William Morris earned the United States' first medal in the trap since 1924 with his bronze.

[2][3] Eight of the top 11 (including a tie for 10th) shooters from the 1960 Games returned, including all three medalists: gold medalist Ion Dumitrescu of Romania, silver medalist Galliano Rossini of Italy, bronze medalist Sergei Kalinin of the Soviet Union, sixth-place finisher Joe Wheater of Great Britain, seventh-place finisher Adam Smelczyński of Poland, eighth-place finishers Claude Foussier of France and Karni Singh of India, and tenth-place finisher Laszlo Szapáry of Austria.

The 1961 World Champion, Ennio Mattarelli, joined Rossini for a formidable Italian pair.

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

The 1964 event dropped the two-round competition that had been used in 1960; only a single round of shooting was done, with all shooters facing 200 targets.