TRAP

When the Fall River Rod & Gun Club was established, Phil Letendre and his brother Charles helped to organize trap shooting at the club. They brought with them the knowledge of the sport and enthusiasm to get trap up and going in the new club.

In 1959 we added flood lights, making it possible to shoot at night, this proved to be as popular as it was to shoot in the daytime. The trap machines used at this time had to be manually loaded, with someone in the trap house at all times. The club purchased Winchester machines in the early 1970’s which were fully automatic eliminating the need for a person in the trap house which proved to be a much safer option. We now shoot “Singles” @16 yards, “Handicap” from 17 out to 27 yards and “Doubles”.

The trap machines were replaced in the early 1990’s with new “PAT TRAP” machines which were so technical that the club sent the co-chairmen, Anthony “Buzzy” Parent and Hank Pleiss, to the factory school to learn the operation of the machine. These machines are easily converted to throw “Doubles” targets as well. These traps are still in use today with several upgrades over the years and have thrown several million targets.

In 2004 the club upgraded to coin operated boxes to eliminate the need for someone to collect money for the number of rounds that were shot. The next improvement came in 2006 with the addition of voice-activated callers, when the shooter calls, the targets are automatically thrown. This eliminated the need for a separate person to release the target. We have recently added a trap building to allow some storage and shelter for the trap shooters in the event of bad weather.

Many old-time trap shooters have contributed to our club by coaching newcomers and the youth of the club and by passing on the enjoyment of the sport they are ensuring the future of trap shooting. We have also produced many state and ATA champions from our club.

The current Trap Chairman is Steve Ibbottson.