Safety / Shooting Rules

Safety comes first at Mallard. NRA-certified Range Safety Officers oversee the club and are available to help. If you are unsure about anything, ask.

Club rules

These are the club’s own rules. They apply to everyone on the property, members and guests alike.

At the club

1. Keep your muzzle pointed downrange or straight up, and never let it cross another person.
2. Keep actions open and guns empty. Guns stay cased or racked until you are on the line.
3. Eye and ear protection are required on the field, for shooters and spectators alike.
4. Minimum age to shoot is 12. Shooters under 18 must be accompanied by a parent or guardian.
5. No drugs at any time. No alcohol before or during shooting.
6. Spectators stay behind the line.
7. The range officer’s word is final.
8. Pick up your own hulls. Buckets are put out for organized events only.
9. New to the club or to trap? Just ask. The range officer or any member will be glad to help.

On the line

10. Your action stays open until it is your turn. Load a shell when you take the post, and close the gun only as you mount it.
11. Keep your finger off the trigger until the gun is mounted.
12. One shell in singles and handicap, two in doubles.
13. Your gun must be empty when you change posts.
14. No sharing firearms during a round. Your gun stays with you from the first post to the last.
15. Nobody goes forward of the line without the range officer’s permission. While anyone is forward, every action is open and empty.
16. A gun that will not fire stays pointed downrange. Open the action and call the range officer.
17. On a cease-fire, stop and open your action. Stepping off the line is the range officer’s call.

Shotguns and ammunition

18. Bring your own legally owned shotgun and shells. The club does not rent firearms or sell ammunition.
19. Shotguns only: competition, target, sporting, or hunting. Tactical-style shotguns are allowed with a barrel of at least 20 inches and a full solid stock.
20. Target loads only, 7½ or 8 lead shot. No larger shot, no magnum loads, and no steel shot.
21. You are responsible for storing and transporting your firearms legally under New Jersey law.

Shot charge	Maximum velocity
1⅛ oz	1290 fps
1 oz	1325 fps
⅞ oz	1350 fps

ATA safety rules

The club also follows the range safety and shooting rules of the Amateur Trapshooting Association, reproduced below from the ATA rulebook.

Shoot management

1. It is the shooter’s responsibility and shoot management’s responsibility to conduct a shoot in a reasonable and safe manner.
2. It is Shoot Management’s responsibility to remove any competitor who is conducting himself/herself in an unsafe manner. (Repeat violators should be reported to the Executive Committee for further action.)
3. It is Shoot Management’s responsibility to instruct the trap help in the proper and safe conduct of their respective duties.
4. Alcohol and drugs impair judgment and the ATA Rules pertaining to the usage of alcohol and/or drugs must be enforced by Shoot Management.

Trap house and field

5. All trap help must have a flag or other warning device to warn of any person(s) exiting from the trap house.
6. Trap personnel should be thoroughly instructed of the potential danger of the trap (particularly the target throwing arm).
7. Movement and exposure on adjacent traps should be kept to the minimum.
8. The practice of tracking targets behind a shooting squad is unsafe, disconcerting to the shooters, and is not permitted.
9. Only competitors competing on a field at that time, referee/scorers or other shoot officials may be on an active trap field during a registered shoot, unless a safety or emergency concern arises.
10. No shooter shall be permitted to participate in any ATA event while seated in or otherwise using a golf cart on the firing line. Single passenger conveyances are the appropriate means for participating should one require assistance due to permanent or temporary disability.

Gun handling

11. All guns must have the action opened and contain no live or empty shells at any time, except while the shooter is on the firing line. A break open gun’s action may be closed when it is in a gun rack but it shall not contain a live or empty shell. Repeat offender(s) of these Official Rules will be given a 30 day suspension upon a second violation of these Rules; a third violation of these Rules will result in a 90 day suspension; and further violations will be reviewed by the Executive Committee for further disciplinary action.
12. A contestant shall place a live shell in his/her gun only when on a post facing the traps. In Singles and Handicap shooting he/she may place only one (1) live shell in his/her gun at a time and must remove it or the empty shell(s) before moving from one post to another. In Doubles shooting he/she may place two (2) live shells in his/her gun at a time and must remove both live or empty shells before moving from one (1) post to another. In changing from one (1) post to another, the shooter shall not walk in front of the other competitors.
13. Snap caps or recoil reduction devices may be excluded from the above only if colored a safety orange as to permanently identify them as not being a live or empty shell.
14. A gun, which for any reason fails to fire as intended, must be promptly opened without any subsequent determination by the referee/scorer of the cause of the Failure to Fire.
15. As a safety precaution, test shots will not be permitted under any circumstance.
16. A contestant may hold his/her gun in any position when it is his/her turn to shoot. The contestant must in no manner interfere with the preceding shooter by raising his/her gun to point or otherwise create an observable distraction.
17. All guns used by contestants must be equipped, fitted and utilized so as not to eject empty shells in a manner that substantially disturbs or interferes with other contestants.
18. All persons including competitors, referee/scorers, and trap personnel must wear appropriate eye and hearing protection while on the trap field. Failure to comply may result in disqualification.
19. While not prohibited, the practice of resting the muzzle of a shotgun on a shooter’s toe is ill-advised and is discouraged.