The men's trap (originally called clay bird shooting) was a shooting sports event held as part of the shooting at the 1912 Summer Olympics programme. It was the third appearance of the event, which had been introduced in 1900. The competition was held from Tuesday, 2 July 1912 to Thursday, 4 July 1912. Each nation could send up to 12 shooters. Sixty-one sport shooters from eleven nations competed. The event was won by James Graham of the United States. Silver went to Alfred Goeldel of Germany and bronze to Haralds Blaus of the Russian Empire. Each of the nations on the podium was making its debut in the event. Graham also received Lord Westbury's Cup, a challenge prize instituted in 1908.

Background

This was the third appearance of what would become standardised as the men's ISSF Olympic trap event. The event was held at every Summer Olympics from 1896 to 1924 (except 1904, when no shooting events were held) and from 1952 to 2016; it was open to women from 1968 to 1996.

Three of the top 10 shooters from 1908 returned: bronze medalists Alexander Maunder of Great Britain and Anastasios Metaxas of Greece and fifth-place finisher Charles Palmer of Great Britain.

Germany, Norway, the Russian Empire, and the United States each made their debut in the event. France and Great Britain both made their third appearance, having competed at both prior editions of the event.

Competition format

Shooter faced up to 100 clay pigeons over the course of three stages. The first stage consisted of 20 targets, in 2 series of 10. The top 50% of shooters advanced to the second stage. That stage had 30 targets, in 2 series of 15. The top 50% of shooters by combined score of the two stages advanced to the third stage (that is, 25% of the initial starters). The final stage had 50 targets, in 2 series of 20 and 2 series of 5. Ties were broken, as necessary, by a series of 10.

There were three traps. The firing line was 15 metres away from the traps. The minimum gauge of the shotgun was 12. Two shots were allowed per clay pigeon.

Records

Prior to this competition, the existing world and Olympic records were as follows.

James Graham set the initial Olympic record for the 100-shot event with 96 points.

Schedule

Date Time Round Tuesday, 2 July 1912 First stage Wednesday, 3 July 1912 Second stage Thursday, 4 July 1912 Final stage

Results

The first round saw a four-way tie between Graham, Gleason, von Zedlitz und Leipe, and Horst Goeldel at 19 points. Graham and Gleason remained tied for first after the first two rounds, each hitting 28 that round for a two-round total of 47. Graham was the highest scorer once again in the third round (this time with Blaus tying him) at 49 points to take gold; Gleason, however, had a poor round at only 40. Alfred Goeldel, one point behind the leaders after one round and matching them in the second to stay one point behind, lost another point against Graham to finish 2 back and in silver, holding off Blaus (who had started the last round 4 points behind Alfred Goeldel and could only narrow the gap by 1).

Rank Shooter Nation Score James Graham 96 Alfred Goeldel 94 Haralds Blaus 91 4 Harold Humby 88 Albert Preuß 88 Anastasios Metaxas 88 Franz von Zedlitz und Leipe 88 Adolf Schnitt 88 9 Emile Jurgens 87 Ralph Spotts 87 Edward Gleason 87 12 Erland Koch 86 Karl Fazer 86 Horst Goeldel 86 Frank Hall 86 16 William Grosvenor 85 17 Robert Hutcheson 84 Erich Graf von Bernstorff 84 John Butt 84 Åke Lundeberg 84 21 Charles Palmer 82 Alfred Swahn 82 23 Leonardus Syttin 81 Frantz Rosenberg 81 25 Hans Lüttich 77 Charles de Jaubert 77 27 André Fleury 74 Carsten Henrik Bruun 74 29 Henri de Castex 38 Robert Huber 38 Hjalmar Frisell 38 Emil Collan 38 George Whitaker 38 34 Victor Wallenberg 37 35 Georges de Crequi-Montfort 36 Walter Bodneck 36 Daniel McMahon 36 38 Edward Benedicks 34 39 George Pinchard 33 40 Johan Ekman 31 41 Édoard Creuzé 14 Charles W. Billings 14 Herman Eriksson 14 John H. Hendrickson 14 45 James Kenyon 13 William Davies 13 Edvard Bacher 13 René Texier 13 Alexander Maunder 13 Herman Nyberg 13 51 Henri le Marié 12 Pavel Lieth 12 53 Alfred Black 11 Emil Fabritius 11 Boris Pertel 11 56 John Goodwin 10 Oscar Swahn 10 Otto Bökman 10 Carl Wollert 10 Nils Klein 10 61 Alfred Stabell 3

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