In 1920 in the town of
Andover, Massachusetts,
a small group of upland
game hunters took to
shooting clay targets as
a means of practicing
their wing shooting. As
friendly rivalries
started to develop
amongst the group, a
uniform series of shots
were developed to keep
the competition fair and
even for all. It was
from this crude
beginning that the
modern day version of
skeet shooting developed
into what is now an
international sport
practiced by hunters and
non-hunters alike.
Charles
E. Davies, an Andover,
Massachusetts
businessman and avid
grouse hunter, is
recognized as the
inventor of the skeet
game as we know it.
The
word "skeet" is derived
from the Scandanavian
word for "shoot."Credit
for naming the game goes
to Gertrude Hurlbutt, a
Dayton, Montana
housewife, who in 1926
won a contest for naming
the new game. Among the
thousands of entries in
the contest were "Bang"
and "Bye Bye Blackbird."
Skeet
Shooting today involves
10's of 1000's of people
across North America and
the world. There is
American Skeet,
International Skeet and
English Skeet. Each form
of Skeet Shooting varies
slightly from the other.
The
National Skeet Shooting
Association is the
governing body for
American Skeet. More
than 20,000 skeet
shooters shoot
"registered targets"
that are sanctioned by
The National Skeet
Shooting Association
each year.
If you
want to shoot better in
the field, enjoy a day
at the gun club, or
compete with the top
skeet shooters in the
world for honor and
glory (notice that I
left out money), then
skeet shooting is a
great sport.
The
basic difference between
skeet shooting and
trapshooting is that in
skeet, most of the
targets are crossing
targets and in
trapshooting, all of the
targets are outgoing
targets.
How
To Skeet
Shooting
Page
