One Box One Bird My Journey to Better Shotgunning

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Good day/not so good today at the range today.

22 out of 25 with the 12 gauge. I'm working on the follow through and finishing my shots and it seems to be paying off. I know instantly what I did wrong on the 3 misses. Saturday I did some work where I have my deer hunt in November and scoped out a stock tank with hundreds of dove. So I know where I'll be on September 1st. We will see how well I can do on real birds. Keep in mind I'm still practicing on the practice station on our Clay's course and it only has 2 stations with a total of 4 houses. So I dont have a full repitiore of presentations. It will be interesting to see my percentage.

I won't be shooting the 20 gauge. Maybe forever. I installed the adjustable butt pad and set it to where I think it should go. The results were not better. 15 out of 25. I plan to take another lesson with the sole purpose of trying to find a position for the adjustable pad or decide that the 20 is too far off for me to shoot. That would suck as I love the feel of it in my hands.

Bigger picture is that I think I have progressed from 1 box 1 bird but we will know on September 1st.
 
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8215CD48-39D3-4B71-BF2C-D14E8DBF7079.jpeg Still counting the misses but there were a lot. In this place there are a lot of birds. I had to slow down and choose the closer shots. This is at 8:30 this morning. Not sure what to do for the rest of the day. One double but not conventional. 2 birds approaching tree crossed paths and I actually got 2 birds with 1 shot. Lucky.

So some of the success is just That this place has so many more birds. I still need to improve my hunting skills. But, I believe I have progressed, at least somewhat, to a better shot gunner.
 
Monday was similar to Sunday reaching the limit. I slowed down and passed on longer shots. In the end it took longer and i had more misses. I learned that the modified choke worked better for me. There were shots where i knew the bird would fold and shots that were close enough but i didn't have the same confidence. I think it comes down to practice on different presentations. Recall i did my practice at 4 stations on the Clay's course practice range. I suspect shots that were similar to those presentations were the ones that i did better with.

Overall I had no problems shouldering the gun properly but there were situations where I was guessing on the lead. I think it comes down to more diverse practice. The shots i had confidence in i didn't have to think about the lead.

The journey is not over, but I want to thank those who contributed to this thread. That and taking lessons have helped me become a better Shotgunner.
 
Ducks are a little bit of challenge here in the desert. Not impossible, but not the easiest to find places here in Arizona. I'd love to try my hand at it but need to get into Bismuth (or another non-toxic) shot. Even my 12 gauge fixed choke isn't rated for steel shot.
 
quail season opens mid october. sandhill crane instead of ducks, maybe?

luck,

murf
 
Johnm1 said:
Ducks are a little bit of challenge here in the desert. Not impossible, but not the easiest to find places here in Arizona. I'd love to try my hand at it but need to get into Bismuth (or another non-toxic) shot. Even my 12 gauge fixed choke isn't rated for steel shot.
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Duck flurry is a Clays game where you have several throwers tossing birds constantly, and you try to hit as many as possible. You learn to reload FAST, and it's pretty similar to doves in Argentina, so my lucky friends who have been there say. It's a blast! (pun intended)
 
I think I'll stick with the regular clays game for now.

I feel good about the progress so far but I know there is a long way to go. Crazy games that require shooting/reloading fast may be in the future. But not today. Getting better with different presentations is the next step.

The misses on Sunday were 35 shots for 15 birds. The misses on Monday were more though I haven't cleaned the truck and made a count of the empties.

I hunted down south where I deer hunt in the mid-high desert. I'm never there this time of year but I knew there were many more birds down there and no hunting pressure. I have also never seen a snake on this property. But yesterday while sitting on my stool about 8" off the ground with my back to a shrub this came slithering along side. It didn't alert and I assume it never saw me. Yes, I was wearing my snake chaps.

Snake SS.jpg

That is the end of my shotgun barrel in the bottom of t picture.
 
The only question I have is, why is that thing not blown to a bloody pulp? I'd have given it both barrels and promptly left the area!

Mac

By the way, congratulations on the improvements in your shooting. I have been following this thread with interest since you started and am pleased to see you have made an improvement. Keep up the good work!
 
Yes, but they have their purpose and I'm just not fond of eating snakes.

I heard the snake before I saw him. Not rattling but I heard his movement slithering through the dirt.

I texted the rancher Sunday evening regarding a malfunction at one of his tanks and he told me his son had just seen a juvenile mountain lion cross the road about 3 miles as the crow flys from my location. The original plan was to sleep on my cot on the ground as I have done many times before when the weather was dry. Needless to say I moved the cot inside the bed of my truck. I'm not normally concerned about adult lions, there are many there, but I wasn't sure a juvenile just pushed out by its mother wouldn't get curious. Fun weekend.
 
Mac

It was my hope that this thread would help others that suffer the same as me. Though my issues aren't the most common I suspect there are others like me who just dont posses the natural talent to shoot a shotgun well. I think the group here, including you, helped a lot. The biggest ah ha moment for me was the first lesson before we went on the practice range and the instruction 'Cheek then shoulder' to shoulder the shotgun.

Had the rancher asked that I dispatch the snake for the protection of his herd, we were at a watering tank, I would have done so. Other than that I'd have to be threatened before killing it. I was wearing protective gear.
 
