George Ligowski's clay pigeon was now almost ten 
     
     years old and a few other manufacturers had moved into 
     
     the lucrative market with similar targets, like the 
     
     Fisher Disc and the American Clay Bird, which were 
     
     developed in the mid 1880's. On the National and 
     
     International scene, the game of trapshooting had 
     
     established for itself a solid base of enthusiasts. 
     
     Perhaps the most noticeable physical aspect of change, 
     
     by 1890, was in the layout of the trap field itself. 
     
     The long accepted five traps and single shooting 
     
     station were gone, and in an almost total reversal, 
     
     were replaced by a single trap situated 16 yards in 
     
     front of five shooting staions, which were placed 
     
     semicircular to the rise of the target. By this time, 
     
     too, the popular shooting game had also received its 
     
     first totally standardized set of rules. 
     
    
   
   
    
     In the early 1890's, clay targets were to go 
     
     through one more major change. Their use had spread 
     
     to the many shooting clubs in Great Britain, and an 
     
     Englishman named Johnathan McCassey saw an opportunity 
     
     to improve on the artificial American Pigeon. Rather 
     
     than use unpredictable clay, he fashioned targets with 
     
     a blend of limestone and pitch and developed a target 
     
     of almost perfect consistency as far as impact 
     
     breakage was concerned. His manufacturing methods are 
     
     still used today, and the name he gave his targets 
     
     have come to our generation as a manufacturer's brand 
     
     name...'Blue Rocks,' or as the new generation came to 
     
     affectionately call them,..."Rocks." 
     
    
   
   
    
       
     
    
   
   
    
     EARLY “BLUE ROCK" CLAY TARGET WHICH 
     
     WERE MANUFACTURED IN ENGLAND. 
     
    
   
   
    
     --5 3--