Indoor Trap Machine

I have several "Indoor Trap Machines" that were originally in a shooting gallery at an amusement park. I was told they are from the 40s and 50s. I have never seen others like them. They are the size and shape of a washing machine. They were made for Mo-Skeet-O targets but will work with sporting clays minis. These are really cool old machines!

These machines are as they were when they were removed from service. They are coin operated and take a 50 cent piece to get your tube of 22 shot cartridges. The ones I have tried work but I wouldn't guarantee that is the case with every one. One issue with these machines is that they require a box with radio tubes as part of the control. I have several of these boxes and the ones I have tried light up and work. I am replacing this box with a circuit board on the ones I am restoring for myself.

The base of the machines is bright orange (painted) and the top is stainless steel sheet metal. The target thrower is all steel and well made. It is out of sight in the base. There is a carousel on the top that holds 18 targets and as the machine is operated the carousel turns and drops another target on the arm. There is a separate box for the coin operation and some padded seats.

I offered one at no charge to Brad Dysinder for the Ohio state trapshooting museum and that offer still stands if we can figure out the delivery. I am willing to donate others to QUALIFYING organizations or fundraisers but that is contingent on the machine being restored and put on display and does not include shipping I will also consider selling these machines except for the ones I have donated. I would guess them at a couple hundred pounds. Location is Sturgis, South Dakota.

These machines have been stored in a dry place since they were taken out of service and are not rusty or dirty. I have owned them for many years and am now in the process of restoration on two of them.

If you are interested please contact: Bruce Bowen at bbgunssturgis@gmail.com Please don't whine about no price listed on the forum. Frankly, that depends on who you are and which machine you would want to purchase. I don't have any pictures right now but will have some soon.

 

Mr. Bowen,

Thanks for preserving a piece of shooting history. A few years ago I talked with Brad about the old Mo-Skeet-O machines and I know he wanted a thrower to introduce this type shooting to today's youth. He vividly recalled shooting them in his younger years at the Grand American with the .22 smooth-bore.

It's a fine thing you are doing with your generous offer. Wishing for a successful arrangement for the museum at the Cardinal Center and any other potential organizations willing to display your gallery traps.

Kind regards,

HistoryBuff

 

History Buff

If you have any pictures or other info about 22 smooth bore shooting at the Grand, I would love to hear about it. I will PM Brad as well. I started going to the Grand in 1972 and don't recall ever seeing this activity. They used to shoot it at indoor sports shows where I lived many years ago but it was with hand cock single throwers and with a curtain to catch the shot. I have a couple of these little machines as well.

Thanks for your input.

bb

 

Bruce,

The new shooting range in Omaha: Omaha Gun Club, mentioned that they were thinking about setting up an indoor trap/skeet range. They are located in the old Cinema Center at 83rd and Center. Might talk to Peter Manelli about what you have.

Take care, and if you talk to JD, tell him I said Hi!

Mike Tiehen
Omaha, NE USA
UpperCutPads.com

 

I do not have information about the arrangement at the Grand American and was surprised when Brad told me he used to shoot it outside (if memory serves me) down in the area where Kay Ohye had his store at the Vandalia Homegrounds. I thought he told me he faced Rt. 40 when shooting due to the bird shot not going very far. I'll let him tell the story because I'm going from memory and could mistaken.

I do have a little information on the Mo-Skeet-O traps, targets and shotguns. They made two traps: The Model 80 was for individual backyard shooting and the Model 88 was their commercial trap for gun clubs and I suppose shooting galleries.

I've wanted to get a complete set up for Mo-Skeet-O shooting but that's on my wish list. I also have a little info on the DUVROCK, the Mossberg Targo and the Claybird Trap, but your assembly sounds more like a shooting gallery.

Question:

Does your equipment have any identification plaques? If it has a rotating magazine above the trap which drops one target through a hole for the pick-up arm to throw it, might be an Auto Trap Shoot Inc. (Illinois) arrangement patented around 1962. That set-up accepted coin-operated equipment but it was not part of their patent.

The Auto Trap Shoot had a hydraulic pump (or could use an air compressor), transfer case, a couple hydraulic/pneumatic cylinders and the magazine. I think the magazine held about 20 stacks of targets and a device would only allow one target to drop onto the plate below the magazine. Does this sound anything like your arrangement?

Auto Traps were arranged in a straight line separated by counters and shooters stood next to the target throwing apparatus which appeared to look similar to a washing machine standing approximately waist high. When a shooter inserted a coin in the slot, a tube full of cartridges would be delivered and inserted in the gun magazine. When ready the shooter pressed a button which started the automatic target throwing trap. Automatic because it would continue throwing targets automatically. Oh, and missed clay targets hit a net, fell to the floor unbroken and were reused.

