Sporting has parallels with baseball. When you shoot, you are the batter, and the one who launches the target is the pitcher. Just like real pitchers, each pitcher uses different tricks. Some try to beat you with speed and distance, but really good pitchers use tricks. Mike McAlpine of San Angelo, Texas has been taking shooters out of the game since 1986 and he's one of the best. In addition, he is a shooting instructor, teaching a three-day course on target delivery and how a shooter can read it. Here are some of the secrets he shared with me.
deceptive target
McAlpin follows the rules that he will never cause a shooter to miss with a short shot window, a very long distance, or a target that disappears from view. In any case, you are unlikely to have to make such shots on the hunt. He has many other ways to get you to miss - many of them use optical illusions, which are often the cause of missed hunting.
For example, McAlpin can use an inconspicuous hole in the ground and force you to shoot at a rolling target - a "hare". Often, he sets up the machines to feed fast, close targets that you have very little time to shoot at. He uses medium (90 mm) targets that, due to their small size, appear to be faster and farther away than they really are, often causing misses. Or he might spin a cymbal that, at first glance, will approach you at an angle, but in fact will fly straight away from you after it reappears behind the trees. He will loosen the spring on the launching machine pointing upwards so that the target appears to be climbing - but in fact it will fall.
But McAlpin never forgets that the task of the launcher is to make the match difficult but interesting, so that the shooters always want to repeat it. “If I install a 45-meter side, I first serve a twisted shooter leaving the weapon right in the starting position to hit the second, stealing target", he says. “So the average shooter can walk away from the range happy because he hit a difficult target.”
Understanding the behavior of a moving target is critical to success at any level. McAlpin tells the story: “At a national game in San Diego a few years ago, I set up a car on top of a small slope and launched targets parallel to the ground. So they looked like side, but actually fell through 90 centimeters. I was there with the national champion and the lead instructor. The champion missed 25 times in a row. The instructor hit three out of 25. They offered to shoot me. I hit 10 out of 10, but of course I knew what the target was doing."
Shooting a side-flying target.
You have one "demonstration" target at each station before shooting starts. Use it. Remember that tricky pitchers use the terrain to fool you, so you need something that isn't on the ground as a starting point. McAlpin knows a shooter who brings a racquetball to the shooting range and looks at the target through the strings. So he determines where the target is actually flying. But you can achieve the same with your hand. Instead of following a "demonstration" target, keep your front hand palm sideways and use the horizon line to determine where the target is flying.
It is also important to trace the entire trajectory of the target, all the way to the ground, so you can more accurately determine the distance and offset. Often when a target hits the ground, you realize how close it really is and that you need to take less lead. Learning proper lead when shooting on a stand will make your hunting shots effective. You will be better able to adjust to the bird's flight path, and you will also be better able to judge distance.
Shooting distant targets.
Plan ahead
After you have carefully observed the target - from the moment it appears until it disappears or hits the ground - you need to make a plan and stick to it. First, think about what technique you will use to shoot this target. (step tracking, takeoff, permanent leash) and then follow the six steps listed:
- Choose a hit point. This is usually the point where you have the best view of the target. In most cases, this is also the point where the target moves under the force of the throw or gravity, but not the point of transition from one force to another.
- Get ready. Turn your feet to the point where you will hit the harder target of the pair.
- Wait. Determine the focus window in your head - the segment of the target trajectory on which it is clearly visible, and look at the beginning of this section.
- Don't bully. Keep the gun at the ready, but do not raise the muzzle above the flight path, as you will close the target with the gun. It is very important. McAlpin says it's better to be 1.5 meters lower at launch than 12 centimeters taller."
- Start here. Choose a point where you will point the gun while making your move. If you prefer step-by-step tracking, the dot will be behind the target; if you use a permanent leash - then in front. If there is a break, then this will be the leading edge of the target.
- Keep focus. Fully
As time goes by true men's occupations and there are fewer hobbies. One of these, largely untouched hobbies on the part of the beautiful half of humanity is hunting. For thousands of years, men have traveled to the forests to get game or meat for their family's table.
Now that meat can be bought at the nearest supermarket, hunting and owning a gun has become more of an enjoyable pastime than a gender obligation. In addition, in the conditions of urban life, you can’t especially run after ducks and deer in the forests, so natural-born hunters simply replaced all this with a special sport - clay shooting.
