History of Skeet

Skeet was invented by Charles Davies, an avid grouse hunter, in the 1920s as a sport called Clock Shooting. The original course was a circle with a radius of 25 yards with its circumference marked off like the face of a clock and a trap set at the 12 o’clock position. The practice of shooting from all directions had to cease, however, when a chicken farm started next door. The game evolved to its current setup by 1923 when one of the shooters, William Harnden Foster, solved the problem by placing a second trap at the 6 o’clock position and cutting the course in half. Foster quickly noticed the appeal of this kind of competition shooting, and set out to make it a national sport. The game was introduced in the February 1926 issue of National Sportsman and Hunting and Fishing magazines, and a prize of 100 dollars was offered to anyone who could come up with a name for the new sport. The winning entry was "skeet" chosen by Gertrude Hurlbutt. The word "skeet" said to be derived from the Scandinavian word for "shoot" (skjuta). During World War II, skeet was used in the American military to teach gunners the principle of leading and timing on a flying target.

 

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.

 

Sources:  en.wikipedia.org, claytargetsonline.com, skeetshootingtips.com

 

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