Advice? Thinking about getting into shotgun sports

[edhackett]

Shooting sporting clays can mess up your trap score and shooting trap can mess up your sporting clays and skeet too. The "timing" of trap is very different than the other shotgun sports. I concentrated on sporting clays for quite a while and got asked to fill in on a trap team one night. Oh my! It's usually not a problem if you move between sports all the time, but for me, I'm better of sticking with similar disciplines.

I've settled on sporting clays as my primary way of depleting the checking account. I hit the wall on my scores for trap. You can't miss in trap. You're supposed to miss some in sporting clays. If someone can run the course, the course isn't set up properly. I like the missing part. I do it well.

Ed

[G-MAN]

That sounds like a good way to start. Take that J.C. Higgins out too. You can shoot trap, skeet, and sporting clays with it too.

The JC Higgins arrived today. What a nice gun! It's in mint condition and doesn't look like it's been used much at all. And it fits me very well; shoulders and points naturally. It's got a vent rib with two bead sights. For skeet, do you stack the beads with the target on top of the figure 8?

[edhackett]

The beads are best only used to check the fit of the gun. Shoulder the gun and see where they line up. If the gun fits perfectly, the small bead should be directly in front of the rear bead, not above or below.

You can use the beads to check your mount if you are shooting from a pre-mounted position. When actually shooting, you shouldn't be looking at either bead. Your eyes should be locked on the target only, the front bead only serving as a bit of contrast and a reference point to the center of your barell. Trying to aim with the beads is a guaranteed miss. A properly fitting gun will shoot where you point. The trick is pointing to the exact spot that will result in the shot intercepting the bird. That's where the art come in.

I highly recommend this book: http://www.amazon.com/Orvis-Wingshooting...1085&sr=1-6

It's for wing shooting, but he author does talk about the difference from the pre-mounted position. The chapters on gun fit and basic shooting techniques are invaluable.

This is also a very good book: http://www.amazon.com/Shotgunning-Scienc...1230&sr=1-3

Ed

[G-MAN]

Okay...but where did I read about stacking the beads with the front beat on top of the back bead to form an "8"?

[edhackett]

Probably on the internet.

If you were to stack the front bead on top of the rear bead, the gun would shoot high. Maybe somebody advocating that for shooting trap with a field gun? You might get away with that given the limited range of movement in trap. There's no way you can check bead alignment and stay up with a target in skeet, sporting clays, or in the field. Best to learn where your gun shoots. Trying to force a certain alignment is counter-productive.

Ed

[edhackett]

OK, I did a quick Google search on the stacked bead issue. It was mentioned several times, including by what I consider a credible source. I'll take a look in my books tonight and see if I can find something authoritative.

None of my guns come up with the beads stacked, even my custom fit sporting clays gun. They all come up for me with the center bead sitting inside, at the bottom of the front bead.

Ed

[G-MAN]

None of my guns come up with the beads stacked, even my custom fit sporting clays gun. They all come up for me with the center bead sitting inside, at the bottom of the front bead.

That's what I thought they were talking about by "stacked." The front bead is "stacked" on top of the center bead. The two together look like an "8."

[edhackett]

Mine don't look like an 8. More like a snowman with his middle sitting in front of his bottom. The center bead is superimposed on the front bead, not centered, like you would a peep sight, but the bottoms on nearly the same plane. Hold a drinking glass horizontal, looking in the open end, then slide a smaller diameter one inside. That's what I see.

I'll take a look at the "Art and Science" book tonight and see if center bead alignment is mentioned.

Ed

[edhackett]

I looked through my books last night. The only mention of a center bead was in one sporting clays book that mentioned adding one as an enhancement to a hunting gun to "help with consistent eye placement".

Bob Brister says a on a skeet/field gun you should see the front bead and maybe a tiny bit of rib. That's consistent with I see. Stacking the beads into a figure 8 exposes too much rib for me. He also mentioned a trap shooters trick to check comb height by stacking 2-3 quarters on the back of the rib. You should be able to see the top of the front bead over up to three quarters. Two quarters will fully obscure the front bead on a skeet/field gun.

Still no concrete answer. So... I called Chuck Dryke, a world renowned shotgun instructor in Sequim, Washington. I'll be retiring to Sequim in three years. I can't wait to be able to shoot here on a regular basis.

http://www.sunnydellshootinggrounds.com

He said the beads should be "not quite a figure 8". I explained that on my guns that the top of the rear bead is right in the middle of the front bead, he said that was exactly right.

He said to use the beads to develop a consistent mount, but never look at them when shooting. The front bead should be in your peripheral vision, and you should be aware of it on a "subconscious" level. His best advice was to take a hammer and knock both of them off of the gun.

Ed