About Us

Traplövészet.hu was created by Tóth Zoltán to document Hungarian trap shooting athletes, competitions and results. Our community's goal is to promote the Olympic trap and double trap discipline, support youth development, and provide athletes with transparent, up-to-date information.

On our website you will find the calendar of domestic and international trap shooting competitions, results, athlete profiles and the latest news. If you would like to join our community, please get in touch! We welcome your short reports, experiences on the range, a few photos and your results list from any competition you have attended — we will publish them. Our website is continuously updated.

History of Trap Shooting in Hungary

Since humans have walked the Earth, they have crafted all manner of piercing, cutting and throwing tools, primarily for hunting. Naturally, they also practised with these tools in their leisure time to bring down game more quickly and reliably. The idea of shooting at moving targets goes back to ancient Greece: Homer mentions in the Iliad that archers shot with bows and arrows at pigeons tied to tall poles by strings — the birds were startled into flight and then shot at.

As firearms developed, shooters began trying their hand at moving targets. Since England is the home of shotgun shooting, it was there that live-target shooting with guns first took hold. From the mid-1750s, live pigeons were used: released by hand from a pit or behind a screen for the shooter to attempt to hit. Serious competitions were already being held in England at this time.

The sport reached its true development during the Victorian era, towards the end of the 1800s. By then, pigeons were being launched from small wire or sheet-metal devices. This is where the name "trap" comes from — in English the word means a small metal contraption used to catch small furry animals, and since pigeons were released from a similar device, the discipline became known as trap shooting.

In time, shooters began experimenting with artificial targets instead of live birds — first glass balls filled with feathers or similar material, then discs made from a mixture of clay and bitumen. This is the origin of the term "clay pigeon shooting". Today, live-pigeon shooting is banned virtually worldwide, with perhaps the exception of Spain, where minor events still occasionally take place.

Launching these targets required machines which, in the early days, were extremely primitive, but advances in technology and engineering produced ever more sophisticated equipment. Today, fully automatic, computer-controlled trap machines are at the disposal of competitors. Trap shooting as a competitive sport has featured on the Olympic programme since the very first modern Games.

In the 1930s, skeet shooting arrived in England from the United States and then spread to the European continent. It quickly became very popular and was added to the Olympic programme — the first Olympic skeet champion was crowned at the Munich Games. Double trap followed later, also earning Olympic status for a period.

Today, trap and skeet are both featured at the Olympic Games. Alongside the Olympic disciplines, sporting clays (compak sporting) is practised by a huge number of enthusiasts worldwide and is even more popular than the Olympic events — world and European championships attract 800–1,000 competitors. In sporting clays, machines hidden behind bushes and trees launch targets to imitate the flight of a pheasant or, rolling along the ground, the run of a hare.

In closing: there is a significant difference between clay target shooting and actual pheasant or hare hunting. A hare or pheasant accelerates slowly and gradually increases its speed, whereas a thrown clay disc is exactly the opposite — it leaves the trap at maximum speed and gradually slows down throughout its flight. In summary, both clay target disciplines offer excellent practice for hunters wishing to perform successfully in the field.

Source: Székely Dénes

Trap shooting is a branch of clay target shooting, formerly known as clay pigeon shooting. It is currently an Olympic sport under the name olympic trap.

The clay target (disc) is 10 cm in diameter and 2.5 cm high, thrown by the trap machine to a distance of approximately 80 metres. The shotgun used is a 12-gauge over-and-under (bock) double-barrelled specialist shotgun. The ammunition is a 12-gauge shotshell loaded with 24 grams of shot, with a pellet diameter of 2.3–2.4 mm.

How the competition works

Competitors shoot from 5 positions arranged in a row, firing in sequence at clay targets thrown by machines located in a bunker 15 metres in front of them. The trap bunker contains 15 machines that launch targets according to predetermined schemes of horizontal angle and height, drawn by lot from 10 possible schemes before the competition. All targets fly a uniform distance of 76 metres ± 1 m. Each competitor shoots 5 rounds, receiving 25 targets in total. Each round consists of 10 targets to the right, 10 to the left and 5 straight ahead. Two shots may be fired at each target; a hit is valid if a visible piece breaks off. In the ready position, the shooter holds the loaded, cocked gun aimed at the point where the target will appear, then calls for the target with their voice — approximately 0.5–0.75 seconds are available to fire both shots.

The final features 8 competitors under current rules, with only one cartridge per target. After the first 10 targets the two lowest scorers are eliminated; after the next 5 targets two more drop out; thereafter one competitor is eliminated after each series of 5. In the event of a tie, the competitor with the higher start number is eliminated. The final 5 targets, with two competitors remaining, decide the gold and silver medals.

