Rock and Roll and Trap Shooting (Troy Burkhart)

Title: Rock and Roll and Trap Shooting

General Information about Item:

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:

Tags:

Dartmouth Folklore Archive