Gun Mount and Swing - 1 Motion - Not 2
December 2010 Sporting Clays Tip
by Dan Schindler
Please place one hand under your gun's receiver - balancing the barrel on one side, stock on the other. Now gently push the stock UP and watch what happens to the muzzle. It, of course, goes DOWN. During your gun mount - this is exactly what happens if your trigger hand goes UP faster than the fore-end hand in charge of the swing. In slow motion - if the trigger hand snatches the gun to the face - the muzzle does a "dirt dive." So - early in the swing - if the muzzle is going down and the bird's flying across the sky at 60 mph - are the bird and barrel aligned? Are they together? No. MOUNTING the gun to the face too quickly has pushed the barrel down, well off the target line. The muzzle will now have to be pulled up, then chase after the escaping target. All of this is called MOUNT - then move and shoot - a costly, time consuming, 2 piece gun mount. Friends will happily tell you "where" you just missed - but the real reason "why" you missed took place way over there at the start of your swing.
When the trap fires - if your bird/barrel sight picture is out of order early in the swing, how will the muzzle get to the "right place" BEFORE the shot occurs in the breakpoint? Now you have no choice but to try to fix your sight picture in what's left of the swing - before time runs out.
Here's a better way. Have your trigger hand remain neutral during the gun mount. Have this hand work WITH the fore-end hand - so it doesn't push the barrel/muzzle off line. This is called MOVE, mount, shoot.
Good shooters look slower - and are slower - because they are more deliberate with their gun mount. On purpose, BOTH hands MOVE their gun to the target, on line, so there's no need to fix the sight picture before the bird gets to the breakpoint. A smooth, 1 piece gun mount puts our gun on the target faster - more consistently - and delivers more X's. Guaranteed. All of this is covered in depth, in my 2nd book, To The Target.
November 2010 Tip
Breakpoints - Building a Strategy
Once we decide to get serious about building a complete shooting game, we quickly begin to learn just how many different ways there are to present targets.
Once a target leaves the machine, there are usually multiple breakpoints available to us. Which one is best? That depends on many, many different factors. Shooting style is one example, an important consideration when choosing a breakpoint that favors that style. A fast shooter might pick an earlier breakpoint - a more methodical shooter would likely shoot this same target a bit later............
January 2011 Tip
Taking The Next Step
Happy New Year Everyone.
Since our sport's gone into it's usual short hibernation this time of the year, I thought we could spend a minute thinking about the upcoming season.
Folks in general seem to approach the upcoming season with the same hope they had at this time the year before. There's nothing wrong with good intentions mind you but what are we changing in our approach to this season?............
