The event was won by Ion Dumitrescu of Romania, the nation's first medal in the men's trap.

The defending champion, Galliano Rossini of Italy, took silver this time to become the first person to earn multiple medals in the trap competition.

[2][3] Three of the top 10 shooters from the 1956 Games returned: gold medalist Galliano Rossini of Italy, silver medalist Adam Smelczyński of Poland, and fifth-place finisher Yury Nikandrov of the Soviet Union.

Since winning the Olympic gold in 1956, Rossini had reached the podium at both of the intervening World Championships: silver in 1958 and bronze in 1959.

[4] Chile, the Republic of China, India, Lebanon, Luxembourg, Malta, Peru, Portugal, San Marino, South Africa, South Korea, the United Arab Republic, and Zimbabwe each made their debut in the event; East and West Germany competed together as the United Team of Germany for the first time.

Great Britain made its eighth appearance, the only nation to have competed at each edition of the event to that point.

Those scores were enough to keep them on the podium, however, though not enough to win: Dumitrescu's 98 in the second half put him over the top at 192 total.