What factors most affect shotgun accuracy?

[October]

I’m just getting into some of the clay sports (mostly trap and skeet) and I’m curious to know what factors have the biggest impact on the score. I know getting quality instruction is very important, and I’m in the process of arranging for that. But how important are other factors, such as:

Barrel length
Choke type
Gun fit
Weight of shell load
Weight of shell powder
Size of shot/number of pellets

I’m using a 20-gauge, side-by-side, 26-inch barrels with improved cylinder and modified chokes. Basically, I’d like to know, after getting some instruction, what factors will have the greatest impact on my accuracy? And does it matter whether we are talking skeet, trap, or 5-stand?

 

[ArmedBear]

Barrel length: Changes swing (weight, balance, etc. also important)

Choke type: Trap and skeet are very different. Get screw-ins. Trap is often shot with a Full, Skeet with a Skeet choke, which is more open than IC.

Gun fit: Essential. There's no rear sight. Your eye needs to line up with the barrel as you swing the gun. Instructor can help with this.

Load info: Don't worry about it. Use what your instructor tells you to use.


In the final analysis, though, it's mostly you who affect the accuracy, unless the gun just doesn't fit at all.

I know a good trapshooter who has used a trap gun with his trap loads and 32" full choke barrels, and run 'em at skeet, in part to show off to some skeet snobs at another club. "Wrong" gun, "wrong" fit, "wrong" barrels, "wrong" chokes, "wrong" loads.

Right shooter. That's the variable that matters most.

 

[BozemanMT]

Gun fit, although I'd put that with instruction
After that, it's all minor
It aint' the gun, it's the nut behind the trigger
that and lots of practice.

 

[Shawnee]

Hi October...

Of the items on your list only one thing affects accuracy at all - gun fit.
And, after proper form and concentration on your part, gun fit is ALL the accuracy you have.

 

[RNB65]

Gun fit. If the gun doesn't shoot where you're "aiming" when you've got it mounted, you ain't hitting anything. It's not uncommon for the point of impact to differ from the aim point a bit with a shotgun and the only way to adjust it is to modify the gun fit.

 

[Steve C]

Guns designed for a specific game are usually set up a bit differently than a standard field gun. A field gun puts the center of the patern at the front bead. Trap guns for instance are designed so the center of the patern is above the front bead in the line of sight since the targets should always be on the rise. With a trap gun you bring the front bead to the target and touch it off with the target visible. With a field gun shooting trap you need to blank out the target when you touch off the shot, otherwise you'll often be under it.

However the shooter is the most important factor.

 

[chris in va]

I'm gonna be the jackass here and point out something I dealt with recently.

I had a shotgun with a heavily raked sight ramp. This put the POI about 25 yards out, but made me overshoot past that point. The best I could ever do in trap was upper teens.

Sold it and bought an el-cheapo 410 single shot. Magically I started shooting low 20's. Go figure.

 

[October]

Thanks for all the replies.

So what I’m hearing is that I need to find some instruction that includes help on gun fitting. Will do.

Steve C – you mentioned that different guns place their patterns with respect to the front bead differently. I’ve had several fellas offer informal instruction, mostly dealing with what the sight picture should look like when I pull the trigger. But, from what you’ve said, different guns need different sight pictures, correct? How can I tell what my sight picture should be? Pattern the gun? I’ve been told that what I use is a field gun, so can I assume that I need to blank out the target, as you indicated?

Chris in va – From what others have said, your example sounds like a good illustration of how improving gun fit yields better results, somewhere in the neighborhood of 12% to 20% by my calculation.

Thanks again, everyone.

 

[PJR]

The most important factor in clay target shooting is vision. If you can't see it you can't hit it. Is your dominant eye on the same side as your dominant hand? Are you seeing the targets clearly?

Tied for second place are are gun fit and proper technique. If the gun doesn't shoot where you are looking and you can't put the gun in the right place then not much else matters.

The other things you've mentioned are often fussed about by clay target shooters but aren't that important.

 

[TrapperReady]

neighborhood of 12% to 20% by my calculation.

Bob Brister wrote "Shotgunning: The Art and Science", which IMO is the single most informative book ever written about the topic. Two copies are floating around between members of this forum. I'd strongly recommend signing up (see the "Lending Library Thread" at the top of the Shotguns topics for details.

Also, shotgun "accuracy" is kind of a misnomer. For shooting moving clay targets, they are pointed, not aimed. It is the combination of the shooter and the tool (the gun) that fells the target. Of those two components, the shooter is far more important. A skilled shooter can hit with any gun, while a someone with poor forms and fundamentals could shoot the "best" gun in the world and still miss consistently.

Therefore, the need for proper instruction and fundamentals is critical. You can mine the "101" threads by Dave McCracken here, and read the Brister book and get lots of good info. However, nothing beats having someone (preferably a certified instructor) helping.

I can add more later, but I've got a kid to get to school.

 

[ArmedBear]

How can I tell what my sight picture should be? Pattern the gun?

Yes.

Your gun is a field gun, but it's a SxS. That means your bead is (probably) in between the barrels, a bit lower than it would be on a rib mounted atop a single or O/U. The only way to tell where to point your gun is point it at a known spot and fire it -- patterning.

Trap guns, to some degree or another, compensate for the rising bird by shooting a bit high (60-40, even as extreme as 90-10). That means 60% of the pellets above the bead, 40% below, or 90%-10%, etc. With 90-10 gun, you can "float the bird", which means you see it hovering above the bead. Hardcore trap shooters really like this.

I don't, even though I shoot more rounds at trap targets than anything else. In my humble and only semi-experienced opinion, if you have a trap gun that shoots really high, practice trap a lot, and then you switch to a different gun that shoots a neutral pattern when hunting or shooting 5-stand, etc., you will shoot under every bird. Your instinctive pointing will be all messed up, except with your trap gun. That's fine if you primarily want to shoot trap competitively, but it's not fine if you just want to learn to be an all-around shotgun shooter. Leave the funky ribs and specialized guns for the guys who've got 100,000 rounds under their belts. Again, my opinion, but there are a good many upland birds who survived this season who will back me up.

Yes, some really experienced shooters can switch around and adjust instinctively. However, this won't happen at first.