New to the sport
A clay disc is thrown away from you at an angle you cannot predict, and you try to break it before it lands. That is the whole game. You can learn it in an afternoon and spend forty years getting good at it. Here is what happens on the line, and how to find one in Oregon.
The basics
A machine inside a low building called the trap house throws a clay target out and away from the shooter. The machine swings as it throws, so the angle changes from target to target and you do not know where the clay is going until it is in the air.
Shooters stand at five stations set in a shallow arc behind the house. A squad of up to five takes turns calling for targets and everybody rotates through all five stations during a round. Because the target always travels away from you, trap is a repeatable game. The same shot comes back around, which is what makes it possible to get good at it.
Twenty-four Oregon clubs appear on the ATA and SOS Clays rolls, alongside the association’s own ATA registration. The club directory lists every one of them.
The trap field
Three events
Registered ATA trapshooting is built on three events. Most shooters learn Singles first and grow into Handicap and Doubles from there.
01
16 yards
The foundation. Every shooter stands 16 yards behind the trap house and shoots one target at a time. This is where a new shooter builds stance, gun mount and timing, and it is the event most people are shooting when you drive past a club.
02
Back from 16 yards
The equalizer. Your past results set your yardage, so a stronger shooter stands farther back from the house than a newer one. Still one target at a time, from a longer and less forgiving distance. The ATA rulebook sets the yardage range.
03
16 yards
Two targets at once. The trap throws a pair at the same time and you break both in quick succession. It is the fastest of the three and the hardest on your eyes.
Keeping score
One point per target broken. Everything competitive about the sport is built on top of that single rule.
25
Five targets at each of the five stations. A clean round is a straight: 25 for 25.
100
Four rounds of 25, scored out of 100. That is the standard length for a registered event.
200
Oregon’s Singles Championship is shot over 200 targets, at the State Shoot and at each State Zone Shoot.
16
The distance from the line to the trap house in Singles and Doubles. Handicap moves you back from there.
Registered scores follow you through the Amateur Trapshooting Association, which sets your class in Singles and Doubles and your yardage in Handicap. That is what lets a first-season shooter and a forty-year veteran stand on the same squad and each have a real chance at a trophy.
The bigger picture
Once you have shot a few rounds the sport opens up. Registered targets are what turn a good afternoon into a record.
01
Practice is shooting for fun and nobody writes it down. A registered shoot is run under ATA rules and reported to your national average, which is what sets your class and your handicap yardage. Shooting registered targets requires an ATA membership.
OSATA is Oregon’s ATA state association, club number 430000, in the ATA Western Zone.
02
Oregon clubs run both ATA and PITA shoots, and the two count toward different records. The shoot schedule badges the sanctioning body on every row so you can tell at a glance which is which before you drive out.
03
Averages decide the Swearingen All-Star Team: the five highest overall averages, the five high shooters in each of Singles, Handicap and Doubles, and the average leader in each of five categories, Lady, Veteran, Senior Veteran, Junior and Sub-Junior. Qualifying takes a minimum of 1,500 Singles, 1,200 Handicap and 800 Doubles registered ATA targets. Past teams are on the champions page.
Further out is the Oregon State Amateur Trapshooting Hall of Fame, housed at the Medford Gun Club, with 43 inductees recorded from the first class in 1991 onward.
How Oregon is organized
Oregon splits into three ATA zones: Southern, Northern and Eastern. You shoot in the zone where you live.
01
Every zone runs an annual State Zone Shoot at a club chosen by the OSATA directors who live in that zone, held before the State Shoot. The format is the zone’s to set, but it has to include at least one 200-target Zone Singles Championship. A State Zone fee of $2.00 per 100 targets is assessed at these shoots and pays for the zone team trophies.
02
Zone team places go to the high scores in that 200-target Singles Championship. You can only qualify in your zone of residence, and the high five qualifiers who are present at the State Shoot form the team.
03
The zone team competition is shot alongside the 200-target ATA Singles Championship at the Oregon State Shoot, and OSATA awards a trophy to every member of the winning team. County lists for all three zones are on the zones page.
Your first day
You do not need to own a gun, know the rules or have shot before. Turn up on a shoot day and the people there will handle the rest.
Sub-Juniors and Juniors shoot beside Veterans and Senior Veterans, and the categories mean you are measured against your own peers rather than against the whole field. Trap is a sport families shoot together for decades.
The rules are short and absolute: action open, muzzle downrange, loaded only when it is your turn. Every club walks a new shooter through it before a shell goes in the gun.
Safety glasses and hearing protection are required on the line. If you do not own a set yet, ask at the clubhouse before you shoot rather than after.
The best way in is to show up on a shoot day, watch a squad or two and ask questions. Check the schedule for a date near you, then call the club ahead so they know to expect you.
Ready when you are
Twenty-four clubs, three zones and a state championship. Start with the club nearest you and work out from there.
