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Interesting article in the June 17, 1911 Sporting Life regarding the upcoming 1912 Olympic Games
On the subject of the shooting rules to govern the Olympic games, an interesting communication from Mr. Edward Banks, the noted du Pont man, is appended:
Wilmington, Del., December 9. Editor Sporting Life
I have noticed from time to time brief notices of the plan to take a team of amateurs to Stockholm, Sweden, to attend the Olympic Games next year. So far, however, I have failed to see any special reference to the conditions that will govern trap shooting contests at the above meeting, and it has occurred to me that probably it will be of interest, not only to those who are thinking of crossing the water to fight for trap shooting honors in behalf of the United States, but also for those who are compelled through business or other reasons to stay at home, to know just what the conditions are under which those competing for the individual and team championships will have to shoot.
On the other side of the Atlantic they know next to nothing of automatic traps, and the Sergeant System is a stranger to them. They have five firing points in a straight line, five yards apart, just as we used to have them years ago. Instead of having only one trap in the pit at each firing point they have what might be called a battery of three traps, so that, say, for instance, if a man at No. 1 position calls "Pull" and a target breaks in a trap, he can call “Pull” again immediately and get another trap from the battery of three at that point. In other words, there are 15 traps instead of five, as we used to have them, i.e. they have three at each firing point instead of one.
The main point for intending competitors to bear in mind is not so much the fact that the targets are thrown fully 60 yards, which is further than they are in this country, but the most important feature of all, namely, that all competitors must adopt the “gun below the elbow” style of shooting. This looks like going back almost, as it were, to the principles of the Middle Ages, but as a matter of fact, in England and on the Continent of Europe, trap shooting is looked upon not so much as a recreation in itself and a sport to be pursued as we do over here, but rather as practice for game shooting, so that the “field position” has been selected to prevail in the Olympic contests to be held at Stockholm next year.
In a copy of the Sporting Goods Review, published in London, England, on October 10, last, there is a little over two columns of notice given to the booklet recently gotten out by the du Pont Company entitled “The Sport Alluring”, which is criticised quite favorably in, an editorial way, and in which, when comparing trap shooting conditions in England and on the Continent with the conditions prevailing here, particularly with reference to the Olympic contests next year, the Sporting Goods Review makes the following notation:
The conditions of the Olympic competitions at Stockholm are, in the main, those usually adopted in England, there being 15 traps to the five marks, but a point which is of considerable importance, and will need careful attention by the competitors of all nations, is that the “gun below the elbow” position is insisted upon. Game shooters, on first taking up clay bird shooting, invariably decry the “gun at the shoulder” position. If they continue to take part in competitions they end by adopting it, because there is no doubt at all about its advantage when conditions are “known traps” and what might be called the “flushing point” of the bird can be covered.
It is my impression that this “gun below the elbow” idea in connection with these competitions is something new, and that no such restriction prevailed when Walter Ewing, of Montreal, Canada, went over to England three years ago (1908 London Olympic Games) and won the Individual championship for his native country, the Dominion of Canada. I have written Mr. Ewing asking him to advise you by mail as to what the conditions were when he shot for and won the championship at the Olympic Games in England. Yours truly,
EDWARD BANKS.

Jay Graham, Individual and Team Gold



Live action (the first minute) from the Stockholm Olympics, courtesy of Swedish Olympian Hakan Dahlby documenting the "ready" position