When you watch Amber English, Kim Rhode, Vincent Hancock and other U.S. shooters win Olympic medals in skeet shooting, you might not have realized that the version of skeet they shoot isn’t quite the same as what most of us are shooting at our local club league night. In the Olympics, they shoot what’s called International Skeet, while here in the U.S., although you can find International Skeet, most of what we shoot on a recreational basis is called American Skeet. While much of the world shoots International, American Skeet is the primary version shot in English-speaking countries, including Canada, England, Australia and New Zealand, and typically also on U.S. military bases around the world. What’s the difference between the two games?
Both games use the same field, albeit with slightly different angles on some of the pads shooters stand on, but the targets themselves are a bit different. American skeet targets are ever so slightly smaller—4 5/16 inches in diameter, as opposed to 4 1/3 inches for International skeet. International targets are thrown faster and go a little farther; they are thrown at 65 mph, while American Skeet targets are thrown at 50 mph. International targets have a lower physical profile to better withstand the additional throwing force.
A full tournament of American skeet is shot using four guns: 12-gauge, 20-gauge, 28-gauge and .410 bore, with each round consisting of 100 targets. In contrast, International skeet uses 12-gauge guns (although in both games a shooter may shoot 20-gauge shells in the 12-gauge event if they prefer, typically using a tube set that allows a 12-gauge gun to shoot different gauges of ammo) and each round is 125 targets. Loads are restricted to 1 1/8-ounce of shot in American skeet and a mere 7/8-ounce of shot in International skeet. In a round of American Skeet, shooters shoot doubles at stations 1, 2, 6 and 7. In International skeet, shooters shoot doubles at stations 1-7.
The sequence of targets varies a bit, too. In American skeet, you shoot around the field, working your way from station 1 to station 7, and then go to 8. When you miss your first target of a round (a round of 25; you shoot four of these for a full round of 100), you immediately repeat the shot. This is called your “option shot,” and it counts as your 25th shot. If you get all the way through the end of station 8 without missing, you shoot the low house on station 8 again to make your 25th target. But the International Skeet target sequence is a bit different. Shooters work their way around from 1 to 7, but then come back to station 4 for four more shots, and then on to station 8 to shoot a total of 25 for the round.
The target delay, or lack thereof, is another difference. In American Skeet, the target is released between 0 and 1 second after the shooter calls “pull.” In other words, it’s pretty immediate. In International Skeet, there is a random delay of between 0 and 3 seconds after the shooter calls for the target before the target is thrown.
Silver medalist Connor Prince and Gold medalist Vincent Hancock at 2024 Paris Olympics. USA Shooting image.
But perhaps the most immediately noticeable difference between the two games is how the shooters hold the gun before calling for the target. In American Skeet, nearly all shooters premount the gun to their face before calling for the target—this is not a requirement, and a shooter may hold the gun low if they prefer, but very few of them do so. But in International Skeet, the gun cannot be pre-mounted. Shooters wear an official ISSF (International Shooting Sports Federation) vest with a yellow line on it that’s set to a specific height when the vest’s pockets are empty—around the top of the shooter’s hip (see image above). The buttstock of the gun must be touching this line when the shooter calls for the target. They may only start their mount after they’ve called “pull.”
The low-gun start, the faster speed of the targets and the random delay after the target is called for all make International Skeet a more challenging game.
