As I have mentioned in earlier articles, a common reason why targets are missed is because the initial stance and target address is incorrect (stance being balanced at the break point while gun mount eye-rib alignment ensures that the gun points where you are looking). I have also mentioned the visual pick up point and muzzle pick-up point - these two points are crucial to making the shot and remain much the same for any method of shooting - pull away, sustained lead or swing

Static target shooting (rifle and pistol) affords the opportunity for the competitor to see the result of the shot, analyse what went wrong and correct any fault. With a shotgun, when you miss a clay target you cannot see the tell tale signs of where the shot went - unless you have a coach at your shoulder to see where your barrels ended up pointing or observes another reason for the miss. Personal self analysis of a missed target is difficult, but you must learn how to achie

I guarantee one of the first questions that a client coming on their first lesson asks me is what chokes and cartridges are the best combination for Sporting Clays? There seems to be a general belief that there is some magic formula—some combination of the two—that can compensate for gaps in their skills and that guarantees they will break enough targets to put them on the winners rostrum. The bottom line is that if you do not have an established method/technique that will co

So in this follow on article, I will expand on developing the Low Gun (Gun Down) technique and look at how to apply it when faced with a wide variety of targets. However, before moving into the detail of this subject, it’s important at this stage to take a look at the one vital and often overlooked weapon in the shooters armoury, that enables us to successfully place a cloud of pellets on the anticipated flight path of a moving target and that is our natural ability to “Point

Low Gun (Gun Down) Or High Gun (Gun Up) That Is The Question? For Sporting and F.I.T.A.S.C. Clay’s. It was during my time at the2014 Nad Al Sheba Sporting Clays Championships in Dubai, where as a resident expat that could not have his own guns in his possession in the UAE I was relegated to the role of observer, it became very evident to me that a considerable number of the competitors were unable to effectively shoot “Gun Down”, which was a requirement of the F.I.T.S.C. Spor

Today I will reveal to you the secrets of the mystical shooting system know as the “3P’s” that will turn you into the envy of your shooting Friends & Buddies. So! Bolt all the doors close the curtains and nail crooked pieces of wood across the windows and I will tell you of the mystical “3 P’s”. This system, if applied in the correct way, is fool proof and I am so confident in its ability to give you the power to hit any Sporting, F.I.T.A.S.C. or Skeet target consistently, I

What is the obsession with lead when it comes to shooting clay targets, and why is it the priority of the majority of shooters? Unless someone is a mathematical genius and not only able to work out the speed of an individual’s gun-mount, body movement and varying eyesight but also the speed of shot at distance through a certain choke, I cannot understand how they are able to calculate this distance so accurately. The truth is they can’t. Calculated distance

Please do not take the title of this edition of Shooters Sunday too literally and shoot straight at the high tower, doing this tends to upset the ground owner as you are likely to scratch the paintwork on his traps, what I mean by “Shooting Straight at the High Tower” is developing a technique that will enable you to consistently hit high flying targets whether they are either inanimate Clays or live soaring Pheasants. High targets can strike fear into the hearts of even the

One of the things that often let’s down the average shooter is not really knowing what the target is doing before they call “Pull!” How many times have you got on a stand, called for the first pair and promptly missed them, because you didn’t know what they were doing? By the time you’ve got them sorted out you’re usually two or three clays down. This is a bigger problem than it used to be in times gone by, when most 100 bird shoots were one over 10 stands of 10. Losing two b

In my opinion, it’s the one when you know not just where you missed it but more importantly, why you missed it! Or are you one of those shooters that suffer from “What’s Hit is History and What’s Missed is a Mystery” syndrome, someone who struggles to achieve consistency, who goes out one Sunday, has a good day breaking targets and then the following week has a bad day’s shooting, missing the same or similar birds and doesn’t know why? Then it’s time to stop relying on the op

If you’re just starting out as a new shooter, try and steer away from being taken around a clay ground with a friend. You are far better off when starting to take several lessons with a qualified instructor, so you can get the correct foundations of good shooting from the beginning. People often think that practice is going out and shooting 50 or 100 targets around a layout. In fact this achieves very little. Practice should be disciplined, concentrate on establishing a good