History of Stewartville Tigers Trap Team

In 2014, the Stewartville Sportsman's Club and the Stewartville High School joined forces to establish the Stewartville Tigers Trap Team.  Joe Waugh, former club and school board member, played a crucial role in bringing the idea to life by getting young youth involved in the sport of shooting. 

In the spring of 2015, eleven students signed up under head coach, John Russell.  While fall 2015 season brought a slight drop in numbers, word traveled fast and soon the roster doubled in size for the spring 2016 season.  The team participates in two seasonal leagues each year and averages 35 students per season.

The team's quick success earned them a 2nd place finish during the fall 2017 season. 

What is trap shooting

Trapshooting is one of the three major sports of competitive clay target shooting sports with a shotgun. The other primary shooting sports are
skeet shooting and sporting clays.

They are distinguished roughly as follows:

• In trapshooting, the targets are launched
from a single “house” or machine,
generally away from the shooter.

• In skeet shooting, targets are launched
from two “houses” in somewhat “sideways”
paths that intersect in front of the shooter.

• Sporting clays includes a more complex course,
with many launch points.

The layout of trapshooting field differs from that of a skeet field and/or a sporting clays course. There are variations of events within each shooting sport group.

What a trap field looks like

The trap field refers to the entire layout of the trap house and shooting positions on the station. The station is the concrete walkway that contains multiple shooting positions (16 to 27 yards from the trap house) where the shooter stands.  

The trap house is the structure in front of the stations from which the clay targets are released. The trap machine that is filled with clay targets is located in the trap house and oscillates left to right within a 54 degree arc (up to 27 degrees right and left of center), and at least a 34 degree arc
(up to 17 degrees right and left of center).

The competitor does not know where in that arc the target will emerge when they call for a target via a voice-activated microphone or by a puller – a person who uses an electric switch to release the target.