What is clay shooting
Bench shooting is one of the types shooting sports, using smoothbore guns. The main task of the shooter is to hit the plate so that its visible part breaks off from the base. Shooting is carried out in special open spaces. Plates made of bituminous pitch and concrete are fired at the command of the shooter from special machines on the principle of a catapult. In addition, with trend shooting is endless educational process, even after 10 years of practice, there will be a flight that you will not understand the first time and that you will take apart with the excitement of a beginner in pieces in a circle of friends and masters.
The history of trap shooting
The official chronicle of shooting sports dates back to the 18th century from references to "land shooting". In European countries, the so-called garden clubs of hunters arose. One of the first was the English club of the city of Hornsey at the tavern "Old Hats". On the shooting range, holes with pigeons were covered with old hats, and at the command of the shooter, who was ready to shoot, the servant pulled the lace tied to his hat, the dove took off, and its further fate depended only on the accuracy of the shooter.
In the late thirties of the 19th century, the American shooter from Boston, Portlock, proposed firing at an artificial target he invented - a glass ball with a diameter of about 6.5 centimeters. Soon, his compatriot Bogardus invented a special machine with a flat spring that throws a ball at a distance of up to 35 meters. In order to better see the result and make shooting more efficient, the balls were made of colored glass and filled with feathers, paint, smoke or fine dust. Shooting at glass balls has gained great popularity not only in America, but also in France, England and Canada. Some gardening clubs also used flat, thin, well-fired clay plates as targets.
Despite the fact that at the beginning of the 20th century, in most countries where landing shooting was cultivated, artificial targets were widely used instead of live pigeons, shooting at live pigeons was also included in the competition program at the Games of the Second and Fourth Olympiads. However, in 1910, the International Olympic Committee condemned this type of shooting as inhumane and excluded it from the competition. So landing shooting gradually turned into trap shooting with humane cymbals. Although in Egypt, Italy, Spain, France and other countries, competitive shooting for live pigeons is still being carried out. There is even an international federation that organizes world championships.
Types of clay shooting
Types of trap shooting can be divided into two groups: Olympic sports and sporting species.
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OLYMPIC PROGRAM IN Olympic program includes competitions in three disciplines: a round stand (skit), a trench stand (trap) and a double-trap. On a round stand, moving from one shooting place to another (there are eight in total), changing the shooting angle relative to the trajectories of the outgoing targets, the participant fires at the skeet flying towards each other. Targets are launched at different heights. In addition, the round stand differs from other exercises in the delay in the departure of the target after the shooter's command, which automatically varies from 0 to 3 seconds. On the trench stand, the athlete shoots at the skeet thrown out of the trench in a random direction (left, right or straight ahead). Until the moment of departure, the shooter cannot know where the target will fly. The double trap is played in the same way as the trap competition, except that the cymbals are thrown in pairs and the shooting is done in doubles. In the double-trap exercise since 2004, a delay of the target after the shooter's command from 0 to 1 second has also been introduced. |
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SPORTING Shotgun sporting events are not Olympic. They also host the World and European Championships, and often they are even more spectacular. For compact sporting, you can use the shooting ranges of the round and trench stands, it is enough to install an additional machine on them to launch the “hare” target, which does not soar into the air, but jumps on the ground. Large sporting involves the use of a large area with rugged terrain, it is also called the “hunting route” or “hunting trail”. Big sporting is the most diverse in terms of target trajectories and the complexity of shooting at them. The athlete does not see the departure of some targets (bushes, trees, terrain folds). There are very few venues for big sporting in Russia, and they are highly valued by professionals. |
Equipment and clothing shooters
Hunters are practical people, so the key quality of clay shooting clothing, as with all sports, is comfort. Each element of the shooter's equipment meets strict practicality and allows the athlete to be concentrated on the targets and not be distracted by trifles.
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Earmuffs One of the key and important elements equipment, without which, according to safety rules, you will not be allowed to the booth. There are two types: passive and active. Passive can be special earplugs or just soundproof headphones. Active - headphones that work through built-in microphones that suppress the sounds of shots, but without problems transmit the sounds of human speech. |
In addition to the accessories listed above, shooters often use a shoe-mounted tongue that rests against the barrels of the gun while the shooter waits for his turn. As well as gloves for shooting in cool weather, which can be worn with pleasure on the streets in a cool autumn.
Manufacturers of clothing and equipment
In addition to the hunting brands described in , which are happy to use shooters in cool weather, there are several brands that have made clay shooting a key or a priority. These include Beretta, Perazzi, Blazer, Zoli, Musto and others. Interestingly, even here, Italian companies (Beretta, Perazzi, Zoli) are flagship in the design of clothing and accessories for shooting and, of course, in guns.
