Download - Mastering Skeet

Table of Contents Title PageCopyright PageAcknowledgementsIntroduction I - SKEET SHOOTING FUNDAMENTALS

CHAPTER 1 - Guns and Equipment

OVER-UNDER OR SEMIAUTOMATICBARREL LENGTHSIGHTSCHOKESFORCING CONES, BACK BORING, AND BARREL PORTINGRECOIL REDUCERSGUNS FOR JUNIOR BEGINNERSSHOOTING GLASSESHEARING PROTECTION

CHAPTER 2 - Shooting Form

STANCE, POSTURE, AND BALANCEGUN MOUNT BASICSFOOT POSITIONThe Left-Handed Shooters Foot PositionsMoving Foot Position between Shots on SinglesPOSITION ON THE STATION OR PADPIVOT AND SHOULDER TURNWEIGHT REVERSAL OR REVERSE WEIGHT TRANSFERFOLLOW-THROUGHFINISHING THE SHOTTHE IMPORTANCE OF FORM

CHAPTER 3 - Gun Fit and Mount

HEAD POSITIONPOINT OF AIM AND PATTERNINGCAST-OFFCOMB SHAPE, HEIGHT, AND ALIGNMENTLENGTH OF PULLPITCHTOE-IN AND TOE-OUTDROP AT THE HEEL

CHAPTER 4 - Hold Points and Shooting Methods

SWING THROUGHPULL AWAYSUSTAINED LEADTHE CONSTANT TIME PRINCIPLEDEVELOPING IDEAL HOLD POINTSVERTICAL HOLD POINTHOLD POINTS AND AGE

CHAPTER 5 - Hitting the Target

PATTERNS AND SHOT STRINGLEADSKILL ZONEGUN CONTROLFOLLOW-THROUGHMISSING THE TARGET

CHAPTER 6 - Eye Dominance and Vision

CROSS-DOMINANCESHIFTING OR INCOMPLETE DOMINANCEVISION CONTROL AND VISUAL FOCUS

HIGH-VISIBILITY FRONT SIGHTS CHAPTER 7 - Flinching and Release TriggersCHAPTER 8 - Mental Focus II - THE INDIVIDUAL STATIONS

CHAPTER 9 - Station 1

STATION 1 HIGH HOUSESTATION 1 LOW HOUSESTATION 1 DOUBLES














STATION 8 HIGH HOUSESTATION 8 LOW HOUSE

CHAPTER 17 - Doubles at All Stations

STATIONS 1 AND 2 AT ALL DOUBLESSTATIONS 3, 4, AND 5 DOUBLESVelocity Curves and Best Apparent Lead CurvesSTATION 3 DOUBLESSTATION 4 DOUBLES, HIGH HOUSE FIRSTSTATION 5 DOUBLESSTATION 6 DOUBLES GOING ACROSSSTATION 7 DOUBLESSTATION 6 DOUBLES COMING BACKSTATION 5 DOUBLES COMING BACKSTATION 4 DOUBLES, LOW HOUSE FIRST, COMING BACKSTATION 3 COMING BACKSTATION 2 COMING BACKSTATION 1 COMING BACKDRILLS FOR 3, 4, AND 5 DOUBLESDOUBLES IN SHOOT-OFFS

III - OTHER PRINCIPLES

CHAPTER 18 - Safety on the Skeet RangeCHAPTER 19 - The Rules of Skeet

SHOTGUN RULESAMMUNITIONREFEREES AND PULLERSSHOOTERSA ROUND OF SKEETCOMMON SITUATIONS

CHAPTER 20 - Skeet Shooting Etiquette

BEFORE YOU EVEN STEP ONTO THE SKEET FIELDON THE SKEET FIELDAT REGISTERED SKEET MATCHESA LESSON IN ETIQUETTE

CHAPTER 21 - Teaching and Coaching

PREPARATIONLESSON PLANS FOR NEW SHOOTERSPRACTICE ADVICE FOR NEW SHOOTERS

Appendix: - The Mechanics of Skeet ShootingBibliographyAbout the AuthorIndex

Copyright 2007 by King Heiple

Published bySTACKPOLE BOOKS

5067 Ritter RoadMechanicsburg, PA 17055www.stac.kpolebooks.com

All rights reserved, including the right to reproduce this book or portions thereof in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording,or by any information storage and retrieval system, without perenission in writing from the publisher. All inquiries should be addressed to Stackpole Books, 5067 Ritter

Road, Mechanicsburg, Pennsylvania 17055.

