CHAPTER 7 
     
     SKEET 
     
    
   
   
    
     While the sport of shooting at clay birds was in 
     
     decline in Canada, 1915 was a year that things began 
     
     to change in the world of moving targets. The United 
     
     States was not as seriously affected by the war, and 
     
     recreation activities did not show the negative 
     
     attitudes that were evident in their neighbour to the 
     
     north. While shotguns on Prince Edward Island were 
     
     being placed on racks, and in closets, not too far 
     
     away in New England things were beginning to happen 
     
     that would prove to be the foundations of a whole new 
     
     era in clay target shooting--a new dimension that 
     
     would sweep over North America and eventually the 
     
     world. 
     
    
   
   
    
     In Andover, Massachusetts, Charles E. Davies, a 
     
     Boston business man, shotgunner, and upland game 
     
     enthusiast, well known for his world famous Glenn Rock 
     
     Kennels, had a new idea. It was motivated by his 
     
     knowledge of trapshooting, combined perhaps with a bad 
     
     day's shooting in the field; why not a clay target 
     
     game that gave all the challenges of upland game 
     
     shooting? Why not simulate a Ruffed Grouse flushing 
     
     three feet in front of you or a pair of Quail crossing 
     
     left or right, and how about that bird that comes 
     
     right down the gun barrel...why not? 
     
    
   
   
    
     Charles Davies, his son Henry, and their good 
     
     friend William Harnden (Bill) Foster sat down on a 
     
     warm summer evening and devised a few rough plans. 
     
     The next day they excitedly headed for the pasture 
     
     with a trap and a new concept. 
     
    
   
   
    
     They proceeded to lay out a circle with a 50-yard 
     
     diameter. On the circle they placed twelve standing 
     
     points, or stations, to correspond with the twelve 
     
     hours ona clock. The trap was placed at 12 o'clock, 
     
     and set to throw a target directly at the opposite 6 
     
     o'clock position. 
     
    
   
   
    
     --132--