Video of Billy Reid on shooting clothes
Products of these brands can be purchased in Russia in stores with sports shooting clubs("Fox hole", "Olympian", "Nevsky" and others) or in weapons stores. And scarce sports and shooting goods - in Western online stores. But the prices in them bite, for example, the Perazzi online store will ask you 100 euros for sending goods worth 70 euros by air to Russia. It is often more economical to shop in small British stores, like Sporting Lodge, where there are additional markups on goods, but delivery will cost 5-15 euros.
Barbour Vintage Cup video for classic wear
arrow and beautiful guns
How and where to shoot
How to shoot correctly in general and at a specific target in particular is an immense topic for discussion by the fireplace in the circle of shooters after training and competition. There are many schools of trap shooting, the leading and generally recognized among them is the classic English, which originates from the first garden clubs. But, in fact, there is no standard set of tricks that will help you always hit 100 percent of the cymbals.
Shooting is an individual matter, you can be taught the stance, insert, rules for working with a specific target, but still this set of knowledge is projected onto your physical data, plasticity, reaction, vision, endurance, morale, and so on. Thus, it is important to get to an experienced master who can not only tell you book knowledge, but also help your hands give results. Shooters are mostly open-minded people who are happy to share their knowledge with less experienced colleagues. Therefore, frequent debriefings in the truest sense of the word at the table in large companies in shooting clubs are commonplace. There you can just get the most valuable experience in this matter.
It is also worth considering that shooting is not just a shot, it is a kind of complex of your "home" work and the conditions in which you shoot. At the moment of pulling the trigger, success or failure depends on many factors that are under your control and not under your control, everything converges to one point: did you eat well, did you clean your gun, did your right boot get wet, did a strong wind blow, how quickly the machine operator filed you a target.
In Russia, compared to Western countries, where trap shooting is a classic discipline, there are not so many sports and shooting clubs so far. But in Moscow and St. Petersburg, you can still find a place that would suit you both in terms of price tag and location. Full list such establishments are possible. It is believed that one of top clubs- this is Moscow's Fox Hole and St. Petersburg's Olympian and Nevsky.
Text: Igor Makhno
Clay skeet shooting is a subspecies of shooting sports. Competitions are held at an open shooting range. Smooth-bore guns are used, while the cartridges for trap shooting must be equipped with shot having a spherical shape. Even if a few pellets fall into a plate-target made of a mixture of cement and bituminous pitch, which is thrown into the air by a special machine, it will break.
The origin of clay shooting
After the invention firearms V different countries In the world there are people who want to learn how to shoot accurately. This was necessary for fighting, hunting, and later for participating in various competitions. At first, hunting shotguns were used in competitions, from which the competitors fired at fast-flying targets. The first competitions of this kind were held in 1793 in England: shooting was carried out at pigeons sitting nineteen meters from the shooters in special baskets (boxes) called cages. A special person behind the shooter, on command, pulled the string, and the bird was thrown out of the cage. But it was not enough to injure or kill a pigeon, according to the conditions of the competition, he had to fall from the shooter no further than thirty-one meters. This type of shooting was close to hunting, it was called garden shooting, and guns with a heap and sharp fight also became known as garden shooting.
The first non-living targets
Societies categorically protested against such an inhumane sport (now such organizations protest against hunting in principle). As a result, live targets gradually began to be replaced by various objects equipped with special throwing devices. First used having a diameter of 64 mm, filled with bird feathers, smoke, paint and other materials. However, such targets often burst, often the pellets, when the edge of the scree hit the ball, ricocheted off the smooth surface. But the inquisitive mind of a person finds a way out of any difficult situation. In 1880, in America, in the city of Cincinnati, a shooter named Ligovsky invented a flat-profile clay target-plate (it is still called that today, although the material is now used more durable) and a throwing device - a machine. Such machines began to be installed on sites called stands, from which the name was born - "bench shooting".
spectator sports
Such an affordable and cheap sport, in comparison with the sport, quickly gained popularity not only in the American, but also in the European continent. Clay skeet shooting is more emotional and spectacular: spectators and shooters immediately see the result of the shot. If the target is hit, it flashes with an orange-red cloud, if not, the referee with a red armlet raises his hand, announcing the miss, and the athletes in multi-colored original costumes move around the site. Everything happens slowly, sedately: jumping at each other and squeezing the winner in his arms or a triumphant cry with a good shot is considered an indicator of bad taste. In a word, trap shooting is not football, such emotions as there are inappropriate, although, of course, athletes experience great nervous tension at tournaments. Everything is decided by psychological stability, endurance, the will to win.
