Trap Shooting - Etiquette and Practices

Etiquette and Practices

Trap etiquette is expected and practiced more fully during official and competitive events, but, to a lesser extent, also during informal shooting. American Trapshooting, more so than other shooting disciplines, including Olympic "international" trap, develops a certain rhythm to a squad timing between shots. The manners of any other squad member(s) can affect the performance of individuals within a squad. Most persons using a semi-automatic employ a shell catcher - a ejected hull hitting an adjacent shooter in the head or arm can certainly disrupt your concentration. Most shooters carry a few extra shells in case they drop one. Shooters usually avoid picking up any dropped shell, or other item, until after the 5th shooter has fired his 5th shot of the station and the squad is about to rotate to the next position. Idle chatting between shots, vulgar calls, and unnecessary movement can be generally disruptive.

Commands from the scorer and other shooters are as important to squad timing as the behaviors of the shooters on the squad. To start a squad the shooter will ask if the squad and puller are ready (usually by calling "Squad ready?" then "Puller ready?"), followed by asking to see one free target, traditionally saying, "Let's see one." Especially during official and competitive events the scorer will call missed targets with a command of: loss, lost, etc. When the first shooter has fired their final shot of the position the scorer will sometimes call “end” and will command “all change” after fifth shooter has fired his last shot. The shooter on position five then moves behind the rest of the shooters on his way to the first station and will signal when he is ready to the first shooter who is now on station two. The standard call for a target is “pull,” but many shooters like to use their own variations of "pull," or words that will help them concentrate on the target.