Just a thought and hope this helps.

HB

 

Could your gallery look something like this?

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HB

Thanks for the info. I will talk to Brad.

My gallery would look very much like the top illustration. Not like the lower one. The carousel is on the outside of the machine as in the top illustration. My machines are operated only on 110volt electricity. No hydraulics.

Would you please email me at: bbgunssturgis@gmail.com

bb

 

I remember as a youngster spending a lot of time down at the Mo skeeto range which was located in the low area toward the east end of the grounds.I would say was about behind the last program traps. This would have been in the early 1950's.There were 2 or maybe 3 traps mounted on a counter and the targets were shot with 2 or 3 model 61 Winchester smooth bores that were attached to the counter with a light weight chain so you could only point the gun down range. There was a net to catch the missed targets probably about 25ft from the traps and a heavy canvas tarp behind that to stop the shot and yes you did shoot South which have been towards route 40. Also there was tarps along each side of the range to stop arrant shot and broken target pieces. At the time that I was shooting the skeeter targets the cost was 10 targets for 50 cents. If they weren't busy we would some times get them to throw us 5 pair of doubles instead of 10 singles.

I started shooting ATA targets in 1957 and I don't remember if I shot any of those little guys after that or not. My guess would be that it ended sometime in the 1960's. As a kid it sure was a lot of fun.Also a lot of adults who attended to observe and shop would try their luck at the little range. This is just another great memory and it is truly sad that so many of the present day shooters couldn't have enjoyed some of the earlier years of Vandalia.

Dave Berlet

 

Bruce I'd still love for the OSTA to get one of your traps, I have 2 Remington 121 pumps mo skeet o Rutledge bores 22's and one of them I think was for your game because it has a shell defector pinned in it that makes the empty case go forward like the old 1100 shell defectors. I also have a Remington single shot bolt Rutledge bore.

What Dave said tells the story like I remember it, it was probably in the early 60's that I can remember shooting my FIRST clay birds at Vandalia and they were the mo skeet o's. My dream is to set up one of your traps at the Cardinal during the SCTP Nationals and let some of the kids shoot (live) some history. I'm not an e-mailer but if you contact Joe or Dave they have my phone number so call. We are very busy right now pheasant hunting but it will slow down in a couple of months and I'll work on this then.

I really like the drawing of the board walk game lay out too. Brad

 

On the left is a TARGO SET, middle is a Quail Trap for MO-SKEET-O, and on the right is a Remington 510 Smooth Bore (1940)

 

Brad Dysinger,

From what I've learned about the Auto Trap Shoot game, guns (Remington) were specifically made for this gallery sport and receivers were roll stamped "AUTO-TRAP-SHOOT, had shell deflectors, a gallery style counter tie down and had serial numbers with the letters USAF and year.
So, check your receiver.

If you liked the first drawing (from actual US Patent), you should like this one below. It's from a newspaper advertisement about the "New Indoor Family Recreation" 3-unit Auto Trap Shoot that was installed in the Olympic Bowl (bowling alley) in Rochester, NY. in December 1961.

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HB

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HB:The picture from the newspaper looks exactly like my machines! Open question for all AT folks: Has anyone seen one of these machines or do you have a good picture of one?

Brad's friend: great collection. I have a couple of the hand set machines like the one in your picture.

Dave: Interesting that you mentioned that they were using Model 61 smoothbores at Vandalia. I don't have one but always wanted one. I went to the Tulsa gun show last year and started looking. There were at least three examples that I found. Two were new in the box and priced at $6500 and $5000. The other one was 95% and priced at $4500. Too rich for me. I have to stick with my 121 Remingtons.

Brad: I will call you some evening. If we could get some volunteers to do the restorations, maybe we should put a small gallery together (as per your suggestion) for the kids shoot at the Cardinal. I'm all in for something like that. Maybe we could bring back some of those great old memories from the REAL GRAND!

Bruce Bowen
Sturgis SD

 

I was an electrician for over 30 years and troubleshooting was my game. I'm at your service if needed.

HB

 

Thanks for all your information HB. I'm sure we can use some help on the electrics. I really need some advice on replacing the box of radio tubes with a circuit board. Maybe a project for electrical engineering students??

 

Are these the ones that were in Arizona? Kent Henry had a few of them a few years ago. Do you have the smoothe bore .22 cal. rifles? Roger C.