Printed in the United States of America

First edition

10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

Cover design by Wendy A. ReynoldsCover photograph by King Heiple

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication DataHeiple, King.

Mastering skeet / King Hciple, with contributions by Todd Nelson.p. cm.

Includes bibliographical references and index.ISBN-13: 978-0-8117-3361-8 ISBN-10:0-8117-3361-0

1. Skeet shooting. 1. Nelson, Todd, 1967- II. Title.

GV1181.3.H45 2007799.3132dc22

2006021225

Acknowledgements

Every author of an instruction manual owes gratitude to every previous author writing on the same subject, as well as all those whocontributed directly to his or her own knowledge. I am certainly no exception. I wish that I could have personally thanked D. Lee Braun. Itaught myself to shoot skeet by reading his Remington-published guide. Many others have had varying degrees of input into myknowledge and skill at this sport, including the late Bob Snyder, a Veteran World 28-gauge champion and shooting buddy for manyyears; Master Instructors Angelo Troisi, Don Suyder, Todd Bender, John Shima, and Ralph Aaron; Adrian Cousins, the first NationalSkeet Shooting Association Chief Instructor; Burl Branham, former coach of the U.S. Marksmanship Training Unit Shotgun Team; Lt.Col. Jack Horner, its former commander; and Dwight Davy, who supervised the skeet mechanics study in the appendix. I would alsolike to thank the many friends who encouraged and shot with me for many years, some of whom also appear in the illustrations: U.S.International Champion Dean Clark, Jim Murphy, Sue Huszai, Jack Albano, Doug DiPalma, Dick Cameron, Rich Cameron, JimDoebereiner, George McCullough, and many more that I will regret having omitted.

Introduction

Skeet is easy, if youre happy breaking 9 out of 10 birds. But that means you have to be satisfied with shooting 22 to 23 birds out of 25most of the time. Are you delighted when you manage a 25 straight, with high-fives all around? So am I, but only if I can do itconsistently. If an occasional 25 is your goal, you dont need this manual. With three or four lessons, along with 20 practice sessions,you could shoot an occasional 25, even if this is your first season at skert. This book is addressed to those who want to break out oftheir comfortable, complacent shooting habits, whether beginners or AAA shooters. If your serious goal is 100 straights, this maaualcan help you achieve it.

All the material in my previous short manual is included in this book, but with a great deal more background, illustrations, andamplification. There is an overriding emphasis on the basics, because even many excellent shooters overlook these details. If you arealready shooting AA to AAA scores at skeet, you may think that a lot of the material in this manual is too basic for you, and you may beright, but you can never be overcommitted to the basics of your technique. A surprising number of top shooters have odd quirks in theirshooting technique that probably cost them a bird on occasion. But if you watch top-level AAA shooters carefully, you will see howprecise their technique is.

This text includes new material about the geometry and flight dynamics of a skeet target and how we perceive it. A portion of it isderived from a senior thesis done some years ago at Case Western Reserve University School of Mechanical and AerospaceEngineering, under the direction of Professor Dwight Davy and myself. Some of these data are included throughout, as well as in theappendix.

My conviction is that you can never know too much about the mechanics of whatever you are trying to accomplish. This is not to saythat shooters with instinctive, natural styles cant break 100 straight; a few of them have even won national titles. But I characterize thesesuccesses as a triumph of athletic skill and practice over technique. These shooters tend to be streaky, shooting an excellent score ona day when theyre in the zone and crashing and burning when theyre not. They occasionally win a tournament despite their basicallyweak technique, but certainly not because of it. I believe that the more you understand about the mechanics of excellent technique, thecloser you will come to championship form, and hopefully, championship achievements.

However, no amount of studyof this or any other manualwill automatically make you into a AA or AAA shooter and a top-gunthreat at every match. You need excellent eye-hand coordination, reasonable athletic skill, and a commitment and willingness to put inplenty of practice. And because there is simply no way that you can stand behind yourself and see your own errors, you also needcoaching, whether by a professional or by an experienced shooting friend. A pro is probably best, because we all tend to take advicewe pay for much more seriously than that of idle friends, and the professional wouldnt have lasted very long if his or her coachingwasnt effective.

