Title: Rock and Roll and Trap Shooting
General Information about Item:
- Magic (Sympathetic) object Superstition, song, bullet placement
- Language: English
- Origin: Massachusetts
- Informant: N.S.
- 10/5/2021
Informant Data:
- N.S. was born in Newton, Massachusetts in the year 1999. He participated in trap shooting at Dartmouth in the past. He described himself as a very neat and organized person. His family background is mostly European with family origins in Ireland, Poland, Germany, and French Canadian.
Contextual Data:
- Cultural Context: Trap shooting is an American sport that was created as a very popular alternative to using real birds which was a big factor in its widespread popularity. At trap competitions, all competitors line up in a row and signal for a single clay one at a time which gives each shooter time in-between rounds to prepare.
- Social Context: According to Ned, many of the participants are very nationalistic and pro-America. Practices, competitions, and other events are mostly focused on competing within the team and outside, however, having after all these events the team will have socials and other entertaining events that create a team bond.
Item:
- (Non-folklore superstition, just interesting) At trap competitions, all competitors line up in a row and signal for a single clay one at a time. They shoot and then have until all other competitors to reload their gun. During this time is when N.S. pre-game/pre-round superstition comes into practice. His personal superstition is that would always load the special Western bullet into his gun with the words facing upwards.
- (Team folklore superstition) N.S. trap shooting team had a folkloric superstition of listening to music only by AC/DC leading up to trap shooting events. While they are in the bus or locker room, AC/DC is the only music allowed. He does not know when this folklore was started but thinks it was because AC/DC makes rock music is an American genre of music which matches the American origin of trap shooting. Listening to AC/DC hypes the team up and prepares them to shoot at competitions. Their favorite song that they always end with is Hell’s Bells.
Associated files/pictures:
Transcript:
- “Everytime I load my break-open shotgun, I must place the logo, that is imprinted on the brass bottom, upright in the chamber. If the logo is not upright, my shooting accuracy decreases because all I can do is focus on the fact that the bullet is loaded incorrectly.”
- “To hype ourselves up for competitions, it is a team rule that we listen to only AC/DC’s music during bus rides or in the locker room. I am not sure where this came from, but it is very effective.”
Informants Comments:
- He recommends listening to AC/DC’s music, as it is very catchy and popular music back in the day
Collector’s Comments:
- The personal superstition of bullet placement is really interesting. It is very specific and precise in nature. Both of these superstitions are also very intriguing to me because I had never really heard of trap shooting before talking to Ned.
Collector’s Name:
- Troy Burkhart
- Dartmouth College ’23
- Russian 13 Fall 2021
- Professors – Gronas, Apresyan
Tags:
- Trap Shooting
- Dartmouth
- Music
- AC/DC