 

Roger,
Who is Kent Henry? I do have some 22 smoothbore rifles.

bb

 

He was a friend of mine that had some of the same machines at one time. I tried to purchase them but he sold them to a party up in your area. He had a hunt club in Dewey, Arizona. Roger C.

 

bbblackhills,

You are responsible for me learning about this indoor flying target gallery. I was not aware of the Auto Trap Shoot game before your post but have now started a file on this subject.

I learn something new each and every day and its great!

A few more bits of information for those interested:

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HB

Good work on finding these ads. It looks like I should be asking about $16,000 to $21,000 for my setup!! LOL

bb

 

AUTO TRAP SHOOT​

Auto Trap Shoot was a gallery style shooting game using real firearms, live ammunition and miniature clay targets. This game was devised and patented by three Illinoisans, Howard Leichner and Vern Smith from Champaign and Ernest Fritz of Bloomington. They were granted patent no. 3,244,132 on April 5, 1966 for an application, serial no. 178,330, submitted on March 8 1962. Their patent was assigned to Auto Trap Shoot, Inc., a new corporation formed by the three inventors

In January 1961, William S. Symon, Thompson-Symon Printing Co., of Terre Haute, Indiana, filed letters of incorporation for two new firms to which he was named resident agent. The concerns, Mammoth Murals, Inc. and Indian Auto-Trap Distributors, Inc. each listed 1,000 shares of stock and were formed to design manufacture, display photographic advertising material. It is believed that these firms may have provided the huge photo murals offered with every indoor Auto Trap Shoot unit.

Auto-Trap-Shoot, Inc., of Champaign, Illinois first set up a pilot operation and then placed advertisements in major locations circa September 1961, advertising “an exclusive franchise”. The franchise was a coin operated indoor trap shoot for the business man or investor. This business offer claimed to provide the public pleasant a clean family recreation, with annual profits from $15,000 to $40,000 annually to the operator. Those interested in obtaining a franchise were required to put up an initial investment from $16,000 to $21,000, dependent on the number of trap units they purchased.

One or more units were usually installed in bowling alleys having at least an area of 70 feet in depth. Each unit contained a fully automatic trap which threw miniature targets at varying angles which were shot using special choke-bored Remington 22 caliber pump guns and standard rim-fire shot cartridges. Photo murals, provided with each installation, give an outdoor effect. Franchise owners are furnished with complete information about the game and promised promotional assistance from the incorporators, to include attracting shooters and establishing leagues.

Participants would put a 50-cent piece in the money slot and push the “start” button. The machine then fed a tube of 7 cartridges and the shooter would quickly load his gun. Guns were chained at the forearm to the counter for safety and security.

Interest in this new indoor sport seemed to fade fast, never reaching its perceived potential. The unit at Universal Lanes, a bowling establishment located in Charleston, Illinois, was being advertised for sale, in the July 28th 1962 Cincinnati (OH) Enquirer, as follows: “AUTO-TRAP SHOOT. Used only three months. Save 30%.” The same offered appeared again in newspapers in Madison, Wisconsin and Indianapolis, Indiana in early August. Universal Lanes had just announced their "Grand Opening" of Auto Trap Shoot in the local newspaper on November 3, 1961.

By the end of 1962 there were but few Auto Trap Shoot galleries experiencing any level of success. Those still in operation were the six-trap range in Tulsa, Oklahoma; a two-trap installation at Pacific Ocean Park, California and a three-trap range in Rochester, New York. A ten-trap range was in the planning stage for California, a four-trap range in Denver, and reportedly a few others elsewhere. To add to the troubles, potential entrepreneurs were being denied permits to operate these shooting ranges. Even the Auto Trap Shoot, Inc. had their request denied by the Bensenville Village (IL) Board to set up operations in one of the empty store areas in the Brentwood Commons Shopping Center. Bill’s Sports Center in Horsham, Pa., advertised Indoor Trap Shooting September 11, 1963, offering competitions for “High Gun” prizes. His grand opening of “the only indoor trap range on the East Cost” was October 15thoffered free prizes of valuable gifts and the shooting gallery was open for business every day from 10 a.m. to 11 p.m.

The Champaign (IL) AUTO TRAP-SHOOT INC. company attended Franchise & New Product Shows around the country to introduce Auto Trap Shoot. The Statler Hilton Hotel in downtown Los Angles was the site of a presentation advertised to take place May 25-27, 1962, 11 a.m. to 11 p.m. and October 25-28, 11 a.m. to 11 p.m. the same year.

