Skeet shooting is a recreational and competitive activity whose participants use shotguns to attempt to break clay targets which two fixed stations mechanically fling into the air at high speed and at a variety of angles.

The firearm of choice for this task is usually a high-quality, double-barreled over and under shotgun with 24- to 32-inch barrels and very open chokes.

Now, to speed up rounds in competition, the shooter must shoot the low 8 twice for a perfect score.

Charles Davis and William Harnden Foster of Andover, Massachusetts invented skeet shooting.

In 1920, Davis, an avid grouse hunter, and Foster, an avid hunter, painter, illustrator and author of "New England Grouse Hunting", developed a game which was informally called "Shooting around the clock".

[2][3] The original course took the form of a circle with a radius of 25 yards with its circumference marked off like the face of a clock and a trap set at the 12-o'clock position.

The game evolved to its current setup by 1923, when one of the shooters, William Harnden Foster, solved the problem by placing a second trap at the 6-o'clock position and cutting the course in half.

Foster quickly noticed the appeal of that kind of competition shooting, and set out to make it a national sport.

[2] During World War II the American military used skeet shooting to teach gunners the principles of leading and timing on a flying target.

[citation needed] For his role in perfecting and developing the sport, William "Bill" Foster was named as one of the first members to the National Skeet Shooters Association Hall of Fame in 1970, and is now known[by whom?]

After that year, all ISSF events have been open to men only, and so women were disallowed to compete in the Olympic skeet competitions in 1996.

In addition, the scores in the four singles events are combined to crown a High Over All ("HOA") champion for the tournament, a coveted title.

Recognizing that a high level of perfection is beyond the skill, interest, or time available to most shooters, NSSA competitions are subdivided into several classes, each based on the running average score shot over the last five most recent events shot in each gauge, prior to any given competition.

[8] This permits shooters of roughly equal ability at the relevant point in time to compete against each other for the individual and HOA titles in their class.