Browning chief. [volume] (Browning, Mont.) 1941-1953, 1951-01-19


Ligowsky invented his clay pigeon
as a substitute for a substitute.
Llgowsky's clay bird was intended
to replace the glass ball which in
turn had been invented to replace
live pigeons in trap shooting. If
you've forgotten, trap shooting gets
Its name from the once popular
sport of shooting live pigeons as they
were released from traps. The pub
hc cutlery against shooting pigeons
helped produce the glass balls. But
glass balls weren't the only things
the outcry produced.
Old timers with good memories
may remember some of the Rube
Goldberg-like attempts that were
made to initiate pigeons in flight.
But few modern shooters have any
conception of the weird procession
of gadgets that began shortly after
the Civil War and didn't end even
after George LigoWsky invented the
clay pigeon.
Depending upon how far back you
want to go, the inspiration for trap
shooting can be stretched back al
most to earliest recorded history.
Homer mentions "popinjay shoot
ing" in the ILIAD. In this sport the
Greeks shot at a dove. During the
Middle Ages this sport was also
popular. Usually a popinjay was
stuffed parrot mounted atop a pole,
When live birds were used, a cord
Kept the bird from flying away.
The last public popinjay shoot with
bow and arrow in England occurred
in 1892.
Trap shooting was first practiced
IN England even prior to about 1856
by "frequenters' of Glow public
houses Then the Earl of Stamford
took up the sport and made it
respectable. The first fashionable
pigeon club near London was given
the name "Old Hats" Its name de-
rives from the fact that old top hats
were used to cover the holes in
which the pigeons were kept prior
to release when the hats were
pulled off the holes. The use of old
hats for trap covers was discarded
rather soon and innumerable de-
vices were invented with sliding
covers instead of hats which could
be opened with cords by an atten-
dant behind the shooter.
Glass BoIIs Used First
The English used native pigeons
and later imported Belgian pigeons
and also used their own larks and
SparroWS. Low characters even
hooded the birds to make them fly
slower.
While there was a public clamor
against shooting live pigeons over
traps. substitutes for live birds
seem to have been thought of before
criticism of bird shooting became
VoclterouS. But once successful
substitute was perfected, live pigeon
shooting was practically doomed.
Glass balls were the first sub
stitutes for live birds and Char
les Portlock of Boston, Massa-
chusetts, is credited with their
invention in 1866, but it was not
until many years later when
such famed shots as Captain A.
H. BOgardus, DR.. w. F. Carter,
and others made long run rec
ords with balls that glass balls
received their biggest use. BY
that time clay pigeons which the
English called mud saucers"
were beginning to fly.
Balls made of resin were tried.
These had to be brittle to break,
and frequently they weren't brittle
enough. Light pottery balls which
it was claimed would dissolve after
rains also came along And a hope
full fellow brought out ball made of
what was advertised as fertilizer.
1t took the combined efforts of an
Englishman and an American to
figure out a scheme to attach one
end of an elastic cord to post and
the other to ball. You pulled the
ball just about to the point where
the cord would break. Then you let
it 60 and shot at it, No fooling, this
was patented in 1888.
Then along came a "gyro trap"
that shot propeller-like target into
the air. This device was popular for
a time in this country, England,
France, Belgium, and India. A
variation was flying top" that
had propeller mounted in a hunk
of clay.
Another idea introduced after the
clay pigeon was a kind of brass
saucer filled with powdered char
coal that was supposed to explode
into a cloud of black dust when a
pasteboard that held it in place
was shot out. Later similar birds
were filled with bran.
Many Godeets Invented
The "Tin pigeon" didn't live long
either. 1t was shaped somewhat like
conventional clay target with a
metal disc attached to it by small
chain. The disc was supposed to dis
engage from its position in the tar
Trap Shooting Orig