The inventors continued their advertising campaign throughout the 1963 year. An October ad in the Albuquerque (NM) Journal stated:

“FRANCHISE open for Albuq. The new indoor sport, fun for all the family. Can be secured by writing AUTO-TRAP-SHOOT INC., 206 e. University St., Champaign, Illinois.”

The Indoor Auto Trap Shoot continued to be displayed at several business opportunity and sports shows.

By the time their patent was granted (1966), Auto Trap Shoot was but a memory. The Philadelphia Inquirer of July 3, 1966 advertised Bill’s Sporting Goods' $45,780 Going Out Of Business sale. Everything had to be hold regardless of cost or loss, including the indoor trap shoot operation.

The next time the indoor trap shoot was mentioned in print would be Mrs. Richard Anderson’s auction notice in the October 8, 1974 Ames (IA) Daily Tribune, who was moving to California due to the death of her husband.

In 1979 the name Auto Trap Shoot appeared one last time in the April 27 issue of The Morning Call, an Allentown, Pennsylvania newspaper. Bold headlines notified readers of the “AUCTION Of Farm Machinery For Anderson, Inc..” The sale was scheduled for Saturday, May 5, 10 A.M., on Rt. 113, 1 1/1 mi. south of Trappe (Rt. 422), 5 mi. north of Phoenixville, vehicles, tractors and machinery would be sold.

Located in the middle of a long list of farm equipment under the Machinery heading, on the 29th line nestled between sale items “two large deep freezers, chest type” and “wagon load of small tools” was the words “auto. trap shoot.”

So now you have a little history on this very interesting shooting game.

HB

 

HB

You have been busy. Thanks for all the information.

As this thread goes on I am somewhat taken back by the fact that there aren't more of these machines coming out of the woodwork. Surely there are others still around. There has yet to be an actual picture of a range setup come out. It begs the question: where did all this equipment end up? It appears that relatively few ranges were actually sold and running but still, somewhere there has to be some machines. Any info would be appreciated.

Another thing that intrigues me is if this setup was used at Vandalia, surely someone beside Dave and Brad would have participated and would have pictures, etc.

I really hope that now we can get at least a couple machines up and running at the Cardinal if they are interested. I am all in for that and will do whatever I can to make it happen.

HB.. As I look at the coin box mechanism, it looks like you put the 50c piece in the slot much like you would do with a coin operated pool table. Then you push the handle in and pull it back out. This drops the coin and hooks a tube of cartridges, probably holding 7, and the tube comes out through a small hole in the box. The tray inside the box looks like it would hold hundreds of cartridge tubes. They were optimistic! Then the shooter would load the gun. There is a 9 pin wire going from the bottom of the coin box to the machine which somehow signals the machine that the money was paid. Then you press a button on the top of the machine to throw the target. I am not sure if the machine continues to throw targets or if you have to press the button once for each target. It appears that the machines just throw straight away targets because there is no oscillation. Maybe there is a finger adjustment on the arm so that if there were multiple machines lined up different angles were possible.

I am now anxious to get one of these machines out again and learn more about the operation. I think the electrics are going to be the difficult part.

Another item I have that is interesting is an Italian made 9mm rimfire auto loading shotgun. It has a 5 shot clip and functions well. I believe Fiocchi still makes the cartridges. This cartridge is much more effective that the 22 shot cartridge. I believe it was designed as a garden gun for varmints. Of course Winchester also made a 9mm rimfire single shot many years ago.

Bruce Bowen

 

As I remember it the auto trap system was not used at Vandalia. The traps were mounted on the counter and they were hand cocked and hand loaded after each shot. Also there aren't many of us left that attended the Grand back in the 50's and 6o's as time surely marches on.

Dave Berlet

 

From past discussions with Brad Dyisinger, I believe Mo-Skeet-O traps were used at the Grand, not the Auto Trap Shoo.
system.

It is my understanding from everything I've read about the Auto Trap Shoot setup is that after loading the .22 cartridges in the gun, the contestant pushes the button and gets ready to start shooting. The trap is supposed to oscillate throwing targets at various angles as it pleases. I don't know if the trap is sprung with timers or if its a gear mechanism. It would really be nice if one of these Auto Trap Shoot assemblies had the electrical schematic stored someplace inside the unit.

I'll keep searching.

HB

 

Talked to friend who shot the Mo traps at the Grand. They were the Mo traps. His name is Pat Owens, Brad knows him.

 

HB..

The machines I have definitely do not oscillate.

Bruce Bowen

 

I found this article from a sports writer who explained the arrangement as he heard it.

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HB

 

HB

Good work finding this article! "A typical two trap installation can be operated by one man, thanks to the automatic equipment used." I'll have to check that out.

bb