 Clockface to Skeet range: Just plane geometry
Dotted lines in the Skeet field diagram above are all that remain to hint at Skeet's early days, but they serve to illustrate the game's total dependence on the original circle for its very form and existence.
For the geometric-minded, the working area of a Skeet field is actually a sector of a large circle formed by the target flight paths originating from each side of the circumference and meeting in the circle's center at the target crossing point. The entire circle's circumference is 395.84 feet and its area is 12,468.982 square feet -- or almost three-tenths of an acre. The sector's area is 5,091.501 square feet -- or slightly over one-tenth of an acre.
The portion of that sector likely most familiar to a Skeet shooter is a segment of the circle described by the 120'-9" base cord running between the front edges of Stations 1 and 7 and the arc below comprising Shooting Stations 1 through 7. The segment contains 4,010.665 square feet and the stations arc length is 161.635 feet.
Admittedly, those square footage figures won't improve anyone's Skeet game, but knowing them is a big help for someone building a range and planning on instant grass in any or all areas using pallets of sod, each of which will cover 400 square feet. Sodding only the area inside the station arc out to the target crossing point and across to above both houses would require 16 pallets. To sod the entire rectangle you'd need 19.8 pallets.
The Skeet range has a High House on the left and a Low House on the right, each housing a trap machine which throws the targets from their windows at 17-degree angles from the base cord
across the target crossing point, which is 18 feet straight out from the center of Station 8. Each house sits three feet outside the circle, exactly at the rear of the shooting pads of Stations 1 and 7.
The center of the High House window is 10 feet above Station 1 and directly over the head of the shooter. The center of the Low House window is 3 feet, 6 inches above Station 7 and to the right of the shooter.
Regulation targets travel at about 45 mph in a rainbow trajectory for 60 yards and must cross the center stake at an elevation of 15 feet above the surface of the shooting stations, all of which must be at the same level.
Periodically, the trap machines are checked to make sure they're throwing regulation targets. This is done with a device called the hoop, a pole on the top of which is a metal circle 3 feet in diameter, the center of which must stand 15 feet above the target crossing point.
With someone holding the hoop at the target crossing point, another person adjusts the trap machines vertically and horizontally until they throw their targets pretty much through the center of the hoop.
The throwing arm of the trap has a rail against which the target rests and which imparts a spin to it when released, creating a gyroscopic effect which lends stability to the spinning disk.
The targets themselves are made of lime and pitch, which is poured into molds and "warmed up" but not baked, as in a kiln, then the colors are painted on. They're available for different games in a variety of styles, sizes and colors -- standard, mini clays, midi clays, battue, clay rabbits -- but the standard Skeet target is round, dome-shaped, 108mm (4-1/4") in diameter and about one inch high.
Around 1870, clay was first used to create targets, but it was difficult to attain consistent hardness. In 1880, the mixture of lime and pitch was found to create a target that had the ideal combination of sturdiness and brittleness.
Although the targets are no longer made from clay, the name has carried over. And no doubt even the new biodegradable targets, constructed of finely pulverized limestone, sulfur and some other binders, which supposedly self-destruct in about two years with enough rainfall, will continue to carry the "clays" moniker.
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