NEXT QUESTION About Reading Traps...

OK, thanks to some honest and fascinating answers from some of our resident Old-Schoolers it is pretty apparent that trap-reading did indeed play a major role in high-level trapshooting prior to the introduction of modern interrupters.

But what about TODAY, with Pat traps, etc.? Let's answer the question two ways:

1) AMONG THE TOP 100 ATA SHOOTERS, HOW MANY OF THEM DO YOU THINK ARE CONCIOUSLY AND CONSISTENTLY ATTEMPTING TO READ THE TRAP AS PART OF THEIR COMPETITION SHOOTING ROUTINE?

Very few? 25? 50? 75? 90?

2) AMONG THOSE ABOVE WHO ARE INDEED TRYING TO READ THE TRAP, HOW MUCH OF A POSITIVE IMPACT IS IT REALLY HAVING ON THEIR SCORES?

ALMOST NONE?
SOME, BUT NOT MUCH?
SIGNIFICANT?
MAJOR?

 

I don't think anyone reads a pat trap. But I have no proof.
I don't think it would help their score. But i'm interested to learn more.

 

I don't think the really good shooters even consider reading the traps. .These guys and ladies are so tuned to thier game that reading the machine would be wasted thought and completely unnecessary.You watch Stafford,Ohye,Harlan,or any of the top shooters and they just have the concentration to shoot way beyond what most of us can imagine.These guys are good!Do they miss? Yep,but it ain't very often and reading a machine would'nt break that missed target.My vote,to answer your query,NONE!

 

Come on, not even 1 of the top 100? Heck, I'd bet 1 of 100 uses a lucky rabbit's foot!

-Gary

 

I don't know if they would tell you if they were. We always told someone that had taken a class from one of the top shooters.

"Yep, he taught YOU everything you know. He just didn't teach you everything HE knows."

Half kidding them but there might be a little truth in that.

Flyersarebest

 

Right, but I'm not really seeking confessions from the top shooters. Just educated opinions from experienced shooters on this site about the likelihood that todays top 100 ATA shooters can really read a modern Pat/other trap.

-Gary

 

Gary, the target angles we shoot today are close to the areas the true trap readers wanted to be in for a good score.

What you should observe. Intently watch some of our top shooters and their target call timing and compare that target to the one his neighbor shot prior? You'll probably gather more information doing that than asking guys to give up any shooting secrets. You can learn things by going in the hole too? As the cow says, "eat more chikin"!

HAP

 

Come on, Hap -- you're telling me the "true trap readers" of yesteryear were only trying to narrow the spread by 23%? (from 44 degrees to 34 degrees?). I just ain't buyin that, Brother.

The rest of your answer is rather cryptic but if I can get my hands on a Ouija Board I will try to decipher it.

"You can learn things by going in the hole too"....
Going in the hole... Hmmm, what could that mean? ...Oh, you mean like buying a K80 on credit?! ... and that will FORCE me to shoot better and win money to avoid bankruptcy? Hap, you're like a friggin Zen Master! THANKS!!

-Gary

(I'm a little old to be a trap boy, my friend )

 

I guess know one wants to give up their competitive advantage!!

 

I suppose it had to come out sooner or later. I was hoping for later, at least not before any dot.com shoot takes place at the Cardinal Center. I was really looking forward to kicking some All American ass. Now that seems like a pipe dream.

It all started two years ago at the Buckeye. We were sitting at the covered tables area outside the registration building when Dave Berlet rolled up in his golf cart. He just kept talking about these eye drops or pills or whatever that make him see so much better then the average trap shooter. He just wouldn’t shut up about it. After he left one of the guys said “geeze, you would think he was getting paid by that outfit the way he promotes that stuff.” But his infomercial started us talking about ways to have an advantage over the average shooter. Of course the subject of “trap reading” was one of the first topics. Everyone agreed that it was impossible with the Pat Trap. Everyone but one.

“You can’t read the trap” said Uncle Sticky emphatically. “But you can hear the hydraulics by gawd” he exclaimed. Now this was no small statement from Sticky. Sticky did indeed know his hydraulics. He was the foreman of a maintenance crew that serviced the garbage trucks for a huge waste management company in Southern Ohio. Hence his name. But that aside, the man was a Hydraulic Houdini. “When that hose stops a humming, that’s where that bird be a launching” he said with authority. It was at that moment that five upstanding and honest trapshooters crossed the line. They knew it was wrong. They didn’t care. They went to the dark side.

