Skeet vs. Trap — What's the Difference?
By Tayyaba Rehman — Published on October 21, 2023
Skeet is a shooting sport where targets are launched from two houses in sideways paths, whereas Trap involves targets thrown outward from a single house.
Difference Between Skeet and Trap
Table of Contents
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Key Differences
Skeet is a discipline of clay target shooting. It features two machines called "houses," specifically a high house and a low house, that launch targets in intersecting paths. On the other hand, Trap is another form of clay shooting, distinguished by its singular launching machine that throws targets away from the shooter.
In Skeet, competitors move through a series of stations arranged in a semi-circle, shooting at targets launched from both the high and low houses. Trap, conversely, consists of several stations placed in a straight line behind the trap house, and shooters aim at targets moving away from them at varying angles.
Skeet offers a consistent target path, providing shooters with predictable trajectories, which can make it slightly easier for beginners. Trap, however, gives targets that vary in their left-right orientation, making it more unpredictable and presenting a distinct challenge for shooters.
Both Skeet and Trap require keen hand-eye coordination and quick reflexes. While the mechanics of the sports differ, they both emphasize the importance of accuracy, speed, and adaptability. Each discipline offers its own set of challenges, and many shooting enthusiasts enjoy participating in both to hone their skills.
Comparison Chart
Number of Launch Houses
Two (high and low house)
One
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Target Direction
Sideways from the shooter
Outward and away from the shooter
Shooting Stations
Stations arranged in a semi-circle
Stations lined up in a row behind the trap house
Target Path
Consistent and intersecting
Varying angles
Typical Challenge
Managing two different target heights
Predicting the varied left-right orientation of clays
Compare with Definitions
Skeet
Focuses on quick reflexes for two target heights.
The variation in Skeet comes from the high and low release points.
Trap
Targets can move in any direction within a certain arc.
The unpredictable nature of Trap shooting keeps the shooter always alert.
Skeet
Involves both a high and a low house for target release.
The high house in Skeet releases the clay target from an elevated position.
Trap
Emphasizes prediction skills due to varied target paths.
In Trap, anticipating the clay's direction is the key to success.
Skeet
Targets fly in a predictable side-to-side pattern.
In Skeet, the shooter anticipates the clay's side-to-side trajectory.
Trap
A contrivance for catching and holding animals, as a concealed pit or a clamplike device that springs shut suddenly.
Skeet
A form of trapshooting in which clay targets are thrown from traps to simulate birds in flight and are shot at from different stations.
Trap
A stratagem for catching or tricking an unwary person.
Skeet
(uncountable) A form of trapshooting using clay targets to simulate birds in flight.
Trap
A confining or undesirable circumstance from which escape or relief is difficult:fell into poverty's trap.
Skeet
A hand consisting of a 9, a 5, a 2, and two other cards lower than 9.
Trap
A device for sealing a passage against the escape of gases, especially a U-shaped or S-shaped bend in a drainpipe that prevents the return flow of sewer gas by means of a water barrier.
Skeet
The ejaculation of semen.
Trap
A device that hurls clay pigeons into the air in trapshooting.
Skeet
(nautical) A scoop with a long handle, used to wash the sides of a vessel and formerly to wet the sails or deck.
Trap
A land hazard or bunker on a golf course; a sand trap.
Skeet
A young working-class person who may be loud, disruptive and poorly educated.
Trap
TrapsA measured length of roadway over which electronic timers register the speed of a racing vehicle, such as a dragster.
Skeet
(Manx) news or gossip
Trap
(Baseball)See web.
Skeet
(internet slang) A post on the Bluesky social media platform.
Trap
A defensive strategy or play, as in basketball or hockey, in which two or more defenders converge on an offensive player shortly after the player gains possession of the ball or puck.
Skeet
To shoot or spray.
Trap
The act of trapping a soccer ball.
Skeet
(AAVE) To ejaculate.
Trap
(Football)A running play in which the ball carrier advances through a hole in the defensive line created by allowing a defensive lineman to penetrate the backfield.
Skeet
(Manx) to look through the front windows of somebody else's house
Trap
A light two-wheeled carriage with springs.
Skeet
A scoop with a long handle, used to wash the sides of a vessel, and formerly to wet the sails or deck.
Trap
A trapdoor.
Skeet
The sport of shooting at clay pigeons that are hurled upward in such a way as to simulate the flight of a bird
Trap
Traps(Music)Percussion instruments, such as snare drums and cymbals, especially in a jazz band.
Skeet
A shooting sport with intersecting clay target paths.
Jake practiced Skeet every weekend to improve his accuracy.
