Trapshooting... really got me down

[v35]

So I picked up the trapshooting habit about four years ago, and I really enjoy it!

Enjoyed it anyway

The problem is I got pretty good, more or less steady progress until I was in the 20s, came close to running 25 straight a few times, finally I was running 25 straight fairly regularly. Plenty of 24s, 23s, but always in the 20s.

Until it got worse. Started to shoot 19s, 18s, and instead of a temporary setback it's only been getting worse. I haven't broken 20 yet this year. Shot a couple rounds in the single digits.

What changed? Nothing. My eyesight is perfect, my weight is perfect, no body aches or pains, nothing. No excuses. I sleep well, I eat well, I get plenty of exercise. Shooting the same gun for at least two years, the same one that ran 50 straight like it was a piece of cake.

I just... suck. I don't know what to do other than give it up. Problem is, I still enjoy shooting. Just wish I were better at it. At least as good as I used to be

 

[Roverguy]

Well, give up trap. This is precisely why trap shooters are well known for being grumpy chunky fuddies

Take up skeet and sporting clays. You will shoot with a better class of people, so your scores will be of less concern because your life will be better. The mere mention that you shoot skeet and sporting will garner admiration, if not adoration, from your audience. Your
Loved ones will love you more. It’s all upside, I assure you.


If you insist on continuing with the pedestrian “sport” of trap, taking a couple of lessons will almost certainly get you back on track. At this point, it’s as much psychological as anything else. You will have picked up a bad habit and then your mind game went when your scores started dropping, further exacerbating things. A few lessons with a proper coach will get your form and confidence back. But they won’t change the fact that you’re a trap shooter. Only you can overcome that massive challenge

 

[Ru4real]

So I picked up the trapshooting habit….
I just... suck. I don't know what to do other than give it up. Problem is, I still enjoy shooting. Just wish I were better at it. At least as good as I used to be

Like golf, trap is a game of inches. The inches between your ears, that is.

 

[Jim Watson]

Roverguy is just jealous of an established sport whilst promoting a game that had to have a name made up out of a foreign language clear up in the 20th century.

 

[CoalCrackerAl]

I shot skeet a couple of times. With my mossberg 500 20 ga. It has a select choke. I ran it on improved cyl. I shot 15,13 and 12. Not bad for the 1st time. I tried it again with my sons 12 ga semi-auto sears model. It has a skeet setting. I did terrible lol. I think 9. Im just used to my 20 ga. I had it since 1977. And always used it for hunting.

 

[Lo-Profile]

Slow down and shoot some practice.
It's all about fundamentals.

 

[DukeConnor]

You're overthinking it. Don't think just do.

 

[toivo]

This is my formula for trap success (not that I'm all that good):

1. After you've mounted the gun, shift your focus to "out there."
2. Keep your head down.
3. Don't think.

 

[eastbank]

first thing for me is to enjoy the clay games, high score or low score and don,t worry about the young snots with their ex eye sight and lighting like reflexes, age will catch up to them sooner or later. at close to 80 i don,t do any thing i don,t enjoy(well most things). and find a good group of like mined shooters.

 

[Armored farmer]

I have had a AA average on 16s(97+) since 1979. Trapshooting was my 15 min of fame.
I am only stating this to qualify my response.
Trapshooting is a mind game. Your equipment must be right, of course... but the difference between 18-20x25 and 25x25 is in your head.
Be deliberate. Be confident. Follow through after the shot. Head down. One at a time. Killer instinct. Let the wind blow, let the guys talk. If you miss one don't think about it or one will become two, two will be four.....etc.
Ready yourself from the ground up...feet, hips, hands, head.
Like others ssid....fundamentals are the key. Making yourself DO the fundamentals is in your head.
Best wishes.

 

[d2wing]

Good advice Armored farmer. Been there. In addition sometimes I think too much.

 

[PapaG]

I'm not going to dignify Rover's comments other than to say he must have been with the type of folks that disparage what they themselves can't do.
Anyone who hasn't had a bad day, week, or run in any of the clay sports is either lying or an amnesiac.

 

[243winxb]

Pattern your shotgun. After many rounds, plastic builds up in the choke. Patters get tighter. Easier to miss. Soak choke in plastic removing solvent.

Load #8 shot for better pellet count.

Remember Wood To Wood (Face to stock). Lifting head off stock causes most misses.

Stop Flinching, get a Release Trigger.

Or change it up. Shoot at Handicap yardages for fun, practice. Shoot some Trap doubles.

I changes over the years to 4 gauges of skeet, Hunters clays & wobble trap.

Now at 78, have not used a shotgun in years. I broke all the clay birds, done.

 

[Ks5shooter]

Concentration is key!

 

[v35]

So I did something no one ever thought of before, which was to shoot at some clays using a snap cap instead of live shells. My idea was to see exactly what I was doing when I shoot. Everything the same including eye and ear protection, the whole works, just no live shells in the gun.

I quickly learned that my control was... well, it was incredibly bad. Not smooth at all. The opposite of smooth. A few dozen repetitions and things got better. A lot better.

It was an eye-opener. Next time shooting live shells I was a lot more relaxed, a lost smoother. Back in the 20s again. Still not where I want to be but I'm getting there.

Thanks for the good ideas.

 

[PistoleroWadcutterGANG]

Please forgive the weird response. How long has it been since you changed your shooting local venue. We get complacent / familiar. We don't see it coming. We start to relax a little too much and focus skills pattern behaviors allow disruptive elements into our "swing" view and other things. If you feel like it next time go somewhere you've never shot. And shoot a few rounds focusing on obversion of your base skills. It might help you ring a bell that is fundamental's related. regards

 

[v35]

Please forgive the weird response. How long has it been since you changed your shooting local venue.