The first test would be the Ohio State Shoot 2013. To be specific, it would be the John Deere Handicap. The tester would be our most squeaky clean conspirator and beyond reproach, a respected and well liked physician. (And for you skeptics reading this who assume this is just a fairy tale, please feel free to check the results of that shoot on R J Stuart.)

We fitted the special ear muffs the morning of the shoot. They looked normal. They didn’t stand out. No one would be the wiser, of that we were pretty certain. The gang of five went right from the classification building to the practice trap, each feeling the anxiety of what they were about to do. He went to the line and turned the dial on the muff to the left and looked intently at the trap house. He then adjusted the second dial on the other side of the muff. He turned and looked at his four fellow larcenist and grinned. It worked!

He smoked the first five. Then he moved to station two and did it again. His timing was incredible. I have seen plenty of quick shots on the first target in doubles, but this was ridiculous. He was inkballing targets nine feet out of the house. People stopped walking behind the practice trap and looked our way with mouths agape. I rushed up to our shooter and gave him the slashed throat gesture hoping he would interpret correctly that he was to cease shooting at once.

“People are going to know something is up if you shoot them things that damn fast” I hissed at him as he removed the muffs. “For Christ Sakes it looks like the Amazing Kreskin shooting trap, you can’t shoot them before you can see them” I whispered. “But it’s so easy” he said in a hushed tone. “When the hose noise stops, the target comes out exactly in that spot every time.”

We knew all the scores that had been posted. One of the crew sat on a bench in front of one of the tv’s scrolling the results with cell phone in hand. The line from his phone to our man behind our shooter was kept open. There were no one hundreds. And the way things were going, our man would be the sole perfect shooter in the handicap. We decided he should drop a target just in case there might be any questions brought forth as to how our man went through the four traps as if he were playing a video game. The shooter protested but grudgingly gave in to our demands. He stopped the gun on a hard right from post five and the now assembled crowd behind the trap gasped. He turned and gave a sheepish grin. He will need to keep his day gig as a doctor. He could never make it as an actor. Later, he was crowned the winner of the prestigious John Deere Handicap with a ninety-nine.

In the motor coach driving down I-71 just south of Columbus later that evening heading for home we made the pact. No one was to ever say a word about what had transpired earlier. There were reputations at stake. If a scandal of this nature should ever surface, why the entire integrity of not only the ATA but of trapshooting in general would come into question. It had the potential to paint us and our governing organization as nothing but a bunch of rule bending cheaters looking for any advantage to satisfy our goals.

The muffs are in my safe-deposit box at the bank. I think it best that they remain under lock and key for now. I feel the weight of this technology heavy on my shoulders. I know that there are those of you out there that would be willing to pay any price to obtain this advantage. Alas, none of us will ever reap the rewards from marketing this unique creation of Sticky’s.

He has a non-compete agreement with the waste management company.

 

Gary...
Answer to question #1...... 100% of them try it, to some extent, and perhaps 75% are successful enough at it to read the AREA the next target is going to be thrown.

Answer to question #2..... Significant to those that are successful at reading it....

While I am far from being a top shooter, I can usually tell you, at least 50-60% of the time, the general quadrant in which the target will be thrown. I can usually tell if it's going to be a hard angle target, quarter angle target, etc., and I'm pretty convinced that trap reading still goes on, to some extent, these days as well....

 

At times, yes sir! If you knew the general area where the target will be is a tremendous advantage, yesteryear and today too!

Prolly true Gary but one never gets too old to learn new tricks? If you won't take any and all advantages you can muster in any sport while abiding by the rule, hot days may seem to hardly ever come your way? It's ok to get down & dirty as long as it's legal and you put forth the effort? K-80s alone isn't the total answer to all shooting ills, skills?

HAP

 

Good story Doc. I think today more shooters practice Trap Resetting instead of trap reading. Brad

 

Doc love your animation mike

 

Why would a top shooter want to think about where the target is going to go instead of breaking it. I think some of the non shooters from the other side are now trying to mess with our minds.
With the target angles we now shoot why try to read? It is just some thing else we should not be thinking of. I f you can not control your thoughts on the line you are not going to be a CHAMPION. Roger