Trap
(Slang)The human mouth.
Skeet
Requires moving through a series of stations in a semi-circle.
She transitioned smoothly between the Skeet shooting stations.
Trap
Often traps Personal belongings or household goods.
Trap
Any of several dark, fine-grained igneous rocks often used in making roads.
Trap
To catch in a trap; ensnare.
Trap
To prevent from escaping or getting free:was trapped in the locked attic.
Trap
To deceive or trick by means of a scheme or plan.
Trap
To seal off (gases) by a trap.
Trap
To furnish with traps or a trap.
Trap
To catch (a ball) immediately after it has hit the ground.
Trap
To gain control of (a moving soccer ball) by allowing it to hit and bounce off a part of the body other than the arm or hand.
Trap
To set traps for game.
Trap
To engage in trapping furbearing animals.
Trap
To furnish with trappings.
Trap
A machine or other device designed to catch (and sometimes kill) animals, either by holding them in a container, or by catching hold of part of the body.
I put down some traps in my apartment to try and deal with the mouse problem.
Trap
A trick or arrangement designed to catch someone in a more general sense; a snare.
Unfortunately she fell into the trap of confusing biology with destiny.
Trap
A covering over a hole or opening; a trapdoor.
Close the trap, would you, before someone falls and breaks their neck.
Trap
A kind of movable stepladder or set of stairs.
Trap
A wooden instrument shaped somewhat like a shoe, used in the game of trapball.
Trap
The game of trapball itself.
Trap
Any device used to hold and suddenly release an object.
They shot out of the school gates like greyhounds out of the trap.
Trap
A bend, sag, or other device in a waste-pipe arranged so that the liquid contents form a seal which prevents the escape of noxious gases, but permits the flow of liquids.
Trap
A place in a water pipe, pump, etc., where air accumulates for lack of an outlet.
Trap
A successful landing on an aircraft carrier using the carrier's arresting gear.
After 100 traps, the arresting cables have to be replaced to minimize the danger of a worn or fatigued cable snapping under an aircraft.
Trap
(historical) A light two-wheeled carriage with springs.
A horse and trap
Trap
(slang) A person's mouth.
Keep your trap shut.
Trap
A policeman.
Trap
(in the plural) Belongings.
Trap
(slang) A cubicle (in a public toilet).
I've just laid a cable in trap 2 so I'd give it 5 minutes if I were you.
Trap
(sports) Trapshooting.
Trap
(geology) A geological structure that creates a petroleum reservoir.
Trap
(computing) An exception generated by the processor or by an external event.
Trap
A mining license inspector during the Australian gold rush.
Trap
A vehicle, residential building, or sidewalk corner where drugs are manufactured, packaged, or sold.
Trap phone
Trap car
Trap
Someone who is anatomically male but who passes as female.
Trap
A fictional character from anime, or related media, who is coded as or has qualities typically associated with a gender other than the character's ostensible gender; otokonoko, josou.
Trap
A genre of hip-hop music, with half-time drums and heavy sub-bass.
Trap
The money earned by a prostitute for a pimp.
Trap
An area, especially of a city, with a low level of opportunity and a high level of poverty and crime; a ghetto; a hood.
Trap
A dark coloured igneous rock, now used to designate any non-granitic igneous rock; trap rock.
Trap
The trapezius muscle.
Trap
(transitive) To physically capture, to catch in a trap or traps, or something like a trap.
To trap foxes
Trap
(transitive) To ensnare; to take by stratagem; to entrap.
Trap
(transitive) To provide with a trap.
To trap a drain
To trap a sewer pipe
Trap
(intransitive) To set traps for game; to make a business of trapping game.
Trap for beaver
Trap
To successfully land an aircraft on an aircraft carrier using the carrier's arresting gear.
After three consecutive bolters, the pilot finally trapped successfully on the Nimitz.
Trap
(intransitive) To leave suddenly, to flee.
Trap
To sell illegal drugs, especially in a public area.
Trap
To capture (e.g. an error) in order to handle or process it.
Trap
To attend to and open and close a (trap-)door.
Trap
Of a 'trap': to trick a (heterosexual) man into having sex, by appearing to be a woman.
Trap
To dress with ornaments; to adorn (especially said of horses).
Trap
To dress with ornaments; to adorn; - said especially of horses.
Steeds . . . that trapped were in steel all glittering.
To deck his hearse, and trap his tomb-black steed.
There she found her palfrey trapped In purple blazoned with armorial gold.
Trap
To catch in a trap or traps; as, to trap foxes.
Trap
Fig.: To insnare; to take by stratagem; to entrap.
