Training
CISSA, via its members and/or officers, provides shooting assistance to beginning, intermediate, and even experienced shooters through practice days and other introductory events. Please feel free to contact CISSA for information regarding practice days or getting started in competitive shooting.
Trap
Trap is a formal shotgun game using the same target (a clay pigeon) which is used for Skeet: a fragile saucer about 5 inches in diameter. The clay pigeon flies almost straight away from the shooter, who stands at one of 5 stations (positions) which form an arc behind the trap house. The birds (clay pigeons) are launched from the trap house, located in front of the shooting stations. The oscillating mechanical arm of the trap flings the birds left, straight ahead, or to the right of the shooter. Distances vary from 16 to 27 yards; at CISSA’s trap shoots we usually shoot from the 17-yard stations. Behind the shooters, the rangemaster (called a “puller”) controls a remote device connected to the Trap machine. When a shooter is ready to fire, he calls, “Pull!” and the puller depresses the button, allowing the trap to release a bird. One of the skills required for shooting trap is the ability to locate the bird as it leaves the trap house and track its progress across the sky.
Skeet
In Skeet there are two “houses” at the left and right ends of the field: a high house and a low house. There are eight shooting stations, with Station One located at the base of the high house and Station Seven at the low house, and Station Eight located between the houses. In Skeet the pigeons are thrown in the same direction (from the high to the low house and vise a versa). It is the change in the shooter’s position (station) relative to the target which varies, resulting in shots ranging from straightaway to crossing in front of the shooter at 90 degrees to coming almost straight at the shooter. There are singles at each station, doubles (one bird from each house, thrown simultaneously) at some. A certain amount of lead is necessary to hit the target.
Skeet provides a wider variety of shots than trap, but the distances between shooter and pigeon are closer. In either game, if the target breaks, whether a single chip is shorn off by one pellet or if the bird turns into a cloud of dust, it counts as a hit. A perfect score is 24 hits out of 24 targets thrown. A ’round’ of either game consists of 24 pigeons and you can shoot several rounds in one day.
IPSC
IPSC Motto
The Latin words Diligentia, Vis, Celeritas (DVC) meaning accuracy, power, and speed are IPSC’s motto and form the foundation for competition. IPSC also emphasizes procedures for safe gun handling and strict adherence to the rules governing the sport.
IPSC recognizes all the shooting disciplines – Handgun, Rifle, Shotgun, and Action Air.
IPSC shooters need to blend accuracy, power, and speed into a winning combination. Multiple targets, moving targets, targets that react when hit, penalty targets, or even partially covered targets, obstacles, movement, competitive strategies, and other techniques are all a part of IPSC to keep shooters challenged and spectators engaged.
IPSC Competition
In IPSC shooting, no course of fire is ever the same from one competition to the next. Diversity is encouraged to keep the sport from becoming too formalized or standardized and typically, competitors do not know in advance what to expect in any given match.
IPSC Handgun
IPSC targets have a 15-centimeter center representing the “A zone” or bullseye. Most shooting takes place at relatively close distances, with rare shots out to 50 meters. Hitting a 15-centimeter zone might seem easy to an experienced pistol shooter, but in IPSC only full power handguns are used (9mm or larger).
Mastering a full power handgun is considerably more difficult than shooting a light recoiling target pistol, especially when the competitor is trying to go as fast as possible. Time is a key factor. Target points are divided by the time taken to achieve them, adding to the challenge.
IPSC Shotgun and Rifle
IPSC Shotgun and Rifle disciplines are similar to Handgun but differ in many details. Only minor differences are found in the competition rules.
Although the roots of IPSC are martial in origin, IPSC shooting matured from those beginnings, just as karate, fencing, and archery developed from their origins.
ISSF
The International Shooting Sport Federation, also known with the acronym ISSF, is the governing body of the Olympic Shooting events in Rifle, Pistol and Shotgun disciplines, and of several non-Olympic Shooting sport events. Shooting sports currently consist of three different disciplines: Pistol, Rifle and Shotgun. Each and every one of them includes multiple events, varying for distance from the target, position and type of sport gun.