The “Sporting” discipline probably has the second biggest following in Ireland and while the other disciplines only use standard targets, in Sporting almost anything goes!
Targets are thrown in a great variety of trajectories, angles, speeds, elevations and distances and the discipline was originally devised to simulate live quarry shooting.
Hence some of the names commonly used to describe Sporting stands include Springing Teal, Driven Pheasant, Bolting Rabbit, Crossing Pigeon, Dropping Duck, etc.
Disciplines in this group include Sporting Clays, FITASC (International) Sporting, Super Sporting, Sportrap and Compak Sporting.
Sporting Clays: This discipline is sometimes referred to as “English Sporting” and can have an infinite variety of ‘stands’. A course or competition will feature a given number of stands each of which has a predetermined number of targets, all travelling along the same path and speed, either as singles or doubles. Each stand will feature a different type of target i.e. crosser, driven, quartering etc.
FITASC Sporting: Also known as “Parcours De Chasse”, International Sporting or just Sporting this discipline gives a much greater variety of targets in terms of trajectory and speed, and is shot by squads of six competitors normally in rounds of 25 targets at a time.
Super Sporting is a hybrid of the two preceding varieties.
There are also other formats such as Compak Sporting and Sportap in which five cages are surrounded by a number of traps, and shooters fire a specific combinations of singles and doubles from each stand according to a program displayed in front of the cage.
