Captain Adam Henry Bogardus (1834–1913) was a world champion and United States champion trap shooter, as well as the inventor of the first practical glass ball trap.
He was born in
Berne, New York. There, in 1854, he married Cordelia Dearstyne. They moved to
Elkhart, Illinois where he became the wing shot champion of the world. He is credited with romanticizing trap shooting.
Trap shooting
Trap shooting is one of the three major disciplines of competitive clay pigeon shooting. The other disciplines are skeet shooting and sporting clays.
Trap shooting is distinguished by the targets being launched from a single "house" or machine, ...
with live pigeons began in the U.S. around 1825, with the first recorded match balls containing feathers, then clay targets. Bogardus invented the first practical glass ball trap in 1877. Glass spheres, filled with feathers, were used as targets, much as clay pigeons are used today. They were called Bogardus balls. One feature of them was ridges which helped ensure that pellets would shatter the sphere, rather than glancing off.
In 1883
William Frank Carver defeated Bogardus 19 times in a series of 25 matches.
Bogardus and his sons went on to tour with
Buffalo Bill's Wild West show
William Frederick Cody (February 26, 1846January 10, 1917), better known as Buffalo Bill, was an American soldier, Bison hunting, bison hunter, and showman. One of the most famous figures of the American Old West, Cody started his legend at t ...
. Captain Bogardus remained with the show for a year.
Bogardus is in the National Trapshooting Hall of Fame. He died on March 28, 1913, in Lincoln, Logan Co., Illinois and is buried in Elkhart, Illinois.
References
External links
Capt. A. H. Bogardus Trap & Field, December 2000American Heritage Magazine, April 1962, Volume 13, Issue 3*
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1834 births
1913 deaths
Sharpshooters
Wild West show performers
People from Berne, New York
People from Elkhart, Illinois