Disciplines

All Round is a mixture of disciplines combined in one overall round. All registered All Round competitions must consist of 100 targets and be shot in sequence as follows: 25 Single Barrel DTL, 25 ABT, 25 English Skeet, and 25 English Sporting. All four disciplines must be shot in accordance with their own technical rules and regulations.

In Automatic Ball Trap (ABT) there is one trap set in the centre of the layout that throws targets faster and at more variable heights and angles than DTL does.

There are five stands in a line behind the trap, but a sixth shooter can wait behind stand one. Starting from the left shooter, each takes a shot at a target, then all move to the right one stand (the waiting shooter then takes stand one, while shooter on stand five moves to wait behind stand one). This continues until each shooter has shot at 25 targets.

Two shots are allowed per target, with one point per hit regardless of if the hit is on the first or second shot.

Compak Sporting (CSP) is similar to Sportrap (STR). but CSP is governed internationally by FITASC, the same as FITASC Sporting (FSP).

It is shot from five stands spaced three-to-five metres apart in a line. Unlike its sister discipline, FSP, it is shot from cages, and shooters do not have to shoot gun-down. At least six traps are placed on the layout which throw FSP-style targets, and are labelled alphabetically or numerically.

Each stand has a menu telling the shooter what targets they will be shooting at. Shooting goes from left to right.

Double Rise (DR) is shot like DTL, but two targets are thrown at the same time, one going right and one left. Five doubles are shot at each stand, so 50 targets make one round. One point is awarded for each target hit.

Double Trap (DT) was formerly an Olympic discipline, with three trap machines alternating to throw simultaneous doubles from any two traps. The procedures and layout are similar to Olympic Trap.

Down-the-Line Trap (DTL) is the most popular version of trap in the UK. One trap is set in the centre of the layout, with five stands, or pegs, in a line behind it.

Starting from the left peg, each shooter takes their turn shooting at an individual target. Once all five shooters have shot, the leftmost shooter starts the process again, until each shooter has shot at five targets. At this point, the shooters move one peg to the right (the shooter on peg five goes around the back of the line to stand one), and the process starts again. The person who shot first on the initial five targets always starts the shooting no matter what stand they are on. These rounds of five shots followed by moving continue until every shooter has shot at 25 targets.

A single target is thrown each time the shooter calls ‘Pull!’, but the shooter has two shots to hit the target. Three points are awarded for a first-barrel hit, and two points if a second shot is needed. A miss gives no points.

Skeet is a word of Scandinavian origin, though the original discipline originated in America. An English Skeet (ESK) layout has two traps situated in a high house to the left and a low house to the right, about 40 metres apart, which throw the targets across the layout.

There are seven stands which the shooter completes from left to right. A sequence is used, where the targets are thrown either as singles, or as pairs where the high and low target are thrown simultaneously. The sequence is:
Stand 1: High single, low single, pair (shooting high first)
Stand 2: High single, low single, pair (shooting high first)
Stand 3: High single, low single
Stand 4: High single, low single, pair (either can be shot first in the pair, but the shooter must state before shooting which they intend to start with)
Stand 5: high single, low single
Stand 6: High single, low single, pair (shooting low first)
Stand 7: Low single, high single, pair (shooting low first)

The first target that the shooter misses is immediately reshot. If a shooter hits the first 24 targets without missing, they get the option on stand 7 to shoot either the low or high target again for the 25th shot.

English Sporting (ESP ) is the most popular discipline in England. From November 2017 to October 2018, 56 percent of all CPSA Registered targets shot were ESP (DTL was next with 15 percent). In ESP shooters move across a course of stands set across a wide variety of terrain, often set far apart. The terrain can vary from woodland to farmland to rolling hills or cliff faces – whatever is available on the land is fair game. For this reason, it is sometimes likened to ‘golf with shotguns’.

Targets at each stand can be anything that is safe. The types of targets thrown are often named according to the type of game they simulate such as ‘rising teal’ or ‘high driven (pheasant)’. There is even a target that is thrown so that it rolls and bounces on the ground, called a ‘rabbit’. At each stand there is a shooting cage where the shooter stands, with bars on the sides and top that prevent the shooter from moving the gun too far in any direction that would be unsafe.

FITASC Sporting (FSP) is similar to English Sporting (ESP), but there are key differences.

