, still keeping your finger on the 
trigger, take the gun from your shoulder and let 
the butt rest in the hollow of your arm, the 
muzzle pointing upward. If no readjustment 
of the position of the finger on the trigger, or of 
the hand on the grip are required, it is presump¬ 
tive evidence that your gunstock fits you, so far 
as its length is concerned. 
The trigger pull is still another point to be 
considered, and is really perhaps as important 
as any when success at the trap is to be attained. 
Pull is the term applied to the weight in pounds 
avoirdupois which, if attached to the trigger 
when the gun is cocked and held perpendicularly, 
would cause the trigger to be pulled and the ham¬ 
mer to fall. No hard and fast rule as to just 
what is the proper pull can be advanced, but as 
a general rule a pull from 4 to 4V2 lbs. may be 
considered satisfactory and can be recommended. 
Every gunsmith has a spring scale specially made 
for the purpose of ascertaining and registering 
the pull of a trigger. It is a simple contrivance 
with a hook to fasten on the trigger to be tested; 
the scale is then slowly pulled back in a straight 
line parallel with the barrel of the gun, until the 
pulling-off point is reached and the trigger is 
pulled, whereupon the spring is allowed to slip 
back, leaving a pointer showing the exact num¬ 
ber of pounds and ounces required to pull the 
trigger under investigation. 
It will be seen from the foregoing that the 
main essentials to be observed in selecting a gun 
for trap shooting are close shooting qualities, 
weight, drop, thickness of stock, length and trig¬ 
ger pull. All these really depend on the indi¬ 
viduality of the person selecting the gun; in 
other words, the gun must fit the shooter, or he 
cannot expect to do much more than fair work, 
no matter how hard he may practice. An ill- 
fitting coat is not only awkward to wear, but 
hampers the movements of the wearer; and an 
ill-fitting gun is just as awkward to handle and 
won’t “point right” in the hand of a novice. An 
expert can do fair work with a gun that does 
not fit him, simply because he knows how to 
shoot targets, and soon learns how to hold the 
gun, whether under or over the targets; but a 
beginner would be hopelessly at sea under 
similar conditions. 
An excellent plan for a beginner to adopt with 
reference to getting a gun to suit him, is to try 
any gun about the right length of stock (this 
based, as stated before, on his length of arm) 
that his friends will loan him temporarily for 
such trial. Sooner or later he will find one with 
which he can do better than with others, and thus 
has a basis to go on. Sometimes a beginner picks 
one up that happens to be just right, and the 
trick is more than half turned. 
Another pointer for the beginner to remember 
is to have no hesitation in asking the advice of 
an expert, particularly one of the expert profes¬ 
sionals, for the latter are always expected and 
indeed are glad to give advice on just such 
points, and any suggestions they may have to of¬ 
fer will be found as a rule to be of much benefit. 
Any good field shot should with but little prac¬ 
tice make a first-class trap shot. The thing that 
bothers him at first is the idea of holding the 
gun right up or close to the shoulder when call¬ 
ing “Pull.” It is unnatural to him, and at first 
probably strikes him as unsportsmanlike. He 
tries the up-to-the-shoulder game and finding it 
a new and strained position to him, fails miser¬ 
ably instead of “breaking them all,” which he 
had expected to find a simple operation, as it 
looks so easy. He then reverts to the gun-below 
the-elbow (field style), and the targets get away 
from him so fast he has to hurry up to catch 
them, which he does not do in a very large per¬ 
centage df instances. Unless such a man has 
grit and determination to find out how it is done 
he quits right there, and a good man is lost to 
the sport of trap shooting. 
If however the same man will jus't sit down and 
figure things out a bit, there will be a different 
tale to be told in the very near future. He will 
