Do not miss it because if you do, you will lose – that is the simple principle when competing in trap shooting, but it is easier said than done.

Trap shooting is one of the three major disciplines of competitive clay pigeon shooting.

Christiaan Steyn, a third-year law student at Tuks, will vouch for that. Two years ago, during the British Championships, he was on song, hitting each target with his first shot. Then it happened… he missed. Steyn ended up with a score of 299 out of 300. That one mistake meant he slipped back to fifth with 15 other competitors. His performance was, however, still good enough to be crowned the junior champion.

This week Steyn will compete at the World Championships in Britain and the European Championships. The one thing Steyn can promise is that he will be prepared.

The Tuks student competes in the Down-the-Line category. In this competition, the trap machine oscillates left to right within a 45-degree arc, and each competitor shoots in turn, then moves station after attempting 5 targets from each station in each round of 25 targets. Two shots are permitted at each target, but second shots incur a points penalty.

“For me, two things are essential in my sport. One is repetition. During training, you must shoot the ‘plays’ repeatedly. At least a hundred times or more or until you have it finetuned to an art. To me, it is all about muscle memory. When taking aim, you must hold the rifle precisely as you did with the previous shot. Something small, like how your chin rests on the gun, could impact the shot. Or the way you look down the barrel,” Steyn explained.

He emphasizes that the shooter also must be utterly focused, as mentally trapshooting takes its toll. That one second you let your guard down is when you will miss the clay.

“Core strength is an advantage as you shoot 100 shots with a shotgun in a competition. With each shot, there is recoil, and you increasingly feel the gun’s weight,” he remarked.

A gun’s recoil, or kickback, is the backward movement a shooter feels when the bullet is discharged. Experts will tell you that when a gun exerts a force on a bullet as it is launching it forward, the law of physics says the bullet will exert an equal force in the opposite direction of the gun.

“The biggest drawback in our sport in South Africa is the cost. Buying a gun and ammunition is a costly undertaking. There are also only so many facilities where you can go train. At most, I do train once or twice a month. In Europe, it is different. Most athletes can train once daily if they choose to do so. Luckily you can do exercises at home to improve your shooting skills,” Steyn concluded.

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