1. Pay attention before your turn to shoot at a station, don't stand back and talk.
2. Stand as close to the station as possible to see what the path of the targets will be when you shoot.
3. Bring the gun up to your cheek when shooting, not your cheek down to the gun. Move the height of your head as little as possible.
4. Stand up straight, point your lead foot to where you plan to break the target, putting more weight on the ball of that foot.
5. Don't listen to advice about where to break the target, decide that on your own. Using someone else's breaking point can make you stop the gun and shoot behind/above/under the target or flinch.
6. Don't raise your gun shoulder arm parallel to the ground. Try it. Your wrist is in an uncomfortable position and the palm and thumb of your hand doesn't have a full grip on the stock.
7. Wind your eyes and head to where the target is launched, not your whole body.
8. Point the muzzle of your gun at the approximate height where the target will be, no more than 1/3 of the distance from where you plan to break the target. The less movement of the barrel the better.
9. Think A, B, then C when shooting in a station.
A. Mount the gun 1/3 of the way back (I repeat for emphasis) from where you plan to shoot the target and lower the gun slightly, move your eyes and head to see target, and call pull.
B. See the target and bring the gun back to your cheek as the targets hits the 1/3 distance and get the muzzle of the gun just ahead, under, or above the target depending on the presentation. Always keep your eyes on the target.
C. Pull the trigger at the determined break point. Try to focus on the leading edge of the bird.
10. Don't worry about the amount of target lead too much at first. You might take your eyes off the target while calculating the lead and stop the gun, aiming and not pointing. Many successful shooters cannot tell you how much they led the target, they just learn to use instinct. You can work on lead once you've mastered A, B, and C.
11. I read an Internet tip on not stopping your gun when shooting moving targets: Pretend you have to hit a chip from the target you've just broken. Follow it briefly with the gun still mounted and then use B and C above on the second target if it is a true pair.
12. Depend on your own shooting ability, not the choice of gun, choke tubes, pellet size, shot speed, or color of shells. (But, we do need excuses for our misses, true?)
Final after-thoughts from my notebook:
(Some of these thoughts are definitely idiosyncrasies of mine, but they seem to work)
If you are having a an unusually long shooting slump:
- Don't' change choke tubes at each station. I've had the most luck with a mod and a full choke in my particular O/U gun. (Even close targets, believe it or not.)
- Use the same ammo load at each station.
- Don't pick up your gun before your turn.
- Don't handle the ammo in your pouch/bag/pocket before you shoot.
- Use the same gun and gun setup for weeks if necessary until your scores improve by at least 5.
- Don't look at your score on the score sheet during the shooting round.
- After missing shots you should have made, make sure your gun is unloaded and spin all the way around to the right in the shooting booth before your next series of shots. Ha! Better then throwing the spent shells or kicking the station post.
Gun control is like trying to reduce drunk driving by making it tougher for sober people to own cars.
- Anonymous
