I joined the local high school trap shooting team and have never shot trap before. I have never shot the gun I'm going to be shooting since they only allow 12 and 20 gauge and I usually run a 28 gauge. Any tips for shooting trap? I'm hoping that I can get out and shoot this gun a few times before we have our first practice if the weather cooperates. Thanks in advance!

A lot to trap shooting to make it easier practice is your friend here. Way to much to post find a mentor would be a great help.

Watch videos on trap shooting on YouTube for tips :-)

Youtube is your friend. You can find hold points on the trap house from the different stations.

Listen to the coach.

And practice..practice..practice.

As long as you have never shot trap, let alone that gun.....wait!

Go ahead and familiarize yourself with the gun, but, don't bother to shoot. No need to pick up bad habits when you are so close to starting with a blank slate.

good advice. tell your coach its all new. you won't be the first one he trained. he will likely be happy he doesn't have to untrain you before he can train you

How well does the gun fit you? I.E. close your eyes and mount the gun then open your eyes and see where it is pointed and how does it feel. I have shot a lot of sporting clays in excess of 10K rounds a year as well as some periodic skeet and trap. I feel fit is very important in the instinctive game. Try to get the best fit that you can from the beginning it will reflect in your shooting, comfort, and overall soreness I.E shoulder, cheek, etc. As with all of the clays games you have to focus on the pigeon and have the confidence the gun will move with your eyes on the clay matching speed without thinking about it. If you aim you miss. I used the 3 bullet drill a lot and still do a modified version to reinforce the confidence of keeping hard focus on a target with gun barrel moving out ahead in the peripheral. You can google the drill and there are several You Tube videos.

Keep your head down on the stock...check weld. When I first shot trap at a young age, my habit was not getting down on the stock and shooting over the birds.

I've seen this alot with other shooters too.

Don't worry about missing. That's why they call it practice.

"Getting Down" ....will help your shooting ...as well as other life lessons

Don’t start out with heavy loads it’s only 16 yards to start with the hard kick works on a guy after several boxes of shells causing some people to flinch.

And use the 20

I don't know if my method would help, but I was self taught. If you can shoot at home, buy a case of blue rocks and a hand thrower. You throw em, you shoot em. When you get to the point you don't miss those, you are on your way. Save all your empty hulls. The day may come when you want to reload some lite 7/8 oz loads to hone your sills and save your shoulder.

they should have a good instructor listen to them

know your eye dominance and shoot to it

pattern the gun on a big sheet of cardboard at 32 yards draw your self a 4 inch by 1 inch horizontal line with a marker or a piece of 1 inch masking tape works good , that is about the size of a clay pigeon and hold the bead just touching that in your sight picture that is a place to start you may need a few sheets of cardboard to figure out what choke to use and what sight picture to use.

16 yards from line to house generally about 16 yards out of the house is where you want to shoot it by
you want to see a pattern with no space a clay could slip through at that distance.

mount the gun the same way every time , your eye is the rear sight.
up to your cheek , in to your shoulder.
head down on the wood in the same spot every time. pull firm into the shoulder a loose gun hits you in recoil and a tight into your shoulder gun gives you a push.
this is where fit of a shotgun is important and borrowed guns are borrowed guns you can't change much.

get your stance, a good stance is knees bent ready to move . more weight on your forward foot.

try this stand up tall feet comfortably a little more than shoulder shoulder width apart.
with your support arm extended point at the center of the house with your index finger or whatever point you are going to pretend is the house for this , now move 45 degrees right and left with your extended arm and finger only moving your body at the torso without moving your feet. it is a stretch right ?

now bend your knees some it is a lot more fluid less of a stretch, your shoulders should track level as your torso moves at your hips , let this be the guide for finding your stance at every station.


that bird can come out basically 5 ways hard left , some left , strait , some right and hard right , the outer limits are set on the thrower some throwers may be more random than others but your farthest rights and left will be at the stops.

you want to with out going up or down be able to smoothly rotate to cover the entire range it could fly from any station


follow every bird you see , yours, others , watch where is that sweet spot where they just sort of hang vertically not every house has as nice of a sweet spot but most have a spot where the vertically climb stops and they just hang before they start to fall , you don't want them on the fall , too unpredictable
keep following every bird , just because you broke it don't stop, follow the biggest piece to the ground. if you missed follow the clay to the ground.

(if you were hunting you would keep following and keep shooting , in trap 1 target 1 round, if you run a pump gun you can pump it as you follow those pieces/missed clay like your getting ready to shoot the bird again)


I do this and let kids do it , but not every range will , I will let kids follow birds and dry fire practice

I actually do it as a group exercise line of as many kids as I can put on the line usually about 8-10 shells are 9 dollars a box , clay is still about 3 a round
so I can throw 25 clay and 10 kids can dry fire on them for 3 dollars and not 90 in shells and 30 in clay.

we find that sweet spot and we follow the clay. you want to have that sight picture for lack of better term your focus is on the clay but the bead is in your vision since your head is glued to the stock. (figuratively)
when you have the right picture and you have had it for a 2-3 feet of travel keep following it as you squeeze through the trigger.

your goal as that clay leaves the house is to smoothly be following it with your sight picture as soon as you smoothly can and stay with it

after doing this most kids smoke the first clay , then let the recoil shyness begin and there are drills for that mostly ball dummy they need to see they are doing it before they can fix it

mental picture , take one every time you pull the trigger , this is as the trigger breaks. is your bead where it needs to be? if you call it as not right and you don't break the clay , you know why.
you will get so you know it felt wrong before the clay does or doesn't break.
remind yourself what you did wrong and work to correct it on the next clay.
self analyze don't lie to yourself even if it took a chip and you got the score remember you got lucky and work to make the next one better.

at first this is all going to look like it is happening so fast , later your brain will process it faster and it will seem to slow down. time is constant you just get used to what you need to do and think and move a smooth fast.

besides eye and ears protection. your gun ,comfortable and weather appropriate clothing , something to hold your box of shells , a coat pocket isn't the worst but it still isn't ideal , a vest , a belt with pouch they don't cost much about 2-3 boxes of shells worth and they last nearly forever.

I get kids who show up and want to set the box of shells on the ground , I don't like that , breaks their stance , has the potential for the gun to go places I don't want the muzzle , takes more time , breaks their thought of just readying the next round and paying attention to the order , it can mess with the cadence of the flight. so we had a few loaners , we got more loaner vests this year.

ok that was a lot , don't sweat it , go listen to your coach

this is my approach to teaching trap , it may vary form others there is more than one way to do it

different isn't wrong unless it isn't working or it is unsafe

my pet peeve about "trap people" is that because they single load and largely use break action guns they treat the gun like it isn't loaded , resting it on their foot , waving the muzzle about because it couldn't go off because the action is open.
I want the muzzle in a safe direction at all times , just because it is high bluing , silver engraved , gold trigger browning break action I still don't ever want to be looking at the muzzle of your gun waiving at me.

also you don't need a fancy gun to shoot a 25 just one that fits you.

just me I would rather smoke/dust 23 and know what I did wrong on 2.
than chip 10 not know why and get the 25 score hint if you chip 10 and still get a 25 your one lucky person and unlikely to repeat it.

They are easier to hit on the ground.

Try and get your hands on a 12 gauge.

Osky

I just picked up a High Standard Flite King 1966 ...exc shape 12 gauge for 175.00

Those High Standards are over looked by everyone...

28 inch..vented barrel

That's what I'm going to shoot, my dad has a Browning BPS, and I wish I could shoot my 28 gauge since I'm more comfortable with it. But the math on the 12 gauge does make sense since more pellets= more chance to hit.