Not a weird response at all. I have been doing that too. Nobody knows me, so no idle talk about distracting subjects. Yes it has helped keep my head in the game. Thanks!

 

[Hoser]

The score is in your head.

Just relax and try to have fun. After all, the targets arent shooting back.

When it isnt fun anymore, walk away.

Try some 5 stand or skeet for a little cross training.

 

[CoalTrain49]

You're bored. You can't concentrate on your game anymore.

I stopped shooting trap about 15 years ago. It's the most boring clays game there is. Golf with a shotgun. Try some sporting clays or skeet for a change. At least you can shoot those with a game gun, not some high comb, high ribbed abomination.

Trap was designed around shooting pigeons released from boxes. They will always fly in one direction. Away.

Fore.

 

[Hookeye]

I normally shoot trap w my hunting guns.
Currently running a 20 ga Citori Hunter for fun.

12 ga 1100 T or Magnum worked well, but got to be boring (the T model had comb down to darn near field stock dim).

 

[Thomasss]

I like your comments. It means you are looking at common trap issues...your weight, eye sight etc. Go see Utube :Shooting with the Remington Pros, by Lee Braun. Ammo? Change that this year? I always shoot 8s in summer and 7.5 in winter. Two famous All American Trap Shooters told me to shoot at the target with a wall of pellets. I found that using a good wad in a 1 1/8 load with IM choke in an advantage at 16 yards. But which birds are you missing? The same ones on each station or on 1 particular station? Same ones on a windy day? A few things I learned: Are you shouldering the gun the same? Do you have two beads on your rib. There ought to be a little space between those 2 beads... That keeps you shooting at the center of the target. Do you ever smoke targets? You can tell how you are leading the target by where you chip a target. You may be slowing down or speeding up. Have someone stand behind you and watch what you're doing. Setting up and shooting. Right hand shooter? Hold your trigger arm elbow 90 degrees to the ground. That will lock the butt in your shoulder where it belongs and help you swing hard left and hard right targets. Lowering your arm slightly will slow your swing. In a slump, I put some Vics Vapor Rub under my nose. It keeps me concentrating. It clears my head and gives me to take a good breath before calling pull. Your body needs a lot of air to pull through a target. Annie Oakly said Practice, Practice, Practice,... Vince Lombardi said “Practice doesn’t make perfect. Perfect practice makes perfect.” All Wisconsin shooters can forget this info...I like to win. Also a Lombardi quote.

 

[PapaG]

I don't recall a good shooter ever disparage the sport where he excelled. Interesting.

 

[Random 8]

I went through a rough spell this spring. I'm usually a 24+ average on 16 yard birds. I shot back to back 19s. OH THE HORROR! I found out I was doing something really dumb. We had a tail wind that day, and I forced myself to lower the beads, and spent too much time concentrating on this. I was focusing my vision on the beads rather than the birds. I was AIMING the shotgun. Instant recipe for disaster. I'm back into happy 24, 25 with the occasional 23 territory.

Go back to basics. Rebuild your stance. Front foot at the house, cheating lefts and rights, roughly aligned at your break point. Front knee bent, back straight. Rear foot roughly square. Good forward center of gravity and open swings left and right like there's a bearing in your hips. Consistent gun mount. Cheat a couple feet left or right of the house on 1 and 5. Left and right of center on 2 and 4. Just a sliver of green on 3 so you're bringing the gun up into straight birds. Focus briefly on your beads to confirm consistent hold, then shift focus to in front of the house as you call "pull'. Swing, lead, shoot, FOLLOW THROUGH!!!! I can't count the number of relatively new shooters who gained some proficiency and then decided it was a race to eject the shell and lower their gun after they shot. Their scores predictably suffered. Without seeing you shoot, I'm guessing you have forgotten to follow through. Follow every bird or biggest piece thereof all the way to the ground for a round or 2. This will hardwire follow through back into your brain. On a hard right on station 4 and 5, a right handed shooter should feel his center of gravity shift to a falling sensation through the swivel at the hips at the break. Everything above your knees is following that hard cross. Left handed should feel this on 1 and 2 hard lefts. If you're not getting this sensation, your stance is too constricted and/or you are not following through.

 

[Barnfixer]

Buy a New Gun!!!

 

[v35]

Finally back in the 22-24 range. Tantalizingly close to running 25s but not quite there yet.

All good advice. Some things were helpful. Actually a lot of things were helpful because I was doing so many things wrong.

• Dry-firing at targets was enlightening. Plenty of repetition helped smooth out my swing.
• Follow through. Yes I had been following through, or so I thought, but not consistently. Got to follow through every shot, every time, or you'll eventually start lifting your head.
• Wait. Wait until I acquire a clear visual and mental picture of where the target is going. I had been jumping on them impatiently, mostly "easy" targets that seemed not to require a deliberate tracking action. Doesn't matter; even "easy" targets need to be tracked. I was missing so many of those easy targets over "hard rights" or "hard lefts" that never seemed to give me much trouble. Wait, wait, wait! Just a few milliseconds is all it takes to let my brain catch up to where my fingers want to go.

For reasons I still don't understand, waiting is harder than it should be but I had clearly been shooting way too fast. Another shooter said I ought to wait until the target leaves the house before I shoot it. Yes that was an exaggeration but I really was shooting about the time I uttered the last L in PULL. That isn't gonna work.

• Stop thinking. Thinking doesn't help.
• Breathe. Breathing really helps. A lot of bad things happen if you don't breathe: vision constricts, you get tense, etc. Breathe! Make it a conscious, deliberate act.
• Wait.

I know a lot of this sounds simple, because it is simple, but it's easy to forget the basics.