Olympic Shotgun Events

Overview | Sporting Clays | Trap | Skeet | Cowboy Action Shooting | Olympic Shotgun |
Two-Person NSSF Stockgun Events

Any smoothbore shotgun that does not exceed 12-gauge in caliber may be used in men's and women's trap, double trap and skeet. Compensators or any other devices that serve a similar purpose are prohibited.

Men’s and Women’s Trap

In the trap events, competitors move through a series of five adjacent shooting stations. At each station, one target is thrown from an underground bunker a minimum distance of 229 feet, 8 inches at speeds up to 65 miles per hour. Each competitor fires up to two shots per target. Each target weighs 3.7 ounces, measures 4.25 inches in diameter and is just under one inch thick. They are shot out of one of three trap machines at each station, and the athlete does not know what machine the target will come from or the horizontal angle or direction for the target. The target’s maximum angle from the center line of a bunker is 45 degrees to either side.

For the men's event, the preliminary round consists of 125 targets shot in five rounds of 25 over two days. Three rounds are fired on the first day and two rounds plus the final are shot on the second day. For the women's event, the preliminary round consists of 75 targets shot in three rounds of 25 over one day. The final is shot the same day.

The top six competitors after the preliminary rounds advance to the 25-target final. The order of finish is based on the combined score from the preliminary round and the finals.

Women’s trap was a new event for the 2000 Olympics.

Men’s and Women’s Double Trap

This event was contested for the first time at the 1996 Olympics. Competitors fire shotguns from five adjacent shooting stations. At each station, two targets are thrown from an underground bunker at speeds up to 50 mph. Each competitor fires one shot per target. Each target weighs 105 grams (3.7 ounces), measures 11 cm (4¼ inches) in diameter and is 25-26 mm (just less than one inch) thick. They are shot out of one of three trap machines at each station and the athlete does not know what machine the targets will come from or the horizontal angle or direction for the targets. The target’s maximum angle from the center line of a bunker is 5 degrees to either side.

For the men's event, the preliminary round consists of 150 targets shot in three rounds of 50 in one day. For the women's event, the preliminary round consists of 120 targets shot in three rounds of 40 in one day. The finals for both men's and women's are shot the same day. The top six competitors advance to the finals, which consists of an additional 50 targets. The order of finish is based on the combined score from the preliminary round and the finals.

Men’s and Women’s Skeet

Competitors move through a semicircular range featuring eight shooting stations. At each station, single or double targets are thrown at least 65 meters (213 feet) from either the high trap house, which is 3.05 meters (10 feet) above ground level, or the low trap house, which is 1.05 meters (3 feet, 5¼ inches) above ground level. The houses are positioned 36.8 meters (120 feet, 9 inches) apart on either side of the range. Each target weighs 105 grams (3.7 ounces), measures 11 cm (4¼ inches) in diameter, is 25-26 mm (just less than one inch) thick and travels up to 55 mph. The competitors must hold their shotguns at hip level until the target appears and may fire one shot per target.

For the men's event, the preliminary round consists of 125 targets shot in five rounds of 25 over two days. Three rounds are fired on the first day and two rounds plus the final are shot on the second day. For the women's event, the preliminary round consists of 75 targets shot in three rounds of 25 over one day. The final is shot the same day.

After the preliminary round, the top six competitors advance to a 25-target final round. The order of finish is based on the combined score from the preliminary round and the finals.

Women’s skeet was a new event at the 2000 Olympics.

Qualifying for Olympic Berths

Each national shooting federation must earn “quota places,” or starting positions to send athletes to the Olympics. In order for a shooter to compete in the Olympics, the athlete must shoot a “minimum qualification score” (MQS) for the respective event at one of the championships supervised by the International Shooting Sports Federation (ISSF) during the four years between Olympic Games.

Quota places generally are awarded when an athlete wins a gold medal at the ISSF World Cup or the World Shotgun Championships, or when an athlete posts a top finish at the World Championships or continental championships. A quota place guarantees that someone from a given country—not necessarily the athlete who earned it—will compete in that Olympic event. Each nation can earn a maximum of 31 quota places: one each in women’s trap, women’s skeet and women’s double trap, and two each in all other events. A total of 35 “wild cards” will be granted to shooters from countries that have not obtained a quota place according to the regular procedure. These wild cards are given if it would be in the interest of the IOC, the national Olympic committee and the ISSF to have at least one shooter representing the particular country. Special wild cards for hardship cases (16) are granted by the ISSF to a country that has a shooter without a quota place but who has obtained an outstanding result in one of the Olympic shooting events in an official qualification competition. At the end of the qualification period (the last two years before the Olympic Games) a maximum of 12 quota places (three in trap, skeet, rifle and pistol) will be distributed according to a point system. The countries with the highest total points will receive Olympic berths, limited to one per country in the rifle, pistol, trap and skeet events for men and women. Each of the 17 events in the rifle, pistol and shotgun disciplines will be evaluated separately in order to find the highest number of points.

The country with the highest number of participation with one or more shooters in the ISSF-supervised championships during the qualification period will receive 10 points.

The country with the highest number of shooters entered in the above competitions will receive 10 points.

The country with the highest number of first-place winners in the above competitions will receive 10 points.

The country with the highest number of medals obtained in the previous Olympic Games will receive 10 points for gold, eight points for silver and six points for bronze.

Minimum Qualification Scores

Scoring

For shotgun events, each shot that hits the clay target, causing at least one visible piece to be broken, is scored a hit and counts as one point.

Records

Olympic Records (OR) may be established only in the Olympic shooting events in the Olympic Games.

World Records (WR) may be established in all recognized ISSF Men’s, Women’s, and Junior events in Olympic Games, World Championships, World Cups, Continental Championships and Continental Games that have been conducted according to the ISSF General Regulations.

Final Olympic Records (FOR) and Final World Records (FWR) may be established only in Olympic events for Men and Women and are comprised of the results of the Qualification Rounds added to the results of the Finals Round for each event.