Good thread regarding pay-out for turn-of-the-century Pigeon shoots
https://www.trapshooters.com/threads/historic-25-000-pigeon-shoots.641985/

A match in Glendale Park, (Long Island) N.Y., in the 1880’s attracted more than 600 shooters and 30,000 spectators in one day alone. A 1898 shooting festival at that same location offered $25,000 in cash prizes. $25,000 then would be about $850,000 today

April 26, 1886 Sporting Life
https://digital.la84.org/digital/collection/p17103coll17/id/21840/rec/1
The prospectus of the second annual tournament of the Chamberlain Cartridge Company, of Cleveland, is out. It offers $3,000 in prizes, and the money is peculiarly divided. Twelve hundred dollars in three prizes goes to the class with scores over 90, $1,000 to the 80 class, and $800 to the 70 class. All ties will be shot off in Cleveland, beginning Sept. 14, at 100 “Blue Rocks”.
The contest is open, as was last season's, from April 1 to August 31, and all scores must be made at 100 Blue Rocks, Peoria Blackbirds, American clays, or Ligowsky clays.

Outing, May 2, 1886
The grounds of the Carteret Gun Club at Bergen Point, N.J., were on March 29 the scene of one of the most interesting contests at pigeon shooting of the season, the match in question being that between Mr. C. Floyd Jones, of the Carteret Club, and the well-known Irish shot “Mr. Fredericks,” of the Westminster Kennel Club. The weather was unfavorable for enjoyable sport, and as a northeaster prevailed and sent the birds from the traps lively to the left, the result was that very skillful work was necessary to obtain a good record.
The match was for $1,000, at 100 birds, 28 yards rise, from five traps, with 50 yards boundary. The result of the match was the success of Mr. Floyd Jones, who
killed 90 out of his hundred, while “Mr. Fredericks” only killed 82 out of his hundred.
The guns used were a Scott hammerless, by Floyd Jones, weighing 7 3/4 pounds, with 4 drams of Wood powder behind 1 1/4 ounces of No. 7 shot. “Mr. Fredericks” used an underlever hammer gun, by Turner, that weighed 7 1/4 pounds, with No. 7 shot, in cartridges loaded by Purdey, of London, 3 1/2 drams of black powder behind 1 1/4 ounces of shot.

$1000 in 1885 would be about $30,000 today.

After the 1901 Anglo-American Match, J.A.R.Elliott went to Belgium and joined R.A. Welch competing in a series of pigeon matches, winning 1000 francs in one match. The purse in Namur was $40,000 = >$1,000,000 today

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