How to shoot a shotgun well

[CalBig]

I'm a fairly accomplished pistol shooter and I'm OK with a rifle, but I am just not happy with my performance when shooting clays (probably about 50% hit rate on clays tossed with a hand launcher). I've done a lot of reading on how you're supposed to go about it, but it really hasn't helped much.

The biggest challenge is in figuring out what went wrong when I miss. When shooting a pistol I can always call my shots without looking at the target. If I throw a shot I know it, and I know where it went. How do you do this with the shotty? When I miss it's always bang and then I am surprised that the clay didn't go poof. Doh!

I also am not certain that I'm doing everything right with respect to grip and stance. With a single bead sight it seems very easy to mess up sight alignment so what should be done with respect to grip and stance to minimize this problem? My long barrel has two beads, but the same problem can still arise.

-Adam

[bjl333]

I'm a fairly accomplished pistol shooter and I'm OK with a rifle, but I am just not happy with my performance when shooting clays (probably about 50% hit rate on clays tossed with a hand launcher). I've done a lot of reading on how you're supposed to go about it, but it really hasn't helped much.

The biggest challenge is in figuring out what went wrong when I miss. When shooting a pistol I can always call my shots without looking at the target. If I throw a shot I know it, and I know where it went. How do you do this with the shotty? When I miss it's always bang and then I am surprised that the clay didn't go poof. Doh!

I also am not certain that I'm doing everything right with respect to grip and stance. With a single bead sight it seems very easy to mess up sight alignment so what should be done with respect to grip and stance to minimize this problem? My long barrel has two beads, but the same problem can still arise.

-Adam

Adam,

The problem is your sight alignment. You shouldn't be aligning the sights!! The trick to shooting a shotgun is only look at the target and not your shotgun! Not even to check sight alignment!! The deadliest thing anyone can do shooting a shotgun is to look at the bead on the barrel.

There are 3 sporting shotgun classes in this forum, I would suggest checking them out. What area do you live in?

BJL

[Thefeeder]

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Seven points of clay shooting

1) Stance
2) Mount
3) Hold point
4) Seeing the target
5) Swing
6) Lead
7) Follow Through


Most misses involve these factors

Bad gun fit
Lowering the cheek sidways to the gun
Lifting the head when firing
Stopping the swing when firing
Pushing the gun down or up when firing
Blinking when firing or mentaly saying "now" just before shooting

A good smooth swing will solve 90% of all problems.

[teflondog]

The biggest problem I had when shooting clays was follow through. I had the bad habit of stopping the swing right when I pulled the trigger, letting the target fly away. I compensated for this by leading the target and then timing my shots, which is incorrect. A seasoned trap shooter saw me and pointed out my mistakes. Learning from an experienced clay shooter helps a lot.

[foxtrotuniformlima]

Gun fit.

Or more importantly, you are not mounting the gun exactly the same way every time.

[TonyRumore]

You need a personal trainer. I had the rare opportunity to shoot skeet on two occassions with a skeet shooter that was ranked in the top 10 in the world back in the late 80's. I started out breaking about 40%. At the end of the second session, I broke 50 straight.

Tony Rumore
Tromix

[lrtraut]

Everyone has already given some good info, but thought I would mention that you should be shooting with both eyes open.

[CalBig]

Lots of good info here. Anyone want to go break some clays? I'm in Livermore and have access to shoot on a ranch any old time. If interested I'd be happy to share some instruction on pistols to reciprocate.

-Adam

[Thefeeder]

OP

It is very hard to read how to shoot. Try to team up with a good wing shooter who knows how to teach. Your local clays range will have OF's that will be willing to show you the ropes or perhaps a lesson or two if you have the bucks

Learn to shoot crossing clays found in Skeet and Sporting Clays to really get the feel of a smooth swing.

[mjsweims]

Once you have figured out how to mount the gun di it the same way every time!
Then take your shotgun to a patterning board and see where the shot is at various distances.
If you are shooting hand thrown clays you are likely only trying to hit them from 10-15 yards and slow speed, so it's important to know where the shot goes in relation to where you are pointing.
Consistency is everything.

[BigDogatPlay]

Lots of great advice from the usual sources in this thread.

Not knowing where the OP is I can extend an invitation (if in the North Bay) to head out to Valley of the Moon Trap Club on most any Wednesday or Sunday morning. Those are the public shooting days and there is usually always at least one NRA certified instructor, and a bunch of really good trapshooters, hanging about who are happy to work with novice shooters or experienced shooters who want to improve.

Just go to trap #7 and ask for Charlie.

[POWG]

How to shoot a shotgun well

To gather attention I will start by exploding a huge myth.

