Dave McCracken
Moderator In Memoriam
Why We Miss 101....
There's myriads of reasons why we miss. Any shotgunner can come up with a handful at a moment's notice. And, few of them have to do with the equipment.
The equipment related ones are....
Bad fit.
Heavy, muddy triggers.
Inappropriate load and choke for the shot.
All of these can be rectified fairly easily. That's mandatory if one wants to shoot well.
The rest is us. While all faults fall under the headings of technique and form,here's the most common...
Stopping the swing. Usually there's stance glitches at work as well. Sometimes there's also a anticipated reaction to kick, a wierd kind of flinch. Practice and focusing on this is a cure.
Head lifting. Sometimes this relates to flinching, more often it's trying to see the target get hit. Both this and stopping the swing can be cured by working on the follow through.
Aiming instead of pointing. This takes the focus off the target, and leads to stopping the swing.
Improper stance. Leaning backwards to counter the weight of the shotgun, leaning so far forwards it inhibits the swing, and of course, setting up pointed in the wrong direction are common faults.
Inconsistent mounts. It's funny how good folks will spend thousands on a shotguns, clothing, ammo, range fees, club memberships and lessons, but still not take ten minutes a few times a week off range and groove in the mount. 30 minutes a week practicing GOOD stance, mount and swing will do a new shotgunner more good than the same amount of time on the range with its distractions and stress. Stress? Yup. We do not want to do badly in front of other folks, or show we are less than perfect. Practicing stance, mount and swing in the privacy of our homes sidesteps all that.AND, you might be surprised how many top shooters at ANY of the clay sports or top wingshooters do exactly this, even when the mantel can hold no more trophies nor the freezer more birds.
Misreading the speed, distance and/or angle. A flushed quail flying towards a rising landscape can appear to be descending when actually climbing or flying level.SC course designers are setting up lots of targets these days that have elements designed to cause a misread. Practice is the best way to get better at these. Work on really seeing what is happening.
Misjudging the best break point. Repeating a shot over and over will fix this.
Trigger control. We talk sbout slapping triggers, but the best shotgunners use a high speed press KNOWING when the shot should be taken. We less than best tend to YANK our triggers, oft with a convulsive clenching of the whole hand. The bennies of a clean and light trigger combined with good trigger control cannot be imagined by those handicapped by bad technique and bad triggers.
Physical conditioning.Shotgunning involves lifting a 6 to 9 lb weight shoulder high numerous times and can be wearing. A few sessions a week at home conditions the muscles,another bennie. Use of light barbells is good also. And of course, the more fit we are overall, the better we perform. Good Upland hunters tend to be legged like marathon runners. Top pro shooters and Hall of Famers tend to be as in shape as other pro athletes.
Here's a biggie. Lack of concentration. If my focus is not 100% in placing the center of the pattern on the leading molecule of the target, my probability of a hit diminishes.
And another,overintellectualization. Sometimes the best thing to do is to just SHOOT the darn thing. If you've made that kind of shot many times before, your well honed reflexes will do the job.
There's others, but these will do for starters.
Questions, comments?
There's myriads of reasons why we miss. Any shotgunner can come up with a handful at a moment's notice. And, few of them have to do with the equipment.
The equipment related ones are....
Bad fit.
Heavy, muddy triggers.
Inappropriate load and choke for the shot.
All of these can be rectified fairly easily. That's mandatory if one wants to shoot well.
The rest is us. While all faults fall under the headings of technique and form,here's the most common...
Stopping the swing. Usually there's stance glitches at work as well. Sometimes there's also a anticipated reaction to kick, a wierd kind of flinch. Practice and focusing on this is a cure.
Head lifting. Sometimes this relates to flinching, more often it's trying to see the target get hit. Both this and stopping the swing can be cured by working on the follow through.
Aiming instead of pointing. This takes the focus off the target, and leads to stopping the swing.
Improper stance. Leaning backwards to counter the weight of the shotgun, leaning so far forwards it inhibits the swing, and of course, setting up pointed in the wrong direction are common faults.
Inconsistent mounts. It's funny how good folks will spend thousands on a shotguns, clothing, ammo, range fees, club memberships and lessons, but still not take ten minutes a few times a week off range and groove in the mount. 30 minutes a week practicing GOOD stance, mount and swing will do a new shotgunner more good than the same amount of time on the range with its distractions and stress. Stress? Yup. We do not want to do badly in front of other folks, or show we are less than perfect. Practicing stance, mount and swing in the privacy of our homes sidesteps all that.AND, you might be surprised how many top shooters at ANY of the clay sports or top wingshooters do exactly this, even when the mantel can hold no more trophies nor the freezer more birds.
Misreading the speed, distance and/or angle. A flushed quail flying towards a rising landscape can appear to be descending when actually climbing or flying level.SC course designers are setting up lots of targets these days that have elements designed to cause a misread. Practice is the best way to get better at these. Work on really seeing what is happening.
Misjudging the best break point. Repeating a shot over and over will fix this.
Trigger control. We talk sbout slapping triggers, but the best shotgunners use a high speed press KNOWING when the shot should be taken. We less than best tend to YANK our triggers, oft with a convulsive clenching of the whole hand. The bennies of a clean and light trigger combined with good trigger control cannot be imagined by those handicapped by bad technique and bad triggers.
Physical conditioning.Shotgunning involves lifting a 6 to 9 lb weight shoulder high numerous times and can be wearing. A few sessions a week at home conditions the muscles,another bennie. Use of light barbells is good also. And of course, the more fit we are overall, the better we perform. Good Upland hunters tend to be legged like marathon runners. Top pro shooters and Hall of Famers tend to be as in shape as other pro athletes.
Here's a biggie. Lack of concentration. If my focus is not 100% in placing the center of the pattern on the leading molecule of the target, my probability of a hit diminishes.
And another,overintellectualization. Sometimes the best thing to do is to just SHOOT the darn thing. If you've made that kind of shot many times before, your well honed reflexes will do the job.
There's others, but these will do for starters.
Questions, comments?
Last edited:
