The CPSA’s model of a perfect first lesson takes place on a Skeet range, and you might wonder why! There are several reasons, not the least of which is that, compared with a typical “have-a-go” set-up which you might find at a game fair or country show, it’s a proper shotgun target. More often than not, a have-a-go target is designed so you can shoot it by pointing the gun directly at it and squeezing the trigger. The crux of shotgun shooting though is that you have to shoot where the target will be rather than where it is. That first target on a skeet range requires you apply lead, or forward allowance, from the very first shot.
The model lesson isn’t just realistic; it’s also progressive (if the student is ready for progression). After a few hits from a position where the required lead is fairly slight, you need only move a few metres to change the target presentation. Thus, the student learns about reading different targets and applying different amounts of lead. This is what Skeet was originally designed for!
The first version of what became Skeet started around 1920 as “shooting round the clock.” A circle was marked on the ground, with shooting stations at positions similar to the hours on a clock face around the circle. A trap was set up at 12 o’clock, shooting towards and over the 6 o’clock position. By moving around the clock face, you shoot a single target from every possible angle. The downside was that it needed a huge exclusion zone around the range, as shots could be fired in any direction.
By 1926, the addition of a second trap and cutting the circle down to an arc (less than a semicircle) with a 21 yard (19.2m) radius solved the exclusion zone issue, and it was becoming popular enough to make the national sporting press in the US. National Sportsman magazine held a competition to name this new sport, and Skeet – an old Scandinavian word for “shoot” - was the winning entry. The final form of a Skeet range has 7 shooting stations around the arc, with a trap at each end. At station 1, the trap is above head height, in what is known as the high house. At station 7, the target comes out of the low house at roughly elbow height. There is a chute on each trap house to protect shooters from broken target fragments. Half way between the trap houses is station 8.
A Skeet range at Edgehill Shooting Ground. The red arrows show the target trajectories.
That second trap allows for single targets crossing from either direction, and also for simultaneous pairs of targets – “doubles” in the language of the International Shooting Sports Federation who are the governing body for Olympic shooting events. The targets must be adjusted to fly directly over the centre post – the point around which the arc is centred – at a height of 15ft/4.5m.
There are several different versions of Skeet, however the most popular version in the UK is English Skeet. In English Skeet (often abbreviated to ESK), gun position is optional – you can call for the target with the gun already mounted – and the target is launched by a press of release button by the referee. In Olympic Skeet (abbreviated to OSK), the gun must start out of the shoulder until the target is visible – you can be penalised for reacting to the sound of the trap and moving the gun early. In OSK, the toe (lowest part) of the stock must be at or below a line marked on your Skeet vest where the bottom of your elbow sits with your arms by your side. It’s a very exaggerated gun-down position. Making things harder still in OSK, the target is released by a speaker-operated system which applies a random delay of up to 3 seconds. The targets are also faster in OSK!
English Skeet doesn’t use station 8 at all. The sequence of shots in ESK is:
Station 1 – high house single, then low house single, then a simultaneous pair of which the high house target must be shot (at) first.
Station 2 – a repeat of Station 1.
Station 3 – high house single, then low house single.
Station 4 – high house single, then low house single, then a simultaneous pair for which the shooter must nominate a target to shoot (at) first.
Station 5 – high house single, then low house single.
Station 6 – high house single, then low house single, then simultaneous pair shooting (at) the LOW house target first.
Station 7 – low house single, then high house single, then simultaneous pair shooting (at) the low house target first.
That makes 24 targets, but a round of Skeet is 25 targets! To get to 25, the first target the shooter misses is repeated (singly, if it was one of a pair). If you successfully shoot 24 targets without a miss, you may repeat a target. Common sense dictates that you stay on station 7, and simply nominate whichever trap you find easiest to finish your perfect round of Skeet!
At every station, you start with two single targets. Rather than loading separately for each of these, load two cartridges and simply call for each target separately. By convention, most people use a different call for the second target – it’s usually “pull” and “mark.” This is mostly for the benefit of the referee who has to remember which button to push.
The key to high scores in Skeet is consistency, so shooting gun-up (calling for the target with the gun already mounted in the shoulder) is the sensible option in English Skeet, and also in American Skeet (which has a different target sequence and includes station 8). As you learn to shoot Skeet, particularly if you are new to shooting entirely, it is a good idea to continue shooting the CPSA Method (pull-away) to start with. As you gain in competence and confidence, you have the option of using a different method of applying lead. For the experienced shot, Skeet can be a good place to use maintained lead.
Whichever method you use to apply lead, it’s important to apply it consistently and learn what “correct” lead looks like to you for each target. That consistency starts with setting yourself up on each station, starting with putting your feet in the right position for where you will break the target. My preference is to set up for the second target of a simultaneous pair on the grounds that it’s the one I need to get to fairly quickly. You can think of the Skeet range as a mirror image when shooting doubles – wherever the first target is when you shoot it, that’s where the second target is but on the other side of the range. If you are late shooting the first target, you have a lot of work to do to get your gun to the other side of the range for the second target! Getting to that second target, inevitably from behind unless you are very fast on the first shot, means you will have to use a form of swing-through on the second target. What this means in practice is that the lead to see when you squeeze the trigger, and which results in a broken target, will be significantly less for that second target compared with the first. Your gun is travelling much faster to reach the second target.
Station 8, whilst not used in ESK, is a great test of how quickly you can get to a target. Although you’re allowed the full shootable portion of the range, the usual practice is to face the trap and shoot the target at or before the centre post. It is pretty much a trick shot, and I tend to find the surest way to hit the target is to trust my guiding hand – in my case it’s my left – to point where I think it’s pointing. I usually shoot with my index finger alongside the forend so it’s always pointing at the target (or at where the target will be). For station 8, if I point my index finger at the front edge of the target, more often than not I can break the target. A useful training exercise can be to walk in towards station 8 from station 2. Shoot a target, then step forwards a couple of paces and repeat until it gets difficult. This certainly isn't for an early lesson, but once you've mastered the basics it'll help you realise how quickly you can get onto a target and shoot it successfully.
I hope this has whetted your appetite for Skeet. It is a fun discipline and a useful part of practice for Sporting too.
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