To See or Not to See the Barrel

Front bead i like. My son has a 12ga with a center bead and front. I tried it for skeet one time. I think i hit 2 or 3 lol. I don't really notice the barrel it's self when shooting my shot guns.

My method, and what I teach as a high school and former NRA shotgun instructor, is this. Shoulder the gun making sure you have the beads aligned, either figure eight or snowman and then focus your vision out over the trap house where the bird should appear. If your gun fits, you will only vaguely see the beads. I personally hate the big glow worm front sights and have seen them as distractions ever since Ithaca put the "Raybar" front sight on their shotguns a half century or more ago.
My way works for me and seems to help my "kids".
Gun fit is more important than sights. I once lost my front Bradley bead and shot for weeks with no damage to my average. (runs about 96%)

I need to see the white bead, while i focus on the area where the bird will appear. I close non- shooting eye. Point muzzle at set location. Look where bird will appear. Not always the same place, look & point may be different.

Open both eyes, call for bird. Trap is swing thur bird, pull trigger when lead appears correct.

Skeet is swing thru & sustained lead, depending on what station. At some skeet stations, you should not look into the house or to close to house. Can't let the bird get ahead of you. Hard* to see a blur. You look towards the house, but barrel is more away from the house.

Shooting skeet with the 410 will tell the shooter real quick, what works or doesn't.
Don't let the bird get ahead of you.

I 'look down the barrel' but not at it (or the sights).

Google- Remington trap shoot pamphlet PDF file. It's a great teaching aid.

I shoot both eyes open. A. Better depth perception. B. Binocular vision. C. Cataract in my master eye and if I only had it I’m sure my 96% would be cut in half.

I shoot a lot of clays. I don't look at the barrel, but I can see the barrel when I shoot. I shoot with both eyes open.

Gun fit is everything with a shotgun. If a gun fits you and shoots where you are looking, you do not need beads.

Having come from a rifle background I find myself closing my eye....it just happens when I gun comes up. I try to stop myself, and someone will say, you closed your eye again.

Guess it is the way I am hard wired now.

I don't do too bad, but I am pretty new at busting flying things.

Took me a long time to unlearn aiming when I first started shooting clays. I'd spent 12 years shooting fixed targets with rifles and pistols. I finally learned to leave both eyes open which helped me to quit looking at the dang bead on the shotgun. Once I did that, everything just kinda clicked and I started busting clays...and coot...and ducks. I never consciously look at the bead anymore and I don't really seem to even "see" it.

I like the method @PapaG describes. I can even use a variation on my gun that has just a brass bead at the muzzle. As long as I remind myself to take that fraction of a second to check "sight alignment" I do pretty well.

I take the beads off, if its sunny the glint of the bead takes my eye off the target. then tried a neon type front sight, same thing happened, then I took the neon insert out, leaving the frame and it works great!. It gives me a hold, then when I see the muzzle pass thru the bird I shoot.

Mid beads mess me up, I shoot right-handed, and my left eye picks up the mid bead. I take them off.

I just use the beads to line myself up and make sure im holding the gun the exact same everytime, then look up from the barrel.

I took my high visibility ones off and installed brass beads on my sporting guns. Still have them on my field guns

I shoot all different kinds of ways, probably why I’m so streaky.

Left eye dominate, right handed shooter.

I’m pushing myself to break skeet targets before the 1/2 way point and it’s helping. I think I just pull through the target as quick as I can with both eyes open and it usually breaks. When I close my left eye, I take longer to shoot and depending on the wind, the clay is usually falling. At the high or low house I just put my barrel under there the clay is gonna appear and point on the first one. The second one I break pretty early because as soon as I get to it I’m pulling the trigger but it’s getting close and the follow through does the rest.

The middle stations 3-5 gave me trouble for weeks. I know I was closing my left eye. Now I don’t even mount the gun, just like in an International position. Seems I focus the target better. When I do miss at these stations, it’s usually no follow through or occasionally I didn’t get the gun mounted perfectly.

Station 8 was my nemesis for a long time. Not anymore.

But I don’t really care about score unless we put something on it. I’ll usually shoot my 3rd and 4th round International even if everyone shoots American. It’s all about getting ready for hunting season . That’s why I like Sporting Clays and 5 station better, but skeet is fun.

There are many variations to gun sighting. I like Lee Braun and "Shooting with the Remington Pros" on Utube. I use the snowman approach, however, I also put a little barrel rib space between the beads. To me, it's the difference between hitting the bird and "smoking" it.

One of my h.s. team members has a vision defect that caused her to shoot a few degrees to the right. I adjusted her stance and hold by about ten degrees left and she went from a 20% shooter to an 80% shooter in four weeks and continues to improve. When she gets her new gun I’ll make her an offset sight.

I shoot low gun, or better said, with the gun butt down near my belt when I call for the bird. A lot of misses are poor gun mount so countless hours are spent praticing my gun mount. With that said, it doesn't matter if you use a premounted gun or shoot gun down, you better be looking down the barrel when you pull the trigger. How else would the gun shoot where you're looking ? Like others above, I don't look at the barrel or beads, but you can't help but see them - they're right in front of you. How else would you know when to pull the trigger if you couldn't see the bird/barrel relationship ? Many people don't see the beads or barrel consciously, but your mind does. ,