Trap vs Skeet
Trap and skeet are two of the most important shooting events in the clay shooting sport. This is a type of shooting that evolved to fulfill the needs of recreation of people. In this sport, special flying objects are targeted and shot down using a firearm. These objects are made of clay and simulate flying birds. Some people still refer to this form of shooting as Clay pigeon shooting to remind one of the times when live pigeons were shot instead of targets of clay. There are around 20 different types of clay shooting and trap and skeet are two of them. There are differences between these two events that will be highlighted in this article for the benefit of those interested in this shooting sport.
Trap
Trap shooting is a clay shooting event that is a popular shooting event at the Olympics and other shooting competitions around the world. There are many variations inside trap such as double trap, down the line, or the Nordic trap. This type of shooting evolved as a way, to encourage bird hunters and to give them a way to practice honing their skills. Clay targets were used to provide practice to the shooters.
In trap shooting, a player has no clue as to in which direction the target will fly out. However, the player knows that the targets will always fly out away from him in varying angles. The important thing to remember is that the earlier the player shoots, the lesser is the distance of the target from him whereas this distance increases greatly the longer he takes to shoot. There is a trap machine that releases targets and releases them at random angles. This means there can be infinite combinations of the position of the trap machine as well as the shooter in the playing field. In double trap, the trap machine releases two clay targets at a time.
Skeet
Skeet is another clay shooting event that has many variations with American skeet, English skeet, and International skeet, being three different variations of the sport. The sport involves releasing of targets from fixed stations and these targets fly in opposite directions and cross each other. The player has to move across 8 skeet positions in a semi-circle whereas the clay targets are always released from the two fixed stations. The fixed station on the left is called high house while the station on the right is called the low house and the targets are released from both houses simultaneously crossing each other. The height and the speed of the targets remains the same and with practice a shooter can learn to shoot these targets with precision.
What is the difference between Trap and Skeet?
• While the clay targets move away from the shooter in trap events, these targets cross from left to right and right to left in skeet shooting.
• The distance of the target in trap thus increases if the shooter waits longer whereas the distance remains the same in skeet.
• The angle, speed and height of the targets remain same in skeet whereas, in trap, the shooter does not know from which direction the target will move out.
• The targets are crossing in skeet while they are outgoing in trap.