There are three fundamentals in skeet:

1. Keep your eye on the target.2. Keep your head (actually, your cheekbone) on the stock.3. Have the proper lead at the instant the shot clears the barrel.

But these fundamental only tell you what you must do, not why they are so critical or how to achieve these goals. This manual delves

into the why and how of technique. I am convinced that it can be very helpful to understand why a certain skill might be able to earn youan extra bird per 100. Only then will you be willing to invest the necessary time and effort to incorporate it into your shooting style.

We all learn differently, and we frequently use a combination of learning techniques to acquire any new information or a new skill.Listening to advice, reading books, seeing photos or videos, watching a high-level performance, coaching, and repetitive practice ofgood technique are all part of learning. The advantage of a written manual is that it lets you stop and ponder what you just read or goback and reread a page. You can pick it up any time for quick reference. And it can cover the same material in much more detail thanany video can. This manual is an effort to present excellent technique in skeet shooting in as much detail as possible, becausepracticing with poor technique doesnt lead to progress or real improvement, even though your scores may rise to some degree.

The biggest deficit of any manual or video, however, is that it cant see your errorsof both commission and omission. Thats whereexpert coaching comes in. If your coach has some favorite techniques that vary from this text and they work for you, thats fine.Unfortunately, your worst enemy in developing good technique is frequently your shooting friends. They offer loads of advice, but itsrarely useful. Even if they know where you shot, they have no idea why you did so or how to correct it, which is the crux of the matter.

Be warned that when you apply basic technical corrections to an established shooting style, you may temporarily feel frustrated andmay suffer a decrease in scores. Any change is uncomfortable at first, and unless you persist and work through it, you wont achieveyour goal.

If you are an experienced shooter looking for an extra edge or trying to work your way out of a slump, this book can help you. It is alsofor less polished performers who want to learn good basic technique early in their shooting careers. The text covers the full range ofmaterial necessary to the mastery of skeet.

I.1 Layout of a regulation skeet field. Several important elements may not be obvious. The field is not quite half of a circle, since thecenter stake is 18 feet outside the base cord. This is significant, especially on station 8. In addition, the out-of-bounds markers are at44 yards from the target emergence points. This is not the same as being in line with the face of the houses; it varies by a foot or morepast the face, which is important if you are laying out a new field. As noted in the station discussions, the high house target emergesright over the center of the pad, while the low house emerges 30 inches to the right of center. These peculiarities are a historicalaccident due to the way the original skeet fields were laid out and subsequently formalized, and they have a slight effect on technique.

This is not intended as a read-and-shoot manual. It is meant to be studied and its principles and techniques applied to yourshooting style. Of course, you dont need to adopt every minor suggestion, but you should at least give each one some thought andconsider whether it could make a difference to you. Throughout the text are boxes containing suggestions for you to try out or to test withyour gun, either at home or at the range. Sometimes the only way to convince yourself that something makes sense is to test it yourself.

Surprisingly, there is little published material on skeet instruction, apart from the material used in the National Skeet ShootingAssociation (NSSA) instructors courses. This book includes some material (see chapter 21) that addresses methods of teachingbeginners and coaching more advanced shooters. It reflects my NSSA instructor background, and it may help if you like to coach, but itis a poor substitute for the NSSAs instructor certification courses.

Figure I.1 shows the official layout of a skeet field. As the diagram indicates, the skeet field is a segment of a circle (not quite half)with a 21-yard radius. Thus, the distance from any shooting station to the center stake is 21 yards, and the distance between the twotrap houses is just over 42 yards. No legal shot at skeet can ever be farther than 44 yards, and the vast majority are from 10 to 20yards, since we shoot almost all targets on the half of the field closest to us.

I

SKEET SHOOTING FUNDAMENTALS

CHAPTER 1

Guns and Equipment

Skeet originated as off-season practice for upland bird shooting, and many of us start out with either an inherited or a borrowed fieldgun that isnt particularly well suited tor skeet. Usually the choke is no tighter than improved cylinder (0.0010 inch) or modified (0.0020inch), which can break short-range birds fairly well, but for skeet, the pattern is smaller than ideal. The biggest probleut is usually that thecomb is too low and slopes toward the rear. When mounting a gun rapidly for bird shooting, hunters rarely get their heads down tight, sothis works out fairly well. If you get three out of four birds in the field, you think youre a great field shot. The same score at skeet wontsatisfy very many.

