Olympic Trap is one of the ISSF shooting events, introduced to the Olympic program in 1900; the current version was introduced in 1950. In International competitions the course of fire is 125 shots for men and 75 shots for women.

The Olympic trench (where the trap contains 15 fixed-angle machines set at 100 km/h (62 mph) as the exit speed of the targets as opposed to the slower (64 km/h or 40 mph) single oscillating machine used in American trap. The additional machines resolve the fairness issue: as the single machine in the American game is constantly oscillating horizontally, every shooter will receive a different mix of target angle difficulty. The 15 machine fixed-angle format eliminates this luck of the draw problem, ensuring that all shooters will receive exactly the same targets as all other shooters, hence providing the equal difficulty for all. A computer is used to ensure this occurs with programming to deliver 10 left, 10 right and 5 straight-away targets to each competitor in a randomized sequence. Finally, a microphone release system provides equality in target release times. An Olympic trap facility is designed to provide unequivocally equal opportunity for all.

The process of a round is as follows: There are six shooters, one to each station, with the sixth shooter initially starting at a holding station immediately behind shooter number one. At the beginning of first round of the day, test firing is allowed at the referee's permission. Upon receiving the start signal, the first shooter has 10 seconds to call for his target. After firing at his target, the first shooter waits for the second shooter to complete firing, then moves to station two, with the shooter on station six smoothly moving to station one. This procedure continues through the squad until the completion of the round.

The guns may be loaded, but actions must be open between stations 1 through 5. The gun must be unloaded and open for the walk from station five back to one. The unloading must be done BEFORE the shooter makes the turn to step off station five. This open action requirement alone tends to discourage the use of auto-loading shotguns as it is time consuming to unload if the second shell is not used.

Olympic Trap is only shot on Wednesday and Saturday mornings. Please check the schedule or email tony@vancouvergunclub.com for more information.