Skeet Shooting Overview

Skeet is a recreational and competitive activity where participants attempt to break clay disks automatically flung into the air from two fixed stations at high speed from a variety of angles.

Terminology

Stations: The positions where you stand when shooting skeet. There are eight Stations in skeet. 

Round: One complete cycle of all eight Stations which will require (25 shotgun shells and 25 clay targets per shooter.

Squad: The group of shooters that is moving through the eight stations together during a skeet round.

Bird, target or clay: A clay pigeon

Single: When a single target is thrown from one of the two houses

Doubles: When a target is thrown from the high house and the low house, simultaneously. Doubles are only thrown from Stations 1, 2, 6, 7.

“Pull”: The verbal command to call for the target to be released. Other commands may be used.

Option (shot): The shot that is taken after you miss your first shot — at the time you missed the target and from the station and house that you missed from (low house or high house). When doubles are being thrown, the option will be taken after your double is completed.

Skeet shooting basics -

The Skeet shooting sport provides a greater variety of shooting angles than possible with trapshooting as the shooter moves from station to station, and targets may be moving diagonally across the shooter’s field of vision, towards or away from the shooter. In skeet shooting, “traps” or target throwers are set at two fixed points; one in the high house and one in the low house. Both traps launch targets to a centralized point, with the high house launching targets from 10 ft above the ground and the low house launching targets from 3 feet above the ground. 

There are 8 stations in skeet shooting, with 7 arranged in a semicircle and a radius of 21 yards and the 8th position being midway between stations 1 and 7. The round begins at station 1, which is directly under the high house window, and then you work your way around to station 7, which is next to the low house. The round ends at station 8, halfway between the high and low houses.

Because you are usually shooting "passing" shots at the targets, you will need to lead the target to hit it. Leading the target is shooting where you expect the target to be.

Making your way around the stations

Do not load you gun until you are on station and ready to shoot. Once that you are loaded and ready for a target (or targets) to be thrown, the standard command is “Pull” (although there are a number of other noises that might be made!).

What happens if you miss? Your first miss is repeated immediately at the target thrown from the same station and house that you just missed and is called an “Option”. If doubles are being thrown, your “option” will be taken after both shots at the doubles have been taken. You only have one “Option” shot.

Once that you finish your turn on the station, the next shooter in the squad steps onto the station for their turn. After all shooters have had a turn at the station, the squad moves together to the next station.

• Stations 1 & 2 require four shots each; first shooting singles at targets thrown from the high house and then the next target being thrown from the low house. After those two shots are completed, doubles are thrown. The first shot that you fire should be at the target thrown from the high house, followed by a shot at the target thrown from the low house.
• Stations 3, 4, & 5 require two shots each; the first shot is fired at a target thrown from the high house, and the second shot is fired at the target thrown from the low house.
• Stations 6 & 7 are each four shots, similar to Stations 1 & 2, with the only difference being that the first shot that you fire when the doubles are thrown should be at the target thrown from the low house and the second shot will be at the target thrown from the high house.
• Station 8 requires two singles shots; one at a target thrown from the high house and then the next one at a target thrown from the low house. Stand on the right side of the Station for the shot at the target thrown from the high house and then move to the left side of the station for the shot at the target thrown from the low house. Only load one shell at a time so your gun is not loaded when moving from one side to the other of station 8 and load only after you are in position. (Typically, every shooter will shoot a single shot at the target from the high house and then every shooter will take a turn shooting the target from the low house. NCRGC events typically allow shooters to take both shots before stepping down from Station 8,)

This all adds up to 25 targets if your “option” shot was used. If you are good enough to hit every target that was thrown without using your “option”, you get to shoot an extra target that is thrown from the low house while on Station 8. If you break that target, you will have shot a perfect round with a perfect score of 25!

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