Last
month John and I taught a 5 day clinic to a group of people organized as
entertainment by a corporation. Over the period of days we talked with, shot
with, or instructed about 150 people.
Some had never held a gun in their life, some were experienced
competitive sporting clays shooters but most were hunters who just decided to
come out and have a shot as this different game (pun intended)! I found myself saying many of the same
things over and over to the novice clay shooters (especially after trapper Brad
pointed my repetition out to me!) and I decided to write about it since maybe a
large percentage of readers are hunters or new to the game in some capacity as
well.
There are several differences
and similarities between hunting and clay shooting. I will start with the
differences. Safety in hunting usually involves the hunter having the gun
safety mechanism on until ready to shoot and even then the gun is often kept
pointed at either the ground or the sky while waiting for the prey to get into
range. In clay shooting, the safety aspect is considered when designing the
course and arranging the stands so that once you the shooter get into the stand
and load your gun you should be able to point your gun ready to fire within the
frame of the stand safely. So where should you point it?
The
next basic difference I want to address is that with clays you know where the
bird is coming from and where you plan to kill it. The key is to use this
knowledge to your advantage. Just before you call pull you should hold your gun
pointing at an area somewhere between where you will first see the target and
where you plan to shoot it, just below the line of flight. Let me explain why.
One of the essential concepts
that we try to teach is flow. As I mentioned in another article, according to
Webster flow is defined as “to run smoothly and effortlessly… like a stream
contained by banks”. That is what good successful shooting is like, a smooth
movement that feels easy. One way to generate
flow is to minimize the gun movement to that equal to the movement of the
target, then the gun FLOWS WITH the target. If you call “pull” with your gun
barrel pointing at the ground in front of you and rapidly swing the gun up and
over to the target there is too much movement conflicting with the path of the
target, that is to say too much room for error. Besides that it is just not
necessary, it is perfectly safe to hold the gun near the path of the bird when
you call pull therefore save yourself the time and energy and take the shortcut.
You might be thinking, but I
have no trouble hitting doves starting with my gun pointing at the ground so
why does it matter? Well for several reasons actually. Minimizing the gun
movement by using my suggestion above will allow you to shoot the target much
more quickly also giving you a jump on the second target since clay targets
usually come in pairs. Another reason is a bit more complicated but it goes
back to the predictability of a clay target verses the unpredictability of a
live bird. This brings up a similarity between hunting and clay shooting that I
want to address.
Shotguns are meant to be
pointed, not aimed like rifles or pistols at still targets. Anytime you are
dealing with a moving target it is absolutely imperative to keep your eye on
the moving object at all times. Consider the games of tennis or baseball which
like shotgun shooting involve hitting a moving target using an instrument as an
extension of your own body. You would never take your eye off of a 90 mile per
hour fast ball to make sure that the bat is in the right place, would you? If
you did the opportunity to hit it would certainly be lost. No, you trust your
body using the bat as an extension of your arms to reach out and make contact
while your entire focus is on the ball. Applying this to hunting seems obvious,
focus on the bird and your gun will shoot where you are looking and your brain
will make any necessary adjustment to the distant necessary to shoot in front
of the moving target, you shouldn’t have to consciously think about it. So why does this apply to whether you should
hold the gun near the path of the bird, not pointing at the ground?
The predictability and
repetition of clay targets often lulls shooters into a sense of security
regarding “checking” the gun. A shooter may know where the bird is going and
where he plans to kill it so once the gun is in his shoulder surely he has a
split second to make sure the beads are lined up, right? No! Depending on the
target this is sometimes a recoverable mistake but more often the bird and the
proper sight picture necessary to break it are gone and the time to shoot it
has passed. So, holding the gun close to the path of the target allows you to
move the gun in time with the target, flowing with it smoothly while bringing the
gun up gradually to your shoulder. The goal is to pull the trigger very soon
after the gun hits your shoulder so as to avoid the temptation of verifying the
gun sights are lined up. Just trust the gun is in the right place, like the bat
or tennis racket, and shoot. If you start the gun pointed at the ground then
you must mount it and then look for the target which leaves the gun in your
shoulder way too long causing the above mentioned temptation to be
irresistible. This temptation is often negligible when shooting live game
because the birds are darting about and forcing your eye to follow their every
erratic movement. But it wouldn’t hurt either to give this method a chance even
in the dove field. Pick your bird while still at some distance and point the gun
in it’s general direction as long as it is safe. Then move the gun with the
bird while slowly mounting and go ahead and pull the trigger soon after the gun
hits your shoulder. Try it, it can’t hurt! Oh and if you have a dove shoot near
Jacksonville, Florida and you want us to come along to demonstrate this to you,
you wouldn’t have to twist our arms! As always you can email with us with any
questions (or invitations). Thanks for reading!
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