By Chris Cohen - NY Sports

The shooting competitions in the Paris Olympics of 1900 included an event that used live pigeons as targets — almost 300 birds were killed, with winner Léon de Lunden downing 21 alone. In 2012, when even the traditional opening ceremony dove release has been replaced by metaphorical “dove bikes” out of concern for animal welfare, we instead have trapshooting, in which shooters pulverize flying clay disks with shotguns.

Trap events are split into trap and double trap. Though the two events take place on the same range, double trap involves shooting two targets airborne simultaneously at set angles, as opposed to conventional one-target trap, in which shooters take aim at a single target thrown at a variety of surprise angles. It’s relatively uncommon for shooters to be world-class competitors in both disciplines, and we’re going to focus on here on double trap, which has been an Olympic sport since 1996.

Event Format

Twenty-four shooters have qualified for the Games. They'll be divided into four “squads” for three preliminary rounds, and the six best shooters (regardless of their squad) will face off in a final round later that day.

LINK TO THE COMPLETE ARTICLE

http://nymag.com/daily/sports/2012/07/casual-viewers-guide-double-trapshooting.html