What Is It?

Question Posted on: 10/2/08
Answer Given on: 10/7/08
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Back before there were "clay pigeons," aka round disks tossed into the air by machines or people engaged in trap shooting, live birds were used.

What you see here is an old style "trap" in which a live bird was placed in the pyramid-shaped "trap" (through the easy-to-load door). Then, someone off to the side would pull a string (visible in picture at bottom left), releasing the trap walls, which would fall away cleanly (as in top picture). The bird, blinded by the light, and probably overheated, would then fly unpredictably off the pan, from which it was shot.

Trap shooting began with live birds in England 1793, and came to the U.S. in the 1820s where abundant Passenger Pigeons were the birds being blasted. At about the time of the Civil War, Passenger Pigeons became very scarce (they eventually went extinct) and so domestic pigeons were substituted and then, in the 1880's, glass balls and then clay discs (aka "clay pigeons") were introduced. But the 1930s, most of the "trap shooting" was being done with "sporting clays."

To this day, however, there are some hold overs to the days of live-bird trap shooting.

Dove hunting over sunflower fields that have been planted specifically to attract mourning doves is common across the U.S., and in Pennsylvania, the shooting of live birds from traps similar to what is shown here is still legal. In many states "European tower shoots" of pheasants and other birds tossed out for hunters to blast away at are also legal, though I do not know of any self-respecting hunter who would attend one.

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