Trap - I've hit a wall in scores @ 21 avg; any tips to break through

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Sheepdog1968

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I (and my brother) have been shooting in trap league for two years. The last year we have shot between league and practice every week around 75 clays a week. We love it and it is fun (except he usually beats me by one point).

We both seem to have plateaued at around 21 out of 25. It's not bad but we would like to do better. Have any of you had a similar situation? What did you find that helped you bump up your average?

We shoot every week so it's not like we rusty. Thanks for the help.
 
Have you read the Remington trap brochure?
Nothing fancy but a lot of good basic tips that might help.
Google Remington Brochures, there's one for trap and one for skeet

Using both eyes open?
Standing facing the house or sideways like a hi-power rifle shooter?
Any particular target giving you fits?
Have you patterned the gun on the plate to ensure POI and POA are the same?
Are you looking at the target or at some huge glow dorm at the end of the barrel?

And round and round we go..... ;)
 
Are you consistently losing the same birds? Have your brother, or another person watch you from behind the line to take notes and see if a pattern emerges. Could be a technique issue, or your gun isn't patterning where it needs to be.
 
get a little glow dorm for the end of the barrel, take all the advice and try it and find out what works for you. what may work for others may or may not be for you. eastbank.
 
oneounceload said:
Have you read the Remington trap brochure?
Nothing fancy but a lot of good basic tips that might help.
Google Remington Brochures, there's one for trap and one for skeet

Using both eyes open?
Standing facing the house or sideways like a hi-power rifle shooter?
Any particular target giving you fits?
Have you patterned the gun on the plate to ensure POI and POA are the same?
Are you looking at the target or at some huge glow dorm at the end of the barrel?

And round and round we go..... ;)
Click to expand...
Yes we've read the Remington broceure. It is very good.

I squint one eye. Can't seem to get the both eyes open to work on either side.

I,stand facing the trap house in my general fighting, weaver stance.

I just have the plain white bead that came on the Mossberg 500. It is fixed mod choke. I've checked a few times and poa, poi seemed matched up but I will check that again

My brother struggles on position one. Mine don't seem to be a pattern. I do seem to miss number three straightaways a bit more frequently than I should.
 
Those straight away birds are still rising so with a standard field gun you may be shooting under them if POI is 50/50 with POA. Maybe it is time to invest in a "trap" gun. Trap guns have a straighter stock that will tend to make the gun shot a little high (pattern at 60/40 or 70/30).
 
I have zero experience with trap, but I know how to hit dinner, and it took a lot of work. I was shooting a Mossberg/New Haven pump 20 ga I got from my grandpa for mowing his yard one summer. I couldn't hit squat with that gun unless it was sitting still at which point the center of my pattern was center of the critter I was aimed at. What brought about a new thought and a lot of quick change was me running out of shells in the field and borrowing my dad's 16ga which to this day refuses to keep a bead for more than 4 shots. With no distraction out front to focus on more than my target, I started hitting. Once it kinda came natural I did pretty good. Once I got my 20 back I forgot all about the bead and to this day shoot instinctively unless I'm shooting turkey or slug loads.

From what your describing it sounds to me like your over thinking it, and you need to clear out all the rifraf running around in your head of how your "supposed to" shoot. Once you clear your mind and just shoot the gun how it naturally fits then I bet you see your shooting improve. And let somebody else keep score, don't let that friendly competition cloud your mind either.
 
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BarkeyVA said:
Those straight away birds are still rising so with a standard field gun you may be shooting under them if POI is 50/50 with POA. Maybe it is time to invest in a "trap" gun. Trap guns have a straighter stock that will tend to make the gun shot a little high (pattern at 60/40 or 70/30).
Click to expand...
I know for bench rest, when my brother upgraded his equipment he started routinely winning. I'm not sure if this is the issue or not for trap. Don't get me wrong, I'd love another shotgun
 
if you are shooting 20-21 out of 25 with a plain field gun with a mod choke, you are doing as good and better than a few shooters i know who have been shooting for years with a gun that has all the gadgets used in trap. on number 3 what you think is a straight away, is normaly not. i find they bend alittle right or left and i don,t move my gun untill i confirm their direction. you may be ready for a real trap shotgun. eastbank.
 