Integration
Shooting enthusiasts eventually began to unite in clubs, circles and societies, and in 1907 the International Shooting Union (abbreviated as UIT) was organized, which united different types bullet shooting. The states where trap shooting was cultivated, in 1929, were integrated into the International Federation of Shooting from Hunting Rifles (abbreviated as FITASC). However, later, in 1947, the subspecies of shooting sports we are considering left FITASK and merged into UIT. Now all disciplines, both in bench and bullet shooting, are regulated by the International Shooting Union, all official competitions, including the Olympic Games, are held according to the rules approved by it and under its control. I must say that FITASK also exists at the present time, it regularly organizes landing shooting championships, which are especially popular today in the countries of the Mediterranean basin: Spain, Egypt, Italy, France.
History of Russian clay shooting
The first mention of landing shooting (for pigeons) dates back to 1737. At that time, Anna Ioannovna reigned, known for her skillful ability to shoot not only from a gun, but also from a bow. The Empress had one passion: she loved to shoot at flying birds from the open palace window. At her direction, sometimes pigeons were released from the cage under the window. Before the revolution of 1917, such entertainment as landing shooting functioned only in Moscow, Kyiv, Odessa, St. Petersburg and Warsaw. There were few fans of such events, because only very wealthy people could afford this fun. And the first information about shooting at artificial targets dates back to 1877. Spouses Denisevich in 1910 organized a skeet shooting circle. It happened near St. Petersburg, in the village of Ligovo.
Achievements of Russian shooters
In 1912, the athletes of the Russian Empire for the first time took part in Olympic Games in Stockholm. Then adequately held competitions in trap shooting and won bronze, hitting ninety-one out of a hundred cymbals, Riga resident H. Blau. With his success, he paved the way to the heights of world achievements for domestic stand builders. After 1917, competitions were held according to arbitrary rules on a case-by-case basis. And only in 1927 in Ostankino (Moscow) they made the first stand with a trench, where the first throwing machine for clay shooting was installed. Subsequently, it was modernized, understaffed, and it served for many years Russian athletes. In the 1920s, similar venues appeared in Kyiv, Leningrad, Baku and other cities. The first championship of the USSR took place in 1934, and the USSR Shotgun Federation was created the day before.
First successes
At the European Championships in 1955, victory smiled at the Soviet benchers: Nikolai Durnev (round stand) and Yuri Nikanorov (trap) won gold. In 1958 at the World Cup gold medal Ariy Kaplun won in the round stand competition, in the same exercise in 1968 Olympic champion Games in Mexico City became Evgeny Petrov. Speaking at competitions in a round stand of various ranks, among Soviet athletes, Yuri Tsuranov achieved the greatest success (in the individual competition three-time champion world, in the team - six-time, nine-time European champion), Svetlana Demina (21 gold medals in Europe and the world), Larisa Tsuranova (24 gold), Elena Rabaya (18 gold medals).
Olympic program
To date, competitions in three disciplines are included in the Olympic program: skeet (round stand), trap (trap stand), double trap. Let's talk about them in more detail.
1. Trench stand
This discipline was included in the program of the Games for men in 1900, and for women in 2000. A gangway is a platform where five shooting numbers are located in a straight line. Shooting is carried out at skeet flying out of fifteen throwing machines in turn. The cars are installed under the shooting range in a trench, at a distance of fifteen meters from the shooting room. A clay target of this type can have a different flight height, it moves away from the shooter to the right, straight or left, with a deviation of up to forty-five degrees. The casting distance is 75-77 meters. The shooting series consists of twenty-five targets.
2. Round stand
The discipline was included in the program of the Olympics for men in 1968, for women in 2000. The skeet is performed on a platform with eight shooting numbers located in a semicircle from the first to the seventh number, and the eighth is located between the booths in the center. Cymbals for clay target shooting of this type are similar to those used for the gangway. However, they are produced by two machines, which are installed in low and high booths located at a distance of forty meters from each other at the extreme points of the semicircle. Before the target appears, the shooter must hold the trap gun with the butt at the waist, and shoot at the skeet with the weapon raised to the shoulder. A machine installed in a high booth throws a target from a height of 3.05 meters, and the one in a low booth from a height of 1.07 meters.
