Beginners Guide

Double Trap (DT) is an Olympic event and along with Olympic Trap (OT) and Olympic Skeet (OSk) is governed by the ISSF. As the name suggests, two targets are released simultaneously and one shot is taken at each.

Double trap is shot on a OT layout and uses the centre three traps (traps 7,8 & 9) two at a time. Trap 7 is angled at 5 degrees left, Trap 8 is straight and Trap 9 is angled at 5 degrees right. Different combinations of two from the three traps are called ‘schemes’. The targets are set to travel to 55 metres and the height of the targets at 10 metres is 3.5 metre for the centre target (trap 8) and 3metres for both left and right (traps 7 & 9). Although this might appear to be rather complicated it is very simple, the three schemes are presented like this:

Scheme A	Scheme B	Scheme C

A complete round is shot on one scheme of 25 pairs, competitions consist of shooting one round on all three schemes giving a total ex 150, with a final of 25 pairs on the wide scheme (C). There are six competitors on a squad and it is ‘shoot and move’ similar to OT, UT or ABT.

In 2005 a randomised delay of 0-1 second was introduced between the shooter calling for, and the release of the two simultaneous targets. This means that the shooter has to react to the appearance of the target from the trap house, and as there is an advantage in shooting the first target as soon as possible, this has led to the development of high rib guns, which have found favour with some shooters.

As with all Olympic disciplines (Double trap, Olympic Trap & Olympic Skeet), approved cartridges must have a maximum load of 24 grammes with a shot size no greater that 2.5mm (No7).

A consistently reliable technique is a necessity to shoot this discipline to the high standard required for success at both International and domestic level. Great Britain is currently one of the pre-eminent Nations in World shooting and has had major success in Double Trap.

Below are the current world records for Double Trap