leading the target

[mek42]

It's trap season again. I find that I break more birds by shooting at a fixed point where I think the bird will be than by trying to follow the bird with the barrel.

Is this a bad habit I need to train myself out of or an alternate way of leading the target?

Thanks!

 

[buck460XVR]

I'm a believer in using what works for you. I was taught to swing thru the bird while hunting as a kid and good or bad it has worked for me for 40 years. Never was taught proper and kinda learned as I went. Developed many bad habits that are hard to break. Don't bother me tho.........

 

[Kingcreek]

That's not leading the target, it is intercepting the target.
How well does that work for you when the wind gusts jink the target?
It wouldn't work well for me. I suggest you get some range time with a good coach. It's amazing how many things can be fixed in 1 hour with the right person.

 

[Oldnamvet]

If your "lock time" is always exactly the same, it works. That is the time from when your brain says it is right, your finger gets the message and slaps the trigger, and the gun goes off. Depending on how tired I am, how my old age aches and pains are doing, etc., I have to use a sustained lead. Then, as long as I follow through, small inconsistencies in when I want the gun to go off and it does, won't matter.

 

[PJR]

Without seeing you shoot it's difficult to tell. There are two basic styles of shooting. Sustained lead which is common in skeet where you see lots of lead between the target and barrel and swing through where you come from behind the bird and see little or no lead. Both work.

With trap you always start behind the bird and most of the shooting is swing through. I rarely see lead on trap targets. I see it frequently shooting skeet.

Try different methods and see what works for you. I'd also second the suggestion about getting some instruction. It did a lot of good for me.

 

[10X]

Depends what I am doing. For 27 yard trap I use a sustained lead. Trap has basically consistent rises and speeds. For long range pheasants on a hard left or hard right shot I will catch up, swing ahead and follow through with the lead. For closer ranges or not so severe left or right shots I will do the same as you and point/intercept shoot. This may not be right or wrong but that is what works for me. You aren't doing anything wrong or creating an offense against nature. Practice and do what feels natural to you.

 

[fordman650]

last Sunday i went out and shot two rounds of trap (now its been about a year) the first round i couln't hit nothing and the more i missed the more mistakes i'd make.I went in the club house to get a cup of coffee and this old boy say do you mind if i stand behind you and see if i can help.Hell no i don't mind, next round I started on station 5 missed them all he told me i was shooting high but you have good follow through. He told me to just get a good comfortable stance facing the house and hold the shotgun about three or four foot over where the bird is coming out and just breaks over your barrel pull the trigger. When i finally got it through my thick head to listen to what he was saying :banghead: (which was half way through station 1 ) I ended up with a 14 which i only hit 2 out of my first 10 shots. Sorry didn't mean to be so long winded.But if you don't know what you are doing wrong you can't fix it.Any way good luck

 

[ArmedBear]

Is this a bad habit I need to train myself out of

YES!

What kind of lead I used depends on the gun I'm using.

With a trap gun, or any reasonably heavy, long 12 Gauge, I swing through the bird and fire as I pass it. I don't worry about lead. It takes care of itself.

With my little 20 Gauge O/U with 26" barrels, I have to do a sustained lead.

One problem with holding the gun steady and firing at where the bird will be is that it only works under identical conditions. Try 5-stand, bird hunting, or Wobble Trap, or even trap in the wind, and it won't work because you don't know where the bird will be.

 

[mek42]

Thanks for the replies. I'm using the gun that I have, a Benelli Nova. I'm pretty sure it has only a 24" barrel, but I do use a full choke on it for trap. I haven't played any of the other clay sports (or gone bird hunting) - the comment about what works for trap may not work in other cases was appreciated.

When you talk about swinging through the target, how fast relative to the target are you swinging through?

I've been trying to think about what I actually do. I'll follow the bird with the gun to develop a trajectory and then will scoot the barrel forward a bit (maybe a foot of travel for the bird) along the trajectory path to pop off the shell. I do seem to recall that it does work a bit better if I keep the gun in motion after popping of the shell, so maybe I'm actually doing a combination of fixed lead and swinging through.

It's hard finding the right words for this.

 

[Skpotamus]

NRA Shotgun training manual:

Five Fundamentals of Shotgun Shooting:
1) Stance
2) Gun Ready Position
3) Swing to Target
4) Trigger Pull
5) Follow Through

Follow the target with your shotgun, when you get to it, fire, while keeping your bead following the targets trajectory, even after you fire. If it's a clay, follow a piece to the ground, if it's a gamebird, follow the bird to the ground.

"Follow through takes care of what is often refferred to as the lead. In the swing through method, measuring (or guessing) lead is not necessary because it is automatically taken care of when the shooting method is executed properly."

It worked for the kids I teach at summer camp, (had two boys score a 196 and a 197 out of 250 after showing them how to shoot) on a trap setup. It works well for hunting as well. I always outshoot the guys who try to lead their birds

If leading works for you, go for it. If the follow through method works, use it. If you're only shooting one type of sport, such as trap, or skeet, then it boils down to what's comfortable for you. If you're shooting in different venues, like sporting clays/trap/skeet, or hunting, then the follow through method will probably work better with the different speeds and trajectories of targets.

Just my $0.02