Shotgun Lessons with Dan Carlisle - Raahauge's

[navraster]

I took a sporting clays lesson with Dan Carlisle yesterday at Raahauge's and wanted to share my experiences. The summary is that it was extremely positive.

I've seen his schedule on the Raahauge's site for probably nearly a year, and haven't been able to match up the free time and money with his schedule until now.

I took the class with 2 friends which is unusual for Dan - lessons are usually 1 or 2 shooters total. We knew this would mean less instruction time for each of us, but we almost always shoot together so it seemed like it would work out well. And it did. Dan did a great job of adapting his teaching to three students instead of the normal one or two.

Dan teaches the pull away method of shooting. It's not how I went into the lesson shooting, but it worked really well for me so I plan to continue developing it. Dan's lessons were simple to understand and execute, but definitely not easy. They require an intense focus.

I suffer from an inconsistent problem where I will shoot great for the first half of a day of shooting and then my skills suddenly seem to drop off a hill. Dan saw it firsthand - I was shooting the best of the three of us, and suddenly couldn't hit ANYTHING. He diagnosed a shifting cross-dominant eye, which I hadn't really thought about before. All the normal eye dominance tests show me to be right eye dominant (I am right handed.) However, yesterday I was left eye dominant about halfway through the lesson. Dan applied some gun oil to cover my left lens on my shooting glasses, and by the end of the lesson I was hitting well again. (After more eye dominance tests, I sometimes am left eye dominant and sometimes right eye.)

This problem has struck me again and again, and I am SO GLAD I finally saw Dan who was able to diagnose this. He didn't have an easy answer, especially considering that the cross dominance seems to shift, but he did give me a lot of ideas to consider.

He also mentioned that despite my average height, I need a LOP of around 13". I'm 5'8" so I never really considered this, but I must have short arms. That could be aggravating my problem as well.

Dan's lessons are not inexpensive, but we all felt that we received great value. Sometimes the best shooters are not the best teachers, but Dan seems to be excellent at both.

He left me with quite a bit to work on, and my friends received similar "homework" as well. I don't know if I will be able to schedule a lesson with Dan the next time he is in town, but I would definitely like to shoot with him again at some point in the future.

[ysr_racer]

Yep, he's one of the best.

[Jakegreen12]

I have the same eye dominance problem. So, does he have you shoot with tape or something else covering your non shooting eye?

I have tried to shoot with both eyes open. However, I always come back to closing one eye before I take my shot.

[hcbr]

!

[navraster]

I have the same eye dominance problem. So, does he have you shoot with tape or something else covering your non shooting eye?

I have tried to shoot with both eyes open. However, I always come back to closing one eye before I take my shot.

Once Dan diagnosed the problem, he put some grease on my left sunglass lens, but he did say to put a permanent dot on there when I could. (Could be tape, paint, paper, whatever.) My score didn't improve immediately, so Dan had me try to shoot with my left eye closed. That didn't help either. During the rest of the lesson, I shot with the left lens slightly blurred but both eyes open, and I finally got back to my usual form near the end of the lesson.

So if shooting with one eye closed works for you, it is an accepted method of dealing with a cross dominance problem.

When I do the dominance tests, I get different results at different times of the day and different lighting. The end result when it switches is that the clay appears to be far behind where it actually is. When I started hitting again at the end, I "saw" that I was aiming about 5 feet to the right of where I saw the clay. However, everyone else saw me actually barely leading it like I should have been.

I plan to try a gadget called the Easy Hit, which is a fiberoptic bead that only your right eye can see because it is inside a tube. Reviews are mixed, but it's only $20, and the people that like it seem to really love it.

[ysr_racer]

Don't get it. It forces you to look at the front bead instead of the clay target.

[bjl333]

Get your left eye patched and learn to focus hard on the bird.

[navraster]

Thanks for the advice guys. Dan's method of focusing hard on the bird was working very well for me until my dominance shifted.

Brad, my gun currently has a fiberoptic sight as the bead. (Bought used, that's what was on it.) Based on what you said regarding the Easy Hit, I assume you'd suggest I replace the current sight with a standard bead?

[ysr_racer]

Yes, and no. Yes you should take off the fiber optic sight, and "no" you shouldn't replace it with a bead.

Anything that draws focus from your target is DRAWING FOCUS FROM YOUR TARGET.

Fiber optic sights are great on handguns because you're aiming at what you're shooting. With a shotgun, you have to point the gun at where the target is going to be, not where it's at now.

My Browning 525 had a fiber optic sight on it from the factory. Three months after it fell off I won the State Championship in my class.

I won't be replacing it anytime soon. LOOK AT THE TARGET, NOT YOUR FRONT BREAD.

[Jakegreen12]

Ysr - technically you are right. It is far better to shoot the way you describe. The problem is that some of us can't.

Navraster - I just tried the Easyhit sights. They do not help me to shoot with both eyes open. I am just like you. My dominance alternates back and forth. It gets worse when I am tired or in low light (duck hunting). When I mount the gun, I see the front sight PLUS the entire left side of my barrel. The Easyhit does not fix this.

However, the Easyhit does help me in a huge way. Since I have to close one eye prior to the shot, the Easyhit allows me to find my bead faster and establish my lead. It is an improvement to a non-ideal situation.

I do not like the tape or blurring the glasses method because it is annoying in a hunting situation. Closing one eye is not the best way. But, it is the only way for some people.

[navraster]

Update: I took out a different gun today. Browning O/U Superlight. No buttpad, longer LOP, English stock. This gun was also bought used, and has a red fiberoptic sight, but it didn't seem to mess with my vision like the bright green one on the other gun did.

I shot a great game of trap with it, changed chokes, and shot a near perfect game of skeet with it. I missed one shot, took my option, and broke it. I don't know what that is counted as, but it was my best game ever.

Dan's method really works well, and I didn't have any eye troubles today. I will say that despite the longer LOP, the Browning Superlight fit me very well. Perhaps the English stock? Anyways, I didn't mind the lack of a buttpad and will be trying to trade my friend for this gun.

There is hope!

[ysr_racer]

On a serious note, lots of people have "eye issues". You can mitigate them by getting in shape, and getting a good night's sleep before a big competition.

Shooting early in the day helps too.

Did I mention I took "C" Class at this year's State Championship?

[TRAP55]

Dan is one of the best, you couldn't have had a better coach.
He has launched the shooting careers of more than one champion shooter, Cory Kruse among them. He's a personal friend and hunting buddy of my BIL in Houston, and a personal trainer to my niece, a fact I neglected to inform my hunting buds of.
I took her on her first live bird hunt at Terry Raahauge's pheasant club in Dunnigan,Ca. After she dropped the first 4 birds, before my hunting buds could even raise their guns, they new they had been had. Both of us were banished to the back of the shooting line.

[Jakegreen12]

YSR - You have got to be kidding. It is not a fitness problem. I run 5 miles a day, lift weights, and stretch every day. Not everyones eyes work in a fashion that will allow both eyes open shooting.

[ysr_racer]

There's your problem. I drink 5 beers a day, left 12 ounces at a time, and stretch to reach another one.

On a serious note, I've seen lots of people shoot one round of skeet with both eyes open, and say "it's not for me".

It may not be, but it takes months to switch from one eye to two. Now if you have dominance issues, that's a different story.