Thank you for this thread! I began shooting trap at the end of Spring, when my rifle season was done (I shoot rifle in Winter because it is quieter at the range when it is cold). My goal was to become a better shotgun operator. I am a better operator now than before, but still a poor shotgun shooter! My best was a nineteen, and I have shot as low as thirteen (or was it twelve?) on a windy day. My twelve gauge is a Winchester Defender (it has been suggested to me to get a real gun when I was at the club;). For trap, I put the 28" special ordered barrel on it and, up until now, I always used the modified choke. It was very enlightening to read that the bead is not necessary... I had lost mine and paid 47$ to my favorite gun shop for a new one. It is cute fiber optic. Had I known, I wouldn't have bothered to get a new one. Skeet is intriguing, I might try it at some point. Five stand is also available there. I have a skeet choke and a super full turkey choke too. I have shot approximately thirty-five boxes of ammo during Summer. Not sure yet if I like it enough to get an "appropriate" gun (budget, if better than it has been, still is limited, and I already bought two new .22 rifles for next Winter during Summer, and some ammo to test them...), but it sure beats not shooting for six months!
 
entropy said:
How does dropping one in the chamber, shouldering and calling pull make one a better shotgun operator? o_O
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The same way putting the ball on a tee, swinging and hitting the ball makes one a better club operator. It doesn't make one a golfer. I will even add, because I am humble enough to do it, that I had a tendency to jam the action in the beginning, certainly by user error (very difficult to eject the spent shell). Now, it doesn't happen anymore. So, while it is absolutely not a tactical shotgun class, I get that, I improved my operator skills during Summer anyway. Have a nice day :)
 
Frostbite said:
Thank you for this thread! I began shooting trap at the end of Spring, when my rifle season was done (I shoot rifle in Winter because it is quieter at the range when it is cold). My goal was to become a better shotgun operator. I am a better operator now than before, but still a poor shotgun shooter! My best was a nineteen, and I have shot as low as thirteen (or was it twelve?) on a windy day. My twelve gauge is a Winchester Defender (it has been suggested to me to get a real gun when I was at the club;). For trap, I put the 28" special ordered barrel on it and, up until now, I always used the modified choke. It was very enlightening to read that the bead is not necessary... I had lost mine and paid 47$ to my favorite gun shop for a new one. It is cute fiber optic. Had I known, I wouldn't have bothered to get a new one. Skeet is intriguing, I might try it at some point. Five stand is also available there. I have a skeet choke and a super full turkey choke too. I have shot approximately thirty-five boxes of ammo during Summer. Not sure yet if I like it enough to get an "appropriate" gun (budget, if better than it has been, still is limited, and I already bought two new .22 rifles for next Winter during Summer, and some ammo to test them...), but it sure beats not shooting for six months!
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Go buy a LM choke and go shoot the 5-stand
 
Larry Ashcraft said:
I think it was Brister who used the BB gun/ping pong ball method of teaching. It works well. Get a basic BB gun ($20 at Walmart) and cut both sights off. Randomly toss some ping pong balls around your yard, (safety first of course) and just walk around and try to hit them by looking at the target, not the barrel. It gets easier with time, and it's a lot of fun. Once you get better, graduate to paint balls on golf tees. That teaches you to shoot where you are looking, not where you are aiming, which is the whole point of wingshooting. Keep both eyes open until that is natural for you. Once you get pretty good at that, you can start to focus on lead. (Did I mention that this is a lot of fun?)

You shouldn't see the rib or the bead when shooting. Mount the gun while focusing on an imaginary target, then look at the rib and bead to see where you are pointing. If you see rib, you are going to shoot high. This is where Dave's practice mounts come in. Point at the target, and then without moving, see if the gun is actually pointing at the target.

Leading is a complicated subject, which I'm sure your instructor will work on. I use the "bird, beak, bang method", but use whatever works for you.
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Good post, this is a little like the Army quick kill technique. I do have a BB gun that was made for this purpose when I was a certified instructor.
 
entropy said:
A good shotgunner can pick up any gun out of the rack at a range and shoot well with it. (Ask first!) Rudy Etchen and Daro Handy both became legends in Trap shooting shooting stock 870 Wingmasters for many, many years. A good fitting shotgun will help a beginning/mediocre shooter shoot better, however. I shoot Remington 870/1100's very well, field or Trap versions. Just got a 25 with my 1100 Competition Synthetic Thurs., first one since starting leagues again after a 35 year hiatus. Just bought that gun a month or so ago, used my 870 Tactical Magnum last year and the start of this year. The high comb on the 1100 allows me to see the bird when I fire at it, the low comb of the 870 forced me to cover the bird to hit them, and I lost one occasionally to that. So fit does make a difference.



Should have kept it; good for Trap that way, and pheasants.
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Not true. Some guns fit differently and have a different point of impact. I have a new Browning A-5 that shoots high and if you have to stop and adjust you will miss. I am attempting to adjust the stock.
 
That's why when I'm first in Annie Oakleys instead of choosing to go farther out, I call shoot from the opposite shoulder........:evil:

d2wing, then you need to shoot more types of shotguns-I personally don't like to shoot A5's, but I can shoot them well. (Knid of like shooting Glocks- I don't like the feel, but I hit well with them.)
 
Trap was less accessible today due to a skeet tournament. I was offered to try podium, which I did, and we then went to five stand because the rabbits were not thrown properly. Apparently a battery issue, whatever. It was all very fun. Two runs each game. I had two ejection malfunctions in five stand because I short stroke, I think. These new (to me!) games made me desire an over and under a little more. All in all, they were more fun than single trap, I thought. Something less serious, less formal about it. Or maybe was it the funny guys I shot with. Very pleasant folks this morning, very. Some of them also missed some birds, which felt reassuring compared to the trap shooters I had shot with previously during Summer. They did not miss very often. I was rightly told to give more lead quite a few times. Three puffs of smoke; I finally got that satisfaction! Did not count hits and misses, not there yet. I shot #8 with a modified choke all along. One shooter had a camera attached to his lower barrel. It must pay to watch your shooting back home, because he was quite a shooter. So much fun, so little time.
 
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