Trap
To provide with a trap; as, to trap a drain; to trap a sewer pipe. See 4th Trap, 5.
Trap
To set traps for game; to make a business of trapping game; as, to trap for beaver.
Trap
An old term rather loosely used to designate various dark-colored, heavy igneous rocks, including especially the feldspathic-augitic rocks, basalt, dolerite, amygdaloid, etc., but including also some kinds of diorite. Called also trap rock.
Trap
A machine or contrivance that shuts suddenly, as with a spring, used for taking game or other animals; as, a trap for foxes.
She would weep if that she saw a mouseCaught in a trap.
Trap
Fig.: A snare; an ambush; a stratagem; any device by which one may be caught unawares.
Let their table be made a snare and a trap.
God and your majestyProtect mine innocence, or I fall intoThe trap is laid for me!
Trap
A wooden instrument shaped somewhat like a shoe, used in the game of trapball. It consists of a pivoted arm on one end of which is placed the ball to be thrown into the air by striking the other end. Also, a machine for throwing into the air glass balls, clay pigeons, etc., to be shot at.
Trap
The game of trapball.
Trap
A bend, sag, or partitioned chamber, in a drain, soil pipe, sewer, etc., arranged so that the liquid contents form a seal which prevents passage of air or gas, but permits the flow of liquids.
Trap
A place in a water pipe, pump, etc., where air accumulates for want of an outlet.
Trap
A wagon, or other vehicle.
Trap
A kind of movable stepladder.
Trap
Of or pertaining to trap rock; as, a trap dike.
Trap
A device in which something (usually an animal) can be caught and penned
Trap
Drain consisting of a U-shaped section of drainpipe that holds liquid and so prevents a return flow of sewer gas
Trap
Something (often something deceptively attractive) that catches you unawares;
The exam was full of trap questions
It was all a snare and delusion
Trap
A device to hurl clay pigeons into the air for trapshooters
Trap
The act of concealing yourself and lying in wait to attack by surprise
Trap
Informal terms for the mouth
Trap
A light two-wheeled carriage
Trap
A hazard on a golf course
Trap
Place in a confining or embarrassing position;
He was trapped in a difficult situation
Trap
Catch in or as if in a trap;
The men trap foxes
Trap
Hold or catch as if in a trap;
The gaps between the teeth trap food particles
Trap
To hold fast or prevent from moving;
The child was pinned under the fallen tree
Trap
A clay target shooting sport with targets moving away from the shooter.
He excelled in Trap, hitting almost every clay.
Trap
Uses a single house for launching targets.
The Trap house releases clays at different angles.
Trap
Shooters stand in a straight line behind the house.
Each shooter took their position in the Trap line.
Common Curiosities
Do Skeet shooters need to anticipate two different target heights?
Yes, Skeet involves both a high and a low house, presenting two target heights.
Which shooting sport involves two houses for launching targets?
Skeet involves two houses, a high house and a low house.
Are the target paths predictable in Skeet?
Yes, in Skeet, targets fly in a predictable side-to-side pattern.
In which sport do targets move away from the shooter?
In Trap, targets move away from the shooter.
Is the target direction consistent in Trap?
No, in Trap, targets can move in any direction within a certain arc.
Can participants participate in both Skeet and Trap?
Yes, many shooting enthusiasts participate in both Skeet and Trap.
Which sport requires predicting skills due to varied target paths?
Trap requires prediction skills due to its varied target paths.
Which sport emphasizes quick reflexes for two target heights?
Skeet emphasizes quick reflexes for both high and low target heights.
How many shooting stations are there in Trap?
Trap typically features five shooting stations.
Which sport might be slightly easier for beginners due to its consistent target path?
Skeet might be slightly easier for beginners due to its consistent target path.
In which discipline do targets fly in a side-to-side pattern?
In Skeet, targets fly in a side-to-side pattern.
How are the shooting stations arranged in Skeet?
In Skeet, shooting stations are arranged in a semi-circle.
How many houses does Trap shooting involve?
Trap involves a single house for launching targets.
Is the target path in Skeet intersecting or parallel?
The target path in Skeet is intersecting.
Which discipline requires shooters to handle varying left-right orientations of clays?
Trap presents targets with varying left-right orientations.
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Written by
Tayyaba RehmanTayyaba Rehman is a distinguished writer, currently serving as a primary contributor to askdifference.com. As a researcher in semantics and etymology, Tayyaba's passion for the complexity of languages and their distinctions has found a perfect home on the platform. Tayyaba delves into the intricacies of language, distinguishing between commonly confused words and phrases, thereby providing clarity for readers worldwide.
