doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion DoubleGun BBS @ doublegunshop.com What are they doing?

Found this image from 1930 of a shoot at the Takapuna Gun Club, Barry's Point, which is across the bay from Auckland



The shooters are lined up on a walk-way maybe 16 yards from a barrier, with some sort of netting just past the trap? There is something round on the other side of the stream but it's too small to be a pigeon ring fence, and the single walk-way looks like no trap lay-out I've seen. An early clay target pigeon "sporting clay"?

The 1914 GAH had “The Little Joker” - “A special trap with no restrictions as to angles, height, or distance for throwing targets gave contestants opportunities to try their skill between events.”



The 1915 GAH advertised 2 “Joker” Traps
https://digital.la84.org/digital/collection/p17103coll17/id/24921/rec/41

and again in 1916
https://digital.la84.org/digital/collection/p17103coll17/id/23301/rec/31

Perhaps a Sliver Carp shoot?

Catching unbroken glass ball targets

https://glassbottlemarks.com/glass-target-balls/

Victorian-era handblown hollow glass balls for trap-shooting, eventually replaced by the “Clay Pigeon”

Glass target balls were produced in the United States from circa 1877 to approximately 1900. They were superceded by the “clay pigeon”. Target balls are sometimes confused with glass fishing net floats. The typical target ball measures about 2.5 inches in diameter. Target balls are increasingly difficult to find. Sometimes they were saved from destruction, to be used later on as Christmas ornaments.

Target balls are occasionally found, or end up being owned, by persons who have no idea what they are. On a rare occasion, an example might show up at a flea market or antique shop.
Glass Target Ball, marked "IRA PAINE'S FILLED BALL PAT OCT 23 1877" in yellow amber (photo courtesy Glswrk-auction.com)
Glass Target Ball, marked “IRA PAINE’S FILLED BALL PAT OCT 23 1877” in yellow amber (photo courtesy Glswrk-auction.com)

Target balls usually have a circular rough-edged “lip” or “neck” extending outward where the ball was “cracked off” from the glassblower’s blowpipe.

They are found in a wide array of colors, including ambers, blues, purple, various shades of green, aquamarine and other colors. Some are “quilted” with an embossed “cross-hatch” or “waffle” design, and others may be smooth with no raised design on the surface. A few have markings, for instance, lettering that promotes a sporting–goods supply company, or, in a very few instances, the name of a glass manufacturing company.

Duck sling

I'd guess they are shooting at targets. Probably clay targets?

Glass balls are an interesting thought Mike.
Glass balls for competition in the U.S. were mostly replaced by a variety of targets during the 1880s
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1I_5GfGqfidbrfhpwzMvsccjDxjCd39M6nERp99wVEBQ/edit

This states however that balls were manufactured into the 1920s, mostly for shooting galleries and "Wild West" shows
https://traphof.org/artifacts/history-of-glass-target-balls

Mark: are you suggesting that birds were tossed in the air from behind the barrier?
In some Columbaire shoots the shooter is standing on an elevated platform and there are markers above which the pigeon must fly to be a legal shot

I originally said glass balls until I saw the date and changed it to CLAY TARGETS, too, Drew. The 1930s-- would probably have to be clay targets. I had a harder time trying to figure out where Aukland was.

Not much help. One of the competitors on the walk-way in 1933

Quick search for Takapuna Gun Club, Barry's Point, turn up New Zealand. It looks like the fence, is at the rear of the trap house. So it is not a barrier that the bird must go over. I would think maybe a variation of live bird. Fence there to prevent the birds from flying towards the shooters. Due to angle of the photo we cannot see if there are any fences across the small gut. In rough conditions like that it could be and we just can not see it. Or there are no fences there and the local rules are dead is dead, at any range.

After a bit more research this is a live bird shoot. The £75 open handicap.