skeet shooting

skeet shooting, sport in which marksmen use shotguns to shoot at clay targets thrown into the air by spring devices called traps. It differs from trapshooting, from which it derived, in that in skeet, traps are set at two points on the field and targets may be thrown diagonally across the shooter’s field of vision as well as directly away from him. The sport was developed in 1915 by William Foster of the United States as informal shooting practice to provide hunters with a greater variety of shooting angles than was possible with trapshooting.

In competition 25 targets constitute the usual round. Two shots, at single targets thrown from each trap house, are fired from each of eight shooting stations. Eight shots are fired at four double targets, one thrown from each house at the same time, from the first, second, sixth, and seventh stations. A 25th shot is taken after the first miss, or, if there are no misses in the first 24 shots, as an optional shot from any part of the field.

A semiautomatic, open-bore, 12-gauge shotgun is the usual weapon, although in less formal contests other kinds of guns may be used. In some competitions shooters are grouped according to the gauge of their guns.

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Skeet shooting was included in Olympic Games competition for the first time in 1968. Each competitor fires 8 rounds of 25 targets. International and world championship skeet events are supervised by the International Shooting Union.