Our Champions

• Dr. Montagh András – világbajnok
• Dr. Strassburger István – világbajnok
• Gróf Szapáry László – világbajnok
• Dóra Sándor – világ- és Európa-bajnok
• Dóra Pál – világbajnok
• Szomjas Gusztáv
• Dr. Halasy Gyula – olimpiai és Európa-bajnok
• Luminiczer Sándor – 3-szoros világ- és Európa-bajnok
• Bodó Zoltán – sokszoros magyar bajnok olimpikon
• Ludmann László – sokszoros magyar bajnok olimpikon
• Putz István – sokszoros magyar bajnok olimpikon, a traplövészet élő ikonja
• Gombos Károly – Dupla Trap Európa-bajnok, magyar bajnok olimpikon
• Gerebics Roland – olimpikon
• Igaly Diána – olimpiai, világ- és Európa-bajnok (skeet lövő)
• Bognár Richárd – olimpikon, vb. 5. helyezett (dupla trap)
• Nyitrai Anna & Döbörhegyi Bence – Junior Világkupa győztes, trapmix új világrekorddal (Kairó, 2026)

Trap Shooting Today

Trap shooting is a thriving Olympic discipline in Hungary today. Active competition series, youth development programmes and an enthusiastic community ensure the sport's continuous growth. The Dr. Halasy Gyula Memorial Competition series brings the Hungarian trap shooting community together with several rounds each year. Currently Gerebics Roland, an Olympian, serves as the national discipline coordinator, supported by the experienced Putz István. They invest enormous effort and energy into nurturing and coaching the next generation of promising young athletes!

Competition Calendar

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Results – News

SILVER MEDAL AT THE U18 CLAY SHOOTING EUROPEAN CHAMPIONSHIP!

Dear Sports Friends!

I am reporting from Osijek with news that is a truly celebratory occasion not only for us clay shooters, but for the entire Hungarian shooting sports community. Péli Nimród wins silver in the Skeet solo event!

Nimród fought his way to the podium with brilliant shooting throughout, disciplined shot sequences, and a psychologically remarkably mature final performance. At a major youth competition, this represents a long-awaited breakthrough for Hungarian clay shooting — a result unseen for years. This is not just a medal: it is a signal that our youth development work is on the right track, and that we have a solid foundation to build upon for the future.

I would also like to highlight Kocsi-Horváth Lujza, who missed a certain bronze medal in the solo event by just a single hit. This performance speaks for itself and is a very encouraging sign for her future career.

The rest of our team also performed with honour, delivering results in line with their individual capabilities in the solo and individual events. Our thanks and congratulations to them:

Skeet: Iványi Inez, Kánai Kamilla, Fekete Zalán, Boros Márton

Trap: Láng Rege Réka, Salamon Zalán, Hegymegi Nándor, Csaplár Dániel

TODAY – MIXED PAIRS event

The European Championship continues today, Monday, with the mixed pairs event. Competing under Hungarian colours:

Trap: Láng Rege Réka & Csaplár Dániel

Skeet pairs:

• Kocsi-Horváth Lujza & Péli Nimród

• Iványi Inez & Fekete Zalán

• Kánai Kamilla & Boros Márton

TOMORROW – TRIO event (final day of the Championship)

We enter the closing day with three Hungarian Trio units: Boys Trap team, Girls Skeet team and Boys Skeet team. Cheer us on! Behind every single shot stands the entire Hungarian clay shooting community.

GO HUNGARIAN TEAM!

The champions' final day!

Skeet Trio Men U18 podium confirmed!

Greece

Bulgaria

Hungary

Great work, guys!

The shooters' second medal!

U18 mixed pairs bronze medal at the Osijek European Championship.

Kocsi-Horváth Lujza and Péli Nimród claimed bronze in the Skeet mixed pairs event, after a 5-5 tie in the bronze medal match, defeating the Polish duo of Iga Trubilowicz and Stanislav Molewski in a shoot-off 7-6. In the qualifying round, the Hungarian pair shot 124 clays, finishing fourth, which earned them the right to compete against the Polish pair for the bronze medal.

The trap and skeet clay shooting competition kicked off to a full house with 73 participants. Numerous Hungarian trap and skeet shooters came to compete at this event. The weather was excellent, slightly windy, but the 24-25 degrees Celsius brought its welcome effect. Very good results were achieved on the first day, thanks to the fine weather and the excellent condition of the ranges. It was great to watch the Spanish Corsiva clays, which almost always shattered spectacularly into dust after being hit.

The next day brought even better weather, with temperatures reaching 30 degrees in the afternoon. Three of our competitors were involved in the finals. Döbörhegyi Bence qualified for the junior top-8 final with a shoot-off and 106 hits, but the truly outstanding performance of the day belonged to Hegyi Norbert, who advanced to the adult final in first place with an impressive score of 120 clays. Jóna Bernadett finished in 3rd place with 111 hits — since only four competitors started, there was no separate final in her category

In the skeet competition, Ternák Tamás awaited the final in 7th place with a score of 113 clays. Unfortunately, the finals did not go particularly well for the Hungarian competitors. Bence finished in 7th place, as did Ternák Tamás. Hegyi Norbert advanced further and claimed 6th place.

We would like to thank Fedor Dunajcik for the professional refereeing, and PUFI, alias Marian Kovačocy, for the outstanding organization and management of the event.

It was a competition with a truly great atmosphere!

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