"Follow through" is not really something that you do ...rather, it is something that simply happens once you have learned how to get out of your own way and execute.

...and another

Lifting one's head is really not the problem ...rather, the problem is getting the gun to one's face to begin with and keeping it there through the shot!


Now a tip or two...

Don't worry about the miss or "where" the miss according to observers; understanding instead that the absolute best instructors in the world are only correct in calling the shot about 80% of the time. With that in mind just how good is the information provided by your shooting companions? Besides, a miss is merely a symptom anyway!

Learn to really, really SEE THE TARGET

Learn to mirror target movement with your gun movement

Develop an efficient, consistent gun mount. Meaning ...one that disrupts neither target focus nor gun movement.

...and remember

The key to success in all shooting and in reality most everything in life is: QUALITY - Practiced - Repetitive - Actions.


As stated in numerous threads, there are several instructors on this site and while we all may possess individual concepts ...the underlying principals that I have seen are consistent.

So ...Run, don't walk; and find yourself a competent instructor and invest in some quality instruction - frequently. Like all sports skills - shooting skills are perishable without use and training!


POWG - dba Target Solutions & themastercoach@gmail.com being one and the same ...are out!

[Revoman]

Being a handgun shooter myself and picking up the shotgun about 8 years ago, the biggest thing to get past is the precision part. In bullseye shooting, it's all about precision, trigger control, breathing and consistency. The key is that in bullseye, the target doesn't move....it does in shotgun shooting.

Patterning advise is rarely, if ever, followed, but if you take the time to do it, it will open your eyes to where the shotgun's POA/POI are. You may think that you know, and maybe you do, but it's doubtful. You know where your handgun shoots don't you, you should know the same for your shotgun too.

Once patterning is done, I would venture to say that the biggest thing most folks do is not follow-through on the shot. Over-exaggerate the follow-through as you shoot, it can't hurt and will probably be helpful in remembring to do so on every shot. A static gun on a moving target is a certain miss. You stand a chance at hitting a bird if your lead is too much, but you will always miss a bird with too little lead, always. If your gun is static, your lead has diminished or gone and you shoot behind the target.

Lead is another thing that goes hand in hand with follow-through. You can be off with the lead by quite a bit, after you pattern you will realize this, and still be able to kill a target. Move the gun at target speed with good lead and you will kill the target every time. A slow or non-aggressive swing usually ends in a miss.

Finally, and there are still many things to go over, but overloading of information at this point is useless, it's very important to know your master or dominant eye. Since you shoot handguns, I'm certain that you know this. The master eye is actually the rear-sight on a shotgun so it IS important to align the 'sights', remember the pattern can compensate for a little bit of offset, but in general you should be aligned down the center of the barrel once the rear sight, your eye, and the front sight, the bead are aligned.

The mount, stance and fit are all important, but not as important as the above.

Summarizing:

Sight alignment, like you do in handgun shooting.
Move at target speed, no faster or slower.
Maintain a decent lead.
Take the shot and follow-through.

[ysr_racer]

When you play baseball, do you look at the bat or the ball? With 1 eye or 2?

When you play golf, do you look at the club head or the ball? With 1 eye or 2?

When you play tennis, do you look at the racket or the ball? With 1 eye or 2?

When you merge onto the freeway, do you look at the hood of your car or where you want to go ? 1 eye or 2?

Are you starting to see a pattern here?

Look at your target and your brain will do the rest. Yes, I know, it’s not for everybody, but give it a try for a few months.

Now onto something else. After you hit the ball with the (bat, club, racket) do you stop dead in your tracks, or do you follow thru?

You follow thru.

Same thing in sporting clays, if you stop the gun, you probably shot behind the target.

Oh, I'm right handed and right eye dominant. Since we all have two eyes and they're next to each other you're going to see two images of the barrel. It's called parallax.

[coy80176]

In addition to all the good points previously made,

you should pattern your SG. I didn't see anyone else point this out, sorry if someone did already.

At the distance that your target will be, let's say 30 - 35 yards, put a blank piece of butcher paper up with a bullseye marked in the middle to aim at. Stablize your SG to aim at the point on the paper and shoot....check out where the pattern is, relative to where you were aiming/shooting. Is the pattern of shot balanced around the target? Is the spread more above? etc. If you have different chokes, try them out and see what the results are, how the spreads change/tighten. When you know where the spread will be then you'll be fore the better when shooting at clays (theoretically ).

With my Mossberg, the clay/bird sits right on top of the turkey sights (the spread goes upward, which makes sense if you're shooting at a bird, it flies up...right?). With my Stoeger O/U, the top barrel hits the bird on top of the bead....and I "black out" the bird when shooting with the bottom barrel

Give it a try, and have fun practicing!