It all started near the town of Andover, Massachusetts. Charles E. Davies, his son Henry W. and “Father of Skeet” William H. Foster, started shooting at clay targets as a means of improving their wingshooting skills. But it quickly became competitive.
Around 1915, Mr. Davies developed a course using a complete circle of 25 yards radius with the circumference marked off like the face of a clock, creating 12 shooting positions.
Shooting “around the clock,” as it was informally called, had most of the elements of modern skeet shooting except it was a full circle. In 1923, a neighbor started a chicken farm on an adjacent lot, thus putting a stop to shooting in that direction! The problem was resolved by adding a second trap and placing it at 6 o’clock so it would throw its target over 12 o’clock, eliminating 1-5 o’clock positions. This gave the shooter the same types of shots as were found on the original clockface, but only using 180°.
Foster decided to further vary the available targets by placing the left-hand trap on an old tree stump a few feet higher than the righthand trap. The stations were renamed as 1 through 8 and the diameter reduced to 20 yards, bringing the modern skeet field into view.
Foster was convinced that the game had potential, and set about to develop a shooting program that would contain all the necessary elements of wingshooting practice and a competitive sport. But what to call it?
Leveraging his position as editor of both the National Sportsman and Hunting and Fishing magazines, Foster introduced his idea to the public. In the February 1926 issues, a description of the game was published and a prize of $100 was offered for the most appropriate name for the new sport. 10,000 entries were received. The winner was Mrs. Gertrude Hurlbutt of Dayton, Montana, suggested “skeet,” an old Scandinavian form of the word “shoot.”
The National Skeet Shooting Association (NSSA) was launched on March 20, 1928. On January 12, 1933, the NSSA began to register shoots and scores. The first official National Championship was held in August 1935, in Cleveland, Ohio.
Skeet as a sport nearly disappeared during War II. Equipment and ammunition were unavailable, and many participants had gone to war. However, the government realized the value of skeet in gunnery training, and soon all branches of the armed forces relied on skeet to teach servicemen the principles of leading moving targets.
At the end of WWII, a group of skeet enthusiasts re-launched the sport, holding the National Championships in Indianapolis in summer 1946 and incorporating the present NSSA in December, 1946. Soon after the new organization was formed, the national headquarters was moved to Dallas, eventually settling at what we now know as the National Shooting Complex.
In addition to the regular skeet shooting program of 12, 20 and 28 gauges, .410 bore and doubles, the NSSA offers registered targets in International style. This features several deviations to “American” style, including a 0-3 second variable target release, low-gun ready position, faster targets, and a different sequence of targets. This is to meet the requirements of the International Olympic Committee, producer of the Olympic Games, where skeet shooting has been an event since 1968.
There are multiple adaptations of Skeet, but only two are governed by the NSSA: American Skeet and Event 6.