Do some ball-and-dummy drills to see if you're anticipating the recoil and pushing the muzzle down. Have someone else load the gun so that you don't know if it's a live round or a snap-cap and then call for the bird. If you're flinching or otherwise anticipating the recoil, it'll become obvious real quick. If the gun currently has a 50/50 split above/below POA, you may well be pushing the pattern underneath the clay by pushing your shoulder forward.

Two other tips:

Shoot with your dominant eye regardless of what your dominant hand is. I've switched to left-handed for shooting shotguns and it has helped immensely. On top of that, do whatever you have to to have both eyes open. If that means smearing something on lens over the non-shooting eye, that works.

Make sure the gun actually fits you. I've seen quite a few people pick up a shotgun that doesn't fit and be able to do reasonably well on trap fairly quickly. BUT.... they never are able to excel. Gun fit for trap is different from gun fit for upland shooting, usually.

A Weaver-style stance isn't a great stance for most shotgun shooting. It's too stable, as weird as that sounds. For most shotgun shooting, you want your feet closer together and your front foot pointed to about where you want to break the clays. With trap, you don't know exactly where that will be so you have to be able to swivel your upper body, head, and shotgun as a single unit. That's not real easy to do with a Weaver stance.

Something else I thought of. If you're holding the muzzle too low when calling for the bird, you may be blowing through the bird and shooting over it trying to catch up to it.

Here's a good set of very short videos that have helped me quite a bit and explain things much better than I do:

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLB6870DF00AEF0454

Just my thoughts.

Matt
 
Can't hit beans on the wing with a shotgun(use 'em for phone booth fire fights and the occasional rioting ground hog.), but, generally, when you get stuck like that, going back to 'The Basics' and practicing 'em helps.
Assuming you have a trap choked barrel? Possibly different ammo. Reloads if you aren't already.
 
That plateau is telling you to get a new, better gun.
Click to expand...

+1000

You need to get a gun custom fitted to you. I'm a lefty and grew up shooting right hand (cast off) buttstocks, and when i finally got my Browning Superposed fitted to me, (longer pull, less drop, cast-on, etc.) my scores improved remarkably.
 
Thanks for the advice so far. I do have left dominate eye and shoot right handed. I will try shooting more left handed. I've tried it and it feels very awkward to say the least. I need to practice shooting more left handed anyway so it can't hurt to do it regularly. I might try getting my current shotgun fitted to me. I have a few extra wooden stocks so I could get it fitted for both right and left handed shooting.

I'm reluctant to buy a new shotgun only because I'd likely want the Bertrand or Brownings and $3K or so is a fair bit of coin. Part of the reason to work on left handed shooting for a while first.

I don't plan to be a world champion but it would be nice to hit 25 straight.
 
Put a piece of opaque scotch tape on the left lens of your shooting glasses and keep both eyes open, I have to do that because of a problem with left eye, works for me. It will help the left eye dominate problem also.
I agree with the others 21 with a standard field gun and mod choke you are doing well.
 
TomADC said:
Since you are already using a field gun, recoil doesn't seem to be a problem, see if a local dealer has any of these. I looked and somehow talked myself into a Browning BPS trap gun, but I think this would have worked just as well. I shot my first 25 with a Mossberg trap gun.

http://www.budsgunshop.com/catalog/...Winchester+512296394+SXP+Trap+4+1+3"+12ga+32"


411015593.gif
Click to expand...
This has caught my eye. I will have to dig into this a bit more. Trap recoil doesn't bother me at all. Racking the slide after using pumps for 25 years is just second nature to me.
 
Sheepdog1968 said:
I just have the plain white bead that came on the Mossberg 500.
Click to expand...

If you are hitting 21 of 25 with a standard field Mossberg 500, yer doing pretty good! There =is= a reason they make guns specifically tuned for Trap/Skeet ... and that reason is to help pick up those last 4 birds!