In addition to the plates flying singly, on all numbers, except for the seventh and eighth, paired targets (doubles) are also produced. They fly out of both booths simultaneously in the opposite direction. The flight of the skeet in the skete, unlike the ladder, has a constant direction. The targets must pass through a 90 cm diameter ring placed at the intersection of the skeet flight paths. The flight range varies within 67-69 meters, while the zone of permissible damage is determined by the boundaries of the site and is forty meters. The shooting series, as in the previous discipline, consists of twenty-five targets.
3. Double trap
The discipline entered the Olympic program (for both men and women) in 1996. A double trap is performed on the site from five shooting numbers by repeating doublet shots aimed at hitting two skeet simultaneously and simultaneously flying out, having a flight path that quickly moves away from the shooter and slightly divergent. The flight range does not exceed 54-56 meters. Throwing machines are located in the same way as in the trench stand, but not fifteen, but only three devices are used, installed opposite the third shooting number. Cars stand in a row and are at a certain distance from each other. There are three different schemes (A, B and C) for adjusting the flight path of the cymbals. After the shooter's command, the targets fly out according to a pattern unknown to him from the same place. The flight path during the shooting series changes, at the same time the angle of fire and view changes, which depends on the specific shooting number. The series consists of thirty targets (fifteen doubles).
Competition regulations
All three disciplines have the same rules. During the preliminary competitions, six finalists are determined, from which the winners and the champion are determined in the final. Points of preliminary and final competitions are summed up. If, according to the results, several athletes score an equal number of points, a shootout is made between them until the first miss. In order to increase the interest of the audience and reduce the likelihood of a referee's mistake, in the finals, shooting is carried out at special plates, when hit, a cloud of bright powder (often red, sometimes yellow) is thrown into the air.
Terminology
In skeet shooting, specific terminology is used, the knowledge of which is indispensable. We give definitions of the main concepts:
- Hijacking target - one that flies in the direction from the shooter.
- A counter target is one that flies in the direction of the shooter.
- A torn target is one that is destroyed when released from a throwing machine.
- The target "into the smoke" is the defeat of the plate by shot, when only "smoke" remains from it - fragments, pounded into the smallest dust.
- Timer - delay of the target departure after the shooter's command for up to three seconds.
- Dead zone - the distance that the cymbal flies from the moment of launch to the first reaction of the shooter to it.
- Target processing - a sequence of actions, including the perception of the target, vskidka (in a round stand), leash (movement of the barrel relative to the trajectory of the cymbal), going ahead (the distance on the trajectory by which you need to get ahead of the target during the shot, so that after the departure of the shot it will be hit), shot while maintaining the angular velocity gained by the gun.
Clay shooting in Moscow
Currently, everyone who wants to acquire the skills and abilities of clay shooting has such an opportunity. Perhaps there is a shortage of shooting ranges in the regions, but in Moscow it will not be difficult to find a suitable club for yourself. Doors for novice shooters are always open at the Council of the Central Administrative District of the Central Administrative District, the Moscow Secondary Special School Olympic reserve No. 1 and No. 2, equestrian sports complex"Bitsa", sports and technical club "Zamoskvorechye" and many other institutions.
The main thing that distinguishes trap shooting in Moscow from other sports is that it is distinguished by the complete absence of restrictions on the age of athletes, as a result of which men, women can go in for this sport, and sometimes you can even meet children from 12 years old or older people , which are already over 70. Improvised tournaments are constantly organized in almost every club, and absolutely everyone can take part in them.What is clay shooting?
Shotgun training in Moscow is shooting at skeet that are launched into the air with the help of a specialized machine. This type of corporate recreation has long been widespread in various circles. Among other things, this is a great occasion for a man not only to have fun himself, but also to please his wife and children, and if there are sons in your family, then you can not even doubt that they will be happy to be involved in such a male occupation.For entertainment, it is necessary to provide the most comfortable environment, which is offered only by a specialized clay shooting school in Moscow. It has long been noted that sporting is perfectly combined with recreation, therefore, in many modern clubs it is possible to place a brazier near the shooting range so that you really remember the weekend for a long time.
What is bench shooting like?
One of the most common types of modern skeet shooting is compact sporting, which is often offered by skeet shooting sections for beginners in Moscow. It differs in that a series of 25 targets appear on a fairly limited area, and in particular, this can occur either on the site of a round or special trench stand, or on any sites that have the most approximate dimensions. In this case, the maximum target engagement range is basically no more than 35 meters, while a fairly large variety of trajectories is offered.Big sporting in international practice is used as the main one. Of course, it is much more complex in its organization and requires a large number specialized throwing equipment, however, it offers the widest variety of trajectories, the longest shooting distances, and also requires full calculation from each shooter.