OVER-UNDER OR SEMIAUTOMATIC

Skeet guns have evolved significantly over the past 40 years. At one time, many or most shooters used semiautomatics, with fourdifferent guns for the four gauges of competition, usually with 26 -inch barrels. In the 1960s we saw the introduction of four-barrel setsfor over-under guns. At least this kept the stock and comb fit from changing, but the barrel weight and swing weight differed significantlywith each set of barrels. Barrel weights didnt quite eliminate these differences. There was a gradual shift toward shooting over-undershotgun instead of semiautomatics. There is little doubt that the over-under generally requires less maintenance and has fewermalfunctions than the semiautomatic.

At about the same time, gunsmith Claude Purbaugh introduced full-length insert tubes to convert an over-under to shoot all fourgauges. Many shooters initially complained that these made the gun too barrel-heavy, but some remarkable scores began to beachieved. The stock fit didnt change between gauges, nor did the sight picture, since it always looked like a 12 gauge. Browningadopted another gunsmiths short tubes (about 16 inches), but these Browning Super Tubes and the Purbaugh tubes requiredchanging the extractors for each gauge change and never really caught on.

Winning solutions are always adopted by others, and in the next few years, Jessie Briley introduced his tube sets, as did the Kolarfirm, both with integral extractors. You can even get them with changeable chokes. Refinement of these sets has now resulted infeatherweight and matched-weight tubes, so they all swing essentially the same regardless of what gauge you are shooting. The 12gauge could actually be the lightest.

You can even buy a gun that has two barrelsone a heavy 12-gauge barrel and the other a lighter carrier barrel to be used only withthe 20, 28, or 410 tubes, such that all weigh and swing almost exactly the same. This may not be necessary, but anything that you thinkis making a difference will help your head game. If I were advising a serious match competitor, I might suggest this route, but since Ishoot my 20-gauge tubes in both 12 gauge and doubles, there would be little point in my having a carrier barrel system.

The semiautomatics biggest advantages over the over-under are lower cost and that the mechanism spreads out the recoil, so thatthe peak and perceived recoil are both significantly less. For this reason, some top-level competitors use a semiautomatic in the 12-gauge competition to reduce recoil fatigue; others achieve much the same result by using their 20-gauge tubes. The recoil of a -ounce 20-gauge load is just about 60 percent of the recoil of a 1-ounce 12-gauge load shot from similar guns. Shooters find that theyscore just as well or better with the 20 gauge and retain the advantage of having the same gun feel in their hands. Several worldchampions were noted for doing this.

I encourage most starting skeet shooters to acquire a good used 12-gauge semiautomatic from a well-known manufacturer (Benelli,Beretta, Browning, Remington, Winchester) and shoot it for a year or so. This allows adequate opportunity to explore the variations theywant to try and determine their price range. Theres a ready resale market for such guns at little or no loss from the years use if the gunis taken care of reasonably well.

BARREL LENGTH

The semiautomatic has a much longer receiver than the over-under. As a result, the 26-inch barrel length gives a good swing weightand a long sighting plane. With a significant shift to over-under guns, there has also been a marked shift toward longer barrels. Twenty-eight-inch barrels on over-under guns are now almost standard, and many have begun using 30 inch; trap guns are frequently evenlonger. This makes for a smoother-swinging but slower-starting gun. At some point, this trade-off is simply a matter of personalpreference. I have noted that big shooters prefer heavier guns (such as the Krieghof) with longer barrels. However, if you have theopportunity to get an excellent skeet gun with the older 26-inch barrel, dont pass it up. You can easily obtain aftermarket extendedscrew-in chokes or have them installed to extend the effective barrel length.

At the World Skeet Championships in San Antonio and at most other big shoots, you can see almost every gun manufacturerrepresented among the competitors, but the most popular guns are certainly tubed over-unders. For these, the big six manufacturersare Beretta, Browning, Kolar, Krieghof, Perazzi, and Winchester (I happen to shoot a Perazzi). Why some of us prefer one gun overanother is subjective. You should attempt to shoot a borrowed gun of every type, as well as different barrel lengths, before you decidewhat you like best. There are champions who shoot all of the above.