First, FSP targets are shot ‘gun down’, meaning that the gun can’t be mounted on the shoulder until the targets are thrown and visible. Second, shooters don't shoot inside of a cage which restricts movement. Instead they stand in a circle or box on the ground, and targets can be thrown in a manner that might require the shooter to turn up to 180 degrees between targets on the same pair. Third, different targets can be shot on each stand, e.g. on a single stand you might shoot target A as a single, targets B and D as on-repot pairs, then targets E and F as simultaneous pairs.

FSP is governed internationally by FITASC (which stands for the Fédération Internationale de Tir aux Armes Sportives de Chasse [translation: International Federation for Shooting Sporting Guns]).

This is shot like standard DTL, but shooters stand at different distances from the trap based on their handicap. C class shooters stand at 17yds (15.5m), B class at 19yds (17.4m), A class at 21yds (19.2m), AA class at 23 yds (21m).

Since it would be unsafe for shooters in a line to be standing forward of other shooters, only shooters with the same handicap shoot at the same time.

Helice (HEL) is a unique discipline that uses a plastic target with a white centre disc and two opposing orange wings rather than a normal clay target. The targets are thrown from a special Helice trap that causes the target to spin like a helicopter rotor which is then released. This results in wildly unpredictable flight paths.

Five Helice traps are set in front of the shooter loaded with only one target. The shooter does not know which trap will be released, with the exception of the final target, as the traps are not reloaded until all five are shot. Only one shooter is on the layout at a time, shooting all five targets in a row.

Helice is sometimes called 'ZZ' due to the buzzing sound the targets make in flight.

Olympic Skeet (OSK) is, as the name suggests, the version of Skeet shot at the Olympics. OSK uses the same seven stations as English Skeet (ESK), but also has an eight station set forward of the other seven, mid-way between stations one and seven (the same as American NSSA Skeet). A different sequence of shooting from ESK is used.

Targets must be shot gun down, meaning the gun stock is not mounted on the shooter's shoulder before shooting until the target is thrown. The targets are thrown from the same high and low towers as ESK, but are much faster. There is also a random delay after the shooter calls 'Pull!' of up to three seconds before the clay is thrown.

As it's name indicates, this is one of the disciplines which forms part of the shooting programme at the Olympic Games.

A trench in front of the shooting stands conceals 15 traps arranged with one group of three for each of the five shooting stands (or pegs).
Shooters take turns to shoot at a target each, before moving in a clockwise direction to the next stand in the line. Targets for each shooter are thrown immediately upon the shooter's call and are selected by a shooting scheme that ensures all competitors receive exactly the same target selection. Olympic Trap targets are much faster and with more varied angles and heights than DTL targets.

Scoring is done of the basis of one point per target hit, regardless of whether this is achieved with the first or with the second barrel.

This is shot like standard DTL, but with
only one shot allowed per target. One
hit equals one point.

Skeet Doubles (SKD) is shot on the same layout as English Skeet (ESK),
but only doubles are thrown on each
stand and it is always shot in multiples of two rounds. In the first round, shooters move
from stand one to stand seven then in
reverse back to stand two In the
second round they shoot one to seven,
then seven back to one. This makes 50
targets total, with one point per hit.

Sportrap (STR) is essentially a miniaturised English Sporting (ESP) course, the name being a combination of ‘sporting’ and ‘trap’.

It is shot from five stands spaced a few feet apart in a line similar to trap disciplines, but with shooting cages like English Sporting. Five traps are placed on the layout which throw ESP-style targets, and are labelled A to E. Like Trap, shooting goes from left to right.

Each stand has a menu telling the shooter what targets they will be shooting at. First, each shooter shoots a single target, then each gets an on-report pair, and finally each gets a simultaneous pair. Once the final pair is shot, each shooter moves one stand right (stand 5 moves to 1) and the sequence is repeated.

Super Sporting (SSP) is very similar to English Sporting (ESP) but with some additional flexibility for the course setter to add more targets on each stand.

Universal Trench (UTR) is sometimes known as "Five Trap". Five traps are installed in a trench in front of the shooting stands. When the shooter calls 'Pull!' one of the traps, selected at random, throws a clay.

Elevations and flight angles of the targets vary, and are set to one of 10 official schemes that are selected at random before any competition.