At this point of time, the shooter was not standing directly behind his potential target, rather a few yards behind it to increase the challenge. From this basic box has come the names we use today..."trap," and "trapshooting."

The next step, or advancement, in the moving target game in England, came in the year 1818 when established shooting clubs added a common feature to their game. Rather than a single trap a few yards in front of the shooter, they added four more, and made it five traps situated in a small arc giving the trapshooter a new challenge--the uncertainty of not knowing where, or from which trap, the single bird would be released. This simple feature added a great deal to the interest taken in the sport and, following its introduction, the game of "trap" showed exceptional growth in the British Isles.

In 1831, while British sport shooters were experimenting with a glass ball substitute for live birds, trapshooting moved to North America, with the first recorded shoot on this continent held at the famous Sportsmen's Club in Cincinnati, Ohio, early that same year. The domesticated pigeons of England were simply not abundant in America, but the alternative was a great number of birds that helped to firmly establish the sport in the United States...millions of birds that unbelievably would be totally extinct within a century. North American trapshooting owes some of its successful beginnings to the ill-fated Passenger Pigeon.

New shooting clubs were being formed all over the country, although competitions were limited to state- fairs and rodeos. Trapshooting, on a club level, was done for fun, relaxation, and practice, mainly due to a lack of common rules and a totally inconsistent method of shooting.

As the sport grew among the shooting fraternity so did the public outcry against the shooting of

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