It takes several years of shooting to become comfortable with your own style. Only then will the subtle variations in the different makesof guns and different barrel lengths be apparent to you and make a difference. If you become a serious competitive shooter, you willalmost certainly buy a quality over-under shotgun and do whatever is necessary to custom-fit the stock (see chapter 3). Be prepared towork with a knowledgeable coach and stock fitter until your new gun really shoots where you point it on a consistent basis. If you dontwant to do this, you can still have lots of fun and shoot excellent scores, but you might not win too often.

There is an extended discussion of the real and perceived advantages of stocks with parallel combs, adjustable combs, andadjustable butt plates in chapter 3. If you are contemplating a change in your skeet gun, read that chapter carefully before making a finaldecision.

SIGHTS

Traditionally, shotguns have been sold with a white front-sight bead about inch in diameter and a smaller metal bead about halfwayback the rib. Field guns frequently have no back sights at all. In the past few years, plastic tubular sights with light-collecting propertiesthat make them appear quite bright to the eye have become popular. Hy-Vis and Insta-Dot are two brands. The possible advantages ofthese are discussed in chapter 6.

CHOKES

Chokes are almost routinely changeable with screw-in sleeves, and many add length to the barrel or barrels so that a shooter can alsoadjust the effective length by an inch or more.

In the past, dedicated skeet guns were routinely delivered with choke constrictions measuring about 0.005 inch. (Chokes inAmerican and English guns are designated by thousandths of an inch. European guns may designate them by millimeters, but mostcatalogs have a conversion table.) In the past, a skeet gun would sometimes be delivered with slightly different chokes in the twobarrels of an over-under-for example, 0.005, referred to as Skeet I, and 0.007 or 0.008, or Skeet II. Many older guns even had Skeet IIas 0.012, the thought being that the slightly tighter choke would be used on the bird farthest away. This is a holdover from upland gameshooting, in which the second shot at a bird is almost always a longer shot. At skeet, this is rarely the case. In fact, many second shotsat doubles are at a closer bird, except possibly at station 4. More important, almost no shot at a skeet target should be at more than 20to 22 yards; most are at 12 to 16 yards. You routinely shoot the bird on your own half of the skeet field, except possibly the second birdof a double at station 4.

In truth, the cylinder bore with no choke at all is well suited for shooting skeet. However, sometimes the very small amount of so-calledSkeet I (0.003 to 0.0005 inch) is just enough to slightly reduce the occasional wide pellet at the margin of the pattern, while hardlyreducing the size of the typical 30-inch pattern at 20 yards. If I were to order a new skeet gun today, I would order it with 0.005-inchchokes for both barrels. It is also possible to get screw-in chokes with a negative chokethat is, slightly flared.

Some shooters like a tighter choke for the second bird of the station 4 double and thus put a 0.007- or 0.008-inch choke in thesecond barrel. This isnt really necessary, and theyre giving away an inch or two of pattern size on all the closer birds. I suspect thatmany of these shooters simply like the harder break they see with a slightly tighter pattern. If that gives them more confidence, it may beworth the loss of pattern size.

It is important that you pattern your gun with the choke tubes that youll be using. Nominal or screw-in chokes can vary a surprisingamount from one manufacturer to another. Read the part of chapter 3 on point of aim and patterning before you finally settle on thechokes you want to shoot with. And remember that you can change them easily if necessary.

FORCING CONES, BACK BORING, AND BARREL PORTING

Many skeet shooters are adding refinements such as lengthened forcing cones, back-bored barrels, and barrel porting to their guns. Allthese are subtle modifications said by their proponents to reduce shot distortion, reduce felt recoil, and decrease barrel jump when thefirst shot of a double is fired. Whether these really make a perceptible difference is questionable, at least in terms of scores on theskeet field. They are certainly profitable for the manufacturers and aftermarket gunsmiths.

Porting makes a gun harder to clean and much noisier. This feature has become so popular that it is becoming hard to buy a newgun that hasnt been ported at the factory. Porting is supposed to reduce the amount of upward jump of the barrel, making recoveryquicker for the second bird of a double. Although this may be measurable in the laboratory, I cant perceive a difference on the skeetrange. I suspect that much of the perceived advantage of such features is that the owner believes he or she has the best that money canbuy.