One of my first consignment sales was a =very= nice Beretta 682 Gold E that went to a dentist down in PR. He was going to use it to replace the Rem 1100 field gun he was shooting Skeet with.

About a week after I shipped I get a phone call with a -very- excited fellow on the other side of the phone ..."Mr Brett, Mr Brett! First time out I hit 24 birds! 24 Birds! I never hit more than 19 before! Do you have any more of these Berettas?"
 
mgkdrgn said:
If you are hitting 21 of 25 with a standard field Mossberg 500, yer doing pretty good! There =is= a reason they make guns specifically tuned for Trap/Skeet ... and that reason is to help pick up those last 4 birds!

One of my first consignment sales was a =very= nice Beretta 682 Gold E that went to a dentist down in PR. He was going to use it to replace the Rem 1100 field gun he was shooting Skeet with.

About a week after I shipped I get a phone call with a -very- excited fellow on the other side of the phone ..."Mr Brett, Mr Brett! First time out I hit 24 birds! 24 Birds! I never hit more than 19 before! Do you have any more of these Berettas?"
Click to expand...
I'm starting to think it might be time to upgrade. This is a good problem. I will start saving. I know there all probably a million options. In all likelihood, I will go with either a Browning or Beretta over under. They are tried and true. The good news is that I am sure I can a few friends in Thursday night trap league to let me try theirs to see which I like more.
 
Sheepdog1968 said:
Thanks for the advice so far. I do have left dominate eye and shoot right handed. I will try shooting more left handed. I've tried it and it feels very awkward to say the least. I need to practice shooting more left handed anyway so it can't hurt to do it regularly. I might try getting my current shotgun fitted to me. I have a few extra wooden stocks so I could get it fitted for both right and left handed shooting.
Click to expand...

When I decided to start shooting left handed due to my left eye being dominant, it was awkward at first. It only took about 3 rounds of trap to get used to it and now it feels weird to try to shoot a shotgun right handed. :) I switched just a little over a year ago and I went from averaging about 12 to averaging 22 within the first 4 rounds. I've only had one 25 in that time, but I can consistently hit 23. Almost all of my misses are station 5 with birds going hard to the right.

Having both eyes open is very important for determining lead on a bird because you need both open to have depth perception. Also, if you have one eye closed, it reduces the light going into the open eye quite a bit. If you switch to shooting left handed, you should be able to shoot with both eyes open with both eyes focused on the clay. Make sure you're not looking at the bead or the rib on the shotgun, but at the bird. They should exist in your peripheral vision, but don't focus on them.

The good news is that I am sure I can a few friends in Thursday night trap league to let me try theirs to see which I like more.
Click to expand...

That's a great way to do it. If you can find one that fits before you invest money in it, you'll be miles ahead.

Matt
 
#3 straightaway - depending on how your gun shoots, one should either float it a little if your gun patterns high, or cover it and fire if it patterns 50-50. DON'T get the glow worm, your eyes need to be locked on the target, not the end of the barrel

I do have left dominate eye and shoot right handed.
Click to expand...

If shooting from the proper shoulder doesn't work for you, then you will need to occlude your dominate eye. Many use a piece of fuzzy tape, a dab of Vaseline or similar on the one spot on the lens where they see the target as they get ready to fire. That forces the weak eye on the shooting side to take over (There are also "dots" that are, IIRC, static-cling in nature for this as well). One other trick to try is to keep both eyes open and just before you fire, close your dominate eye.
 
oneounceload said:
#3 straightaway - depending on how your gun shoots, one should either float it a little if your gun patterns high, or cover it and fire if it patterns 50-50. DON'T get the glow worm, your eyes need to be locked on the target, not the end of the barrel



If shooting from the proper shoulder doesn't work for you, then you will need to occlude your dominate eye. Many use a piece of fuzzy tape, a dab of Vaseline or similar on the one spot on the lens where they see the target as they get ready to fire. That forces the weak eye on the shooting side to take over (There are also "dots" that are, IIRC, static-cling in nature for this as well). One other trick to try is to keep both eyes open and just before you fire, close your dominate eye.
Click to expand...
I do do the squint thing and it seems to work.
 
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