Universal Trench

Also known as “Five Trap”, Universal Trench (UT) is an international shooting discipline governed by FITASC.

Targets are thrown from one of a group of five traps installed in a trench in front of the shooting stands. The machines are set to release the clays at different angles, elevations and speeds so the shooter never really knows where the next clay is coming from, its projection or how fast it will fly through the air. While this sounds very random, each UT layout is based on one of 10 official schemes established by FITASC and are controlled by a computer. This means that although the sequence of the targets will vary between each competitor, they will all receive the same targets by the end of the round.

  • Each round consists of 25 single targets
  • Two shots are allowed at each target
  • A single point is awarded for each hit, regardless of whether it was the first or second shot
  • Squads consist of six shooters positioned over five stands using a ‘shoot and move’ method i.e. the shooter moves to the next stand to their right after taking each shot (stand five moves round to wait behind stand one after the first round)