RECOIL REDUCERS

Every shooter knows that a shotgun has recoil; the 12 gauge has the most, and the 410 the least. Many shooters arent bothered byrecoil and dont pay much attention to it. Others are very sensitive to recoil and cant shoot well without a serious effort to control it.

The simple answer for some skeet shooters is to shoot the 20 gauge in place of the 12 gauge in both practice and competition.National shooting data indicate that scores are essentially identical, and the recoil of the 20 is only about 61 percent that of the 12gauge. You can also shoot a semiautomatic instead of an over-under; the total recoil is the same but is just spread out a bit, whichmakes it easier to tolerate.

Every shotgun magazine includes multiple ads for a wide variety of recoil reducers. But like barrel porting, I question their usefulness.Published data indicate that the effects of recoil reducers are little different from the effects of adding weight to the gun in some way.Try someone elses gun with a recoil reducer before spending any money.

GUNS FOR JUNIOR BEGINNERS

For youngsters learning to shoot, my choice for a first gun would be a youth model 20-gauge semiautomatic. Both Remington andBeretta make them. In some models, the stock can be changed to a standard size later. There is always a brisk market for these usedguns in good condition.

SHOOTING GLASSES

Eye protection is mandatory on the skeet range, and most large-lens or aviator-style driving glasses made of shatter-resistant plasticwill do reasonably well. However, your head position when shooting skeetwith your cheek down firmly on the comb of the gunmeans that the top edge of a conventional frame is very close to where you are looking for the bird: not an ideal setup. Shootingglasses are usually made so that the lenses sit higher on your face compared with driving glasses. They also have very wide lenses soas not to reduce peripheral vision. And they are made of impact-resistant, shatterproof plastic to be as light as possible.

Given the critical nature of vision in our sport, two things have occurred in the past 25 years. First, the color of skeet targets haschanged from a black-edged, medium yellow dome target to one with an almost fluorescent orange dome or one that is entirely orange.Second, the makers of shooting glasses have introduced lenses with multiple colors and densities of light transmission. This isintended to make the targets stand out more vividly against various background, whether sky, trees, or water, and whether conditionsare overcast and gloomy or bright and sunny. These lenses all come with ultraviolet filtering to protect your eyes from sunlight.

If you use prescription glasses, having multiple pairs to accommodate varying conditions would be too expensive. A number ofsuppliers now make frames that allow multiple sets of lenses to be snapped in and out in a matter of seconds. Many shooters have asmany as five sets of lenses to help them see best under varying conditions. Decot is one maker of such interchangeable lenses, butmany brands are available.

There are 40 or more color options available, but most shooters do fine with only two or three sets of lensesperhaps a mediumtarget orange for dull or overcast days, a medium bronze tint for sunshine, and clear for shoot-offs under lights. In attendance at everylarge shoot are vendors with all the colors on display, so you can judge the various lenses for yourself.

Color blindness can affect your perception of the contrast between a bright orange target and the background. About 8 percent of themale population has some degree of color blindness, and many men who are mildly affected are unaware that they have a problem.Several suppliers make a lens designed to increase the contrast to the partially red-green color-deficient eye, the most common type ofcolor blindness.

HEARING PROTECTION

Hearing protection is mandatory at registered skeet shoots for everyone on the range. For most shooters, foam plugs or standardearmuffs are sufficient protection, but they must be worn conscientiously to avoid suffering significant hearing loss. Many dont realizethat the abruptness of the sound is more important than the loudness in terms of potential damage. The inner ear has a tiny muscle thattightens to dampen the loudness of a sound. If the sound is very abrupt, like a gunshot, the inner ear doesnt have time to do this, andthe damage is worse.

If you have any ringing in yours ears after you finish shooting, your protection is insufficient. Try doubling up with both earplugs andmuffs combined.

Electronic muffs and plugs are popular. They make it easier to talk during a round, but they are expensive and do not offer betterhearing protection. Most shooters can hear well enough through regular plugs or muffs for the conversation needed during a round,which is not the time for small talk. Sitting in a blind or treestand listening for a gobbler or a buck may be a different story.

CHAPTER 2

Shooting Form

With Todd Nelson

Good shooting form is a combination of stance, posture, balance, and gun mount. That doesnt mean you have to use exactly the sameform pointed out as excellent in this chapter. Anyone watching the shoot-offs at the World Championships knows that there is widevariation among champions. But unless you have a reasonably good and totally consistent shooting form, your perfectly fit stock will besomewhat less than perfect as soon as you change something in your form, whether it is done deliberately or unconsciously.

