Both about the same effort to open. The AM polycarb is immensely stickier for Notes than wood. This is a big deal. The other things that are not in either version are the stoppers and back edge of the chute. These limit how far the trap flap will open.
Highly recommend obtaining the AM door for your practice and adding the limits as shown in the field CAD.
Big difference. If done correctly, the amount of force needed to open the doors should be about the same.
We started testing with the wooden door. We were able to score NOTES from the floor with no problem. Like, 90%+ of the time.
Then we moved to a sheet of polycarb that we had laying around. Again, no real problems with the NOTE scoring. We would shoot the NOTE so that it hit roughly 1/2 -2/3 the way up the trap door. The NOTE would then slide up, hit the top horizontal bar, then slide down into the trap.
Then came the AndyMark door…
Again, the force needed to open the door is about the same. Any difference should be negligible. The problem comes from the stickiness of the new polycarb. The NOTE would hit it, come to a dead stop, then just bounce off. We went from almost 100% scores to near 0%. We did find, however, that the more you shoot NOTES at the door, the more slippery it gets. Probably NOTE material rubbing off.
The other HUGE thing to look out for (and is not tied directly to the AndyMark door) are the dog ears that act as stoppers on the backside of the chute. This really limits the travel of the door and severely affects the way the NOTE drops into the trap. This right here is a game changer, literally. If you are attempting to shoot into the Trap, you must simulate this to the best of your abilities. Check out the official drawings.
Hope this helps.
The polycarb doors are super sticky (Real Andymark Door, hinge, and weights):
We also believe that the door gets slipper as it gets worn. We also think that external factors, including humidity and static buildup, will affect the slickness.
We did install our own version of that but find that it might not accurately produce the same results as the real field version. The plywood provides a rigid backstop with no give. The field version is a piece of 1/8" polycarb that looks like it will have some give to it. We plan to modify our setup tomorrow and will let everyone know what we find. We hope that it will make the Trap shot more feasible.
