The first clay target was a smooth disk which appeared between 1883 and 1887. Hunting was quite popular in the Victorian period and being skillful at shooting was absolutely essential to be invited to most hunts. Clay shooting enabled people to practice and improve.

In 1812 the first clay-shooting club was created in the suburbs of London. Hats were used as a kind of rudimentary machines for shooting clay. This was the very beginning of the sport.

In 1850 hunters started to meet and practice by using manually-thrown glass balls. In 1977, a North American man called Adam Bogardu designed the first catapult for throwing these balls, and it was then when the term "Ball Trap" first appeared.

The Shooting Schools in London benefited from increasing demand and started to place machines and towers which could perform the simulation of a bird flight. In addition to that, the wider range of clay targets led to the introduction of a brand new discipline, named "Sporting" or "Hunting Runs" from that moment onwards.

In Spain, shooting as a sport appeared in the second half of the twentieth century. It was first considered as a civilian sport in the Olympic movement started at the end of the nineteenth century by Baron Pierre de Coubertin.

OLYMPIC SHOOT DISCIPLINES

Olympic Trap
This is the most popular discipline. There are 15 machines displayed on the field and the goal is to break each clay pigeon with either of the two available cartridges. At the competitions at Olympic distance there is a total of 5 series having 25 targets each, and another 25 targets in the final. The most important events in this discipline are the Olympic Games and the World Championship. Women contend on a 75 target basis prior to the final.

Olympic Double Trap
This is the most recent discipline and was acknowledged as an Olympic sport in 1996. It is not very popular in Spain since the number of targets is twice as much as in the other disciplines (50), which makes it more expensive.
The shooter aims at two targets leaving simultaneously with one cartridge for each clay pigeon. The series consist of 25 double targets (50 clay pigeons) and the shooting at Olympic distance includes 150 targets and another 50 in the final. There are three different shooting schedules, A, B and C. Schedule A refers to machines 7 and 8 throwing targets simultaneously. Schedule B refers to machines 8 and 9, and schedule C to machines 7 and 9. The targets are thrown at a distance of 55 meters, and the height is 3 meters for machines 7 and 9 and 3.5 metres for machine 8. Women contend on a 120 target basis, plus the final.

Olympic Skeet

This has been an Olympic discipline nearly from its beginning. It consists of 25 target series as in Olympic Trap. The shooting at Olympic distance includes 125 targets and another 25 at the final. Participants shoot at both single and double targets, but using just one cartridge for each clay pigeon. The shooting schedule remains always the same, there are no changes as regards height and distance: therefore, it is considered the most mechanical discipline of them all. In each series, shooting is carried out from 8 different positions. Women contend on a 75 target basis prior to the final.