It should be obvious that excellent shooting form wont automatically let you shoot perfect scores. But less than excellent shootingform certainly makes it more difficult to reach the top level. Champions all have essentially excellent shooting formbut not necessarilythe same form.

STANCE, POSTURE, AND BALANCE

Because your stance and posture are almost inseparable from your foot positions, this is where well start. When you watch theperformance of almost any fine skill at the top level, it often seems effortless, but we all know better. Great concentration, muscularcoordination, and thousands of repetitions are required to make it look so easy. In particular, almost all unnecessary effort and motionhave been eliminated. This is especially true for any sport in which endurance and fatigue. come into play. It is certainly true ofskeet.Two 100-bird matches followed by two shoot-offs in one day will usually be won by the most relaxed and least fatigued shooter. Age isalso a factor. You may win with a less than optimal style when youre very young, but the longer the shoot-off goes, and the older youare, the more problematic an extreme style becomes.

The 12-gauge shoot-offs in the World Shoot may start with 30 or more competitors, after each has already shot 125 straight that dayplus a box at 3-4-5 doubles straight. A few of them may have shooting styles that look as though they require a lot of physical effort, butthe rest will probably look astonishingly smooth and relaxed. As is discussed further in chapter 3, they all have remarkably good but notidentical shooting form. The U.S. Army International Shotgun Shooting Team shoots out of a significant crouch, but these competitorsare usually in their 20s, and international shooters get a 1 hour break after every 25 birds. Plus, many of the best internationalshooters from other countries use a more relaxed stand-up style.

You should be working at developing a shooting style that incorporates the following:

1. A stand-up styleno deep crouch or excessive knee bend. The latter positions just burn up energy and muscular effort. Mostshooters are more comfortable with the knees just slightly bent, particularly the front leg.

2. An erect head positionnot bent or forced way down on the stock (see also chapter 3).

2.1 The excellent balance and stance of world champion shooter Rich Cameron. Perfectly set up, he is just beginning his gunmount on station 3 for the high house. The thumb up on top of the rib is a personal quirk of Richs and comes downsimultaneously with his full mount. I dont believe this has any positive or negative effect in terms of shooting form.

3. A comfortably balanced, two-foot stance. Put enough weight forward on your front foot (left toot for a right-handed shooter) so

that you still have more weight on the front foot (between 60 to 70 percent) after absorbing the recoil of a shot.4. A stance with your feet no farther apart than your shoulders. Slightly less is all right; just make sure to use the same spread all

the time.5. A level or upward shoulder turn, driven by your legs, not your arms (see section 2).

Figure 2.1 shows an excellent stand-up shooting posture. Avoid getting into the habit of setups and stances like those shown infigures 2.2 and 2.3.

The goal with balance is to be able to reverse your swing after the first bird of a double at any station (including 3, 4, and 5) and stillfind yourself perfectly balanced and your weight still mostly on the front foot. Some shooters feel that they have to brace their feet wideapart to be able to accelerate the gun, like the young shooter in figure 2.3. They fail to realize the power and smoothness with which youcan pivot on the front foot using your hip and trunk musculature. The name of the game is smooth, not fast. A wide stance may not be aserious problem, but at extremes it inhibits the ability to pivot on the forward leg due to hip motion restriction.

To really appreciate how narrow your stance can be without a problem (except in wind), try the following: During your next round ofskeet, pick almost any station or target you wish, but stand comfortably upright and actually touch both heels together. Still keepyour weight on the front foot, and go ahead and shoot your bird. You will be amazed at how easy and smooth it feels. Its all in a

smooth, level shoulder turn and body pivot over the leading leg.

2.2 The excessive crouch of this otherwise excellent junior shooter will not help him in the long run. It is fatiguing and even inhibits a fullturn at the extremes. Although several champions are noted for their crouches, they dont win because of them.

2.3 The excessively wide stance of this junior shooter adds little to his ability to move the gun smoothly. And like an excessive crouch,at the extremes it inhibits a full follow-through turn. In addition, he has actually moved his weight from the front to the back foot whileshooting high 4 and is about to call for low 4 with his weight still on the back right foot. His overall balance is poor, being back on bothheels. The gun mount is also poor. Errors in technique rarely occur singly. This young shooter needs some serious coaching.

