forest and stream 
523 
Left to right: Fanning, Keller, Hammond, Ghapin Hill. Note That in Professional Squa d No. 4 is Ready to Call For His Target While 
ino. o is in the Act of Breaking His. 
» 
Through The Trap-Shooting Tournament Mill 
Here is an Article Written by an Authority Which Tells Any Gun Club How to Put On and Operate 
Both Local and State Tournaments-This Information is Worth Preserving. 
By Fred O. Copeland 
HOUGH his experience and 
likewise skill are of a very re¬ 
cent vintage, Mr. Trapshooter 
knows there is a natural pro¬ 
gression in affairs of trap¬ 
shooting, such as club shoot, 
tournament, registered tourna¬ 
ment and the pinnacle of any 
gun club s ambitions, the annual state tournament, 
commonly known as the “state shoot” by the 
faithful. Naturally enough, this is the most 
popular and well attended shoot of the year in 
each state for is it not here that two certain 
premier events are scheduled, the one, the team 
championship of the state, the other, the indi¬ 
vidual championship this year run under the title 
of “The Interstate Association’s State Amateur 
Championship” with its liberal reward to the 
winner if he will shoot at the Grand American 
Handicap. 
I have recently suffered the experience or to 
use the regular term managed a “state shoot” 
from the first mention of the words to barreling 
up the empty shells for sale and as one shoot 
is much like another I hope to lift the fog from 
questions that will rise before clubs which are 
contemplating a shoot of this magnitude for the 
first time. With luck on our side the ad¬ 
vantages are apparent, with ill-luck, the disad¬ 
vantages are distressingly pronounced. One may 
reason rightly that at such a shoot there are ab¬ 
normal inducements which are a powerful ad¬ 
vertisement in themselves, that the club treasury 
may be intrenched to a point that may “lift the 
mortgage,” insure fetching trophies for the future 
and open the eyes of the local citizens to the 
fact the gun club is pulling guests to their town. 
Failure seldom comes but may threaten from 
two causes. Poor advertising is one of them 
and this is hard to believe for the entrance fee 
of just one shooter will pay for 300 eight leaf 
programs. The other cause is foul weather and 
this keeping in mind that trapshooters can shed 
water gracefully. It can pour so hard, however, 
that it is impossible to carry on a tournament. 
great deal of harm can be done by a down¬ 
pour the afternoon before the opening day of 
the shoot. If you were one of a party to fill a 
motor car for a pleasant ride to the scene of the 
shoot you can well fancy the sinking spirits of 
that load of hopefuls each with his mental vision 
on the rain soaked barn yard hen under the 
dump-cart. It is safe to take a chance for no 
other reason than Steve did for the shoot can be 
properly aired and the weather has to be pretty 
bad to kill the undertaking. 
~et us say the way lies open for our club to 
obtain the state tournament and away back in 
the short days of Winter we will step in, one 
evening, to the solemn meeting of our gun club 
to decide the great question for even though the 
date fixed by custom for June is a long way off 
much has to be done in the interval. The secre¬ 
tary, the leading light of any gun club, is called 
on to let the cat out of the bag or in other 
words tell how to do it. He has searched his 
very soul as well as those of his acquaintances 
for every item of experience and has drawn up 
a list of expenses and estimated the receipts as 
far as human eye can see. He finds the rental 
of two automatic traps will cost but $5.00 and 
had his club already one installed the rent on 
two more for the shoot would be free and the 
freight for a haul across several states will be 
less than $5.00 for the two traps. The lumber 
for the trap houses will spoil another five dollar 
bill but the installation of the traps is a sur¬ 
prisingly short and not over laborious under¬ 
taking. A 40 x 60 ft. tent will tax us about 
$10.0 in rental, the club house will be none too 
large for the office, gun racks and storage of 
shooters equipment. There follows the fixed ex¬ 
penses, such as targets, and say $100.00 in real 
money, trophies, pullers, trap boys and scorers. 
The referee service will have to be volunteer, 
both local and foreign talent being pressed into 
service. In short, the secretary finds that thirty 
shooters shooting through the two day program 
of 400 targets will at least allow the club to 
break even and veteran shooters of the state 
guarantee this number if precedent is worth any¬ 
thing. A member arises and feels it is taking a 
chance and wants to know how far he will have 
to delve into his pocketbook should things- 
break bad. Some laughingly tell him he ought 
to have his head looked at and assure him the 
estimate has been carefully Ira n, that the club 
owes it to the good of the sport to put up a 
good shoot, the large majority in favor win 
and the meeting emerges from the cigar smoke 
with a hopeful smile and the secretary instructed 
to make application to the state league officers 
for the annual state tournament. 
The formal application is as formally accepted 
which in turn gives rise to yet more formal ap¬ 
plication to the Interstate Association to have 
the tournament registered and the application 
must be in before February 15th of the same 
year as the shoot to obtain the substantial bene¬ 
fits of the national organization. The green ap¬ 
plication blank is received and the pertinent part 
of the information required is the system of 
money division, the amount contributed by the 
club and manner applied, how the Interstate As¬ 
sociation’s money and trophies will be applied 
and the club must agree to use Interstate Asso¬ 
ciation rules, to give a page in the program to 
the Association and forward a program fifteen 
days before the shoot. We find our application 
has been forwarded in time to participate in the 
amount the Association has for disposal for 
state tournaments and with the registration cer¬ 
tificate tucked safely away we feel free in set¬ 
ting our shoulder for a good hard push for suc¬ 
cess. 
Right now is the time to dicker for the 
targets from the nearest shipping point and not 
over $4.35 per thousand. In quantities well over 
25,000 they can sometimes be bought at $4.25 
and a short haul will not lift the total cost 
much. An early delivery means a satisfied feel¬ 
ing and an interest on a loan to secure them is 
a small matter. Targets are a very liquid asset 
and many’s the merchant who would like to 
make 100% on his sales as is the case of the 
