As some of you may know, Live Pigeon Shooting was Olympic for one time:
Paris 1900, 300 Doves fall from the sky. The one and only Olympic Champion was
Leon de Lunden from Belgium who shot 21 with only 2 failed!
I found a story about the contest in Monte Carlo about 1910 and there is said (sorry, own translation in poor english):
It's not too difficult to hit the doves, but the real problem is, you have to hit them fast, because they have to fall down within the correct zone. If not, the shot doesn't count.
There were about 250 participiants who paid 300 Francs = 75,000 Franc - the winner gets 25,000 in cash plus an object of about 10,000. The second gets 30%, the third 25% and so on. But the main attraction for the visitors is making some bets.
The winner and the second usual made an agreement on their prizes and shared it with each other. Only for the prize of honour they finally compete.
there is a reprint of a book about (I don't know it yet):
Live Trap Pigeon And Glass Ball Shooting
Michael Yardley also wrote one: "CLAY SHOOTING: A HISTORY"
Of course there were also women involved:
Monte Carlo:
and on the Olympics with hand protectors:
It was a great time for shooting in those days, I think!
Gunwolf