There are exceptions to almost any rule. I know a senior lady shooter who uses a very deep crouch yet shoots very well. She does sobecause of severe lower back problems; such a posture is much more comfortable for her, despite its price in fatigue.

Todd Bender, Master Instructor and many-time World Champion, points out that a few top-level shooters, including himself, shootfrom a somewhat unnecessary crouch. But he would never teach anyone to use his extreme stance, which is a hold-over from his juniorshooting days. He says, What is important is that the legs do the work and the shoulders stay level. The degree of knee bend is notimportant, it is the turn that is important.

GUN MOUNT BASICS

If you are a beginning shooter, you may be mounting your gun incorrectly, as shown in figures 2.4 and 2.5 (see also chapter 21).Occasionally, an inexperienced shooter needs basic instruction in how to get into a balanced position. Try the following exercise.

Take the empty shotgun in both hands. Place one hand very lightly at the mid fore end and the other on the grip, with one finger outsidethe trigger guard. Push the gun away from yourself and up into the air at a 45-degree angle to arms length. Raise your right arm andelbow to horizontal. Pull the gun straight back to the inner aspect of your shoulder, still angled at 30 to 45 degrees. Now move the butthigher by several inches. Put your cheekbone firmly on the comb. Without moving your arms, bring the barrel down to level by movingyour weight onto your left foot and bending forward slightly. You are now very close to an ideal balanced position, with your weight wellforward.

This technique is illustrated in chapter 21.

Your stance, posture, and gun mount should be as identical as possible every time you step up on a station to shoot. Identical footpositions are essential. If they arent consistent, then you wont mount the gun exactly the same way either.You cant control thevariations of sun, wind, and temperature, but you should try to control all the variables that you can. If your mount varies, then the gun thatfit you well last week wont fit nearly as well today. These things need to become part of a setup routine that you practice until it isautomatic.

2.4 This shooter has the gun mounted out on his upper arm, not in the shoulder pocket, which quickly becomes uncomfortable withextended shooting. In addition, the gun is mounted much too low, forcing him to bend his head down considerably to get his right eye inline with the sights. Also, the gun doesnt fit him properly. He is forced to cock his head more than 20 degrees just to get his eye in linewith the rib.

2.5 Todd Nelsons stock appears to be way too long. His cheek is on the rear of the comb, and there is five inches between his thumband nose. Actually, the gun fits perfectly, but the gun mount is terrible, with his right shoulder pushed too far forward. It is a crampedposture that is frequently the result of anxiety or simply poor shooting form. It is not helpful to shooting consistency

FOOT POSITION

If you are already an A or AA shooter with a poor foot position setup, you will probably resist changing your foot position with avengeance. Most self-taught A and AA shooters routinely shoot the second bird of the small station doubles (1, 2, 6, and 7) so early thatthey pay no attention to good foot position. That is too bad, because sooner or later, mediocre or poor foot position can cost you a bird.In fact, foot position may be one reason that a particular shot is difficult or troublesome.

All change feels uncomfortable, and this one really bothers shooters who have been using a natural but less effective set of footpositions for a long time. So, if you are standing in a relaxed, upright posture, are balanced, and have your weight mostly on the frontfoot, why does your foot position matter, as long as you keep it the same all the time? The simple reason is that no matter how well youset your hold points, get your eye focused on the target, and try to maintain a proper lead, now and then you will have to shoot a targetvery late. This is especially true for the second bird of a double, when a less than ideal foot position is an invitation for a miss.

You may have to shoot a second bird late because of a mental lapse; maybe you werent totally ready when you called for the firstbird. Or the first bird may have been thrown a bit slow, messing up your timing. Or the bird may have taken a sharp bounce in the wind,and you were forced to make a gun correction to stay with it. Or it may have been thrown flat, requiring a big move to hit it. In any case,whenever you are forced to shoot a bird significantly later than normal, your foot position at setup becomes significant.

Most top-level shooters and instructors give similar advice about foot position. Ed Scherer, Todd Bender, John Shima, and otherswill tell you to face straight at the low house window at every station possible. The only exceptions are station 7 and high 8, where youface outward. (A left-handed shooter should face the high house window.) This seems simple, but there are two common problems:

1. The shooter sets up with his or her feet pointing in a different