NEVER LET THE BIRD PASS YOUR GUN. This is step 4 in the John Woolley series of
instruction based on his five steps to proper shooting. The five steps are; (1) hold your head still,
(2) use a proper gun mount, (3) focus on the bird, (4) never let the bird past
your gun, and (5) proper gun fit.
This
one is simple physics really. If you
come from behind a target and attempt to shoot in front of it to intercept it
and kill it, you must move the gun faster than the bird to get to the
breakpoint, right? Therefore, the gun
is moving so fast that it is only in the right place to kill the bird for a
fraction of a second as it moves away from the bird. That is why we say, don’t come from behind a target, it is
inconsistent, whippy, and it doesn’t look or feel smooth.
A
lot of people think that John only advocates maintain lead shooting. On the contrary, he teaches and uses all
three methods, maintain lead, pull away, and swing through. The main phrase that was so cleverly coined
by John Bidwell, “Move, Mount, Shoot” needs to be the basis for each of these
styles of shooting. Basically for
maintain lead, you should mount in front of the bird to the distance you want
to lead it and pull the trigger as the gun hits your shoulder. For the pull away version, you should mount
to the front edge of the bird and as the gun hits your shoulder extend it away
from the bird. With this version the
gun is in your shoulder a fraction longer than with maintain lead. For swing-through you should mount to the
back edge of the target and continue the flow moving away from the bird but in
time with it.
The
most common problem John encounters with pupils has to do with this very
rule. So many shooters on all skill
levels either mount behind the bird or allow it to pass them, often allowing an
eight to ten foot gap, and sometimes as much as forty feet at the target
distance. Often the cause is that they
stop the gun, which happens naturally if you take your eye off of the target,
or they don’t pick up the bird as it is launched and it gets past them before
they know it. That usually happens
because they start the gun too far back towards the trap.
There
are several steps you can take to ensure that you mount smoothly on the
target. First, watch the show bird
carefully. Notice specifically where it
comes from and at which point you pick it up clearly. You will then start your gun somewhere in front and below, but near
the point where you clearly see the bird.
You may have noticed that many of the top shooters point
their finger at the show bird. There
are several reasons that they do this, the first is to determine where to start
the gun. If you point your finger at a
target and notice yourself trying to catch the bird, you obviously started too
far back towards the trap. If you are
not the first shooter in the squad, you can practice the finger pointing while
others shoot until you find the place where you comfortably intercept the
target. The second reason to point your finger at the show bird is to get a
feel for how far in front the gun has to be to kill the bird. Your finger will naturally move to the right
lead if you focus on the target.
Thirdly, in pointing your finger you also find the point in the flight
path that you are comfortable pulling the trigger. It helps if you say to yourself “bang” when you think you would
shoot. Other tips gained are the target speed and direction. Therefore, if you use this finger pointing
technique, you should know exactly where you will start the gun, how fast you
have to move it, and where you are going to kill the target with the
approximate amount of perceived lead.
Armed with this information, you should not be caught off guard and
consequently can mount and shoot smoothly with complete control.
As
always, we strongly recommend you practice these techniques regularly in order
to make them second nature. One way to do this is to practice your gun mount at
home. Imagine a target flying along the
line between your wall and ceiling from one corner to another. Use one corner as your start point and the
other as the breakpoint. Practice
slowly mounting the gun just below the line of the target and have it meet the
target and hit your shoulder right at the breakpoint. If you mount too quickly, you will find yourself riding the
target, which causes you to look back at the gun, which stops the motion and
lets the bird get past your gun.
The
bottom line of this rule is, keep the gun moving with the target. Regardless of whether you maintain lead, pull
away or swing through, always move, mount, and shoot in time with the
bird. The most common method used is
the pull away version of the move, mount, shoot method.
The
final step in this series is to have a gun that fits you properly. Next month I will go over what that means
and how gunfit in conjunction with a correct stance can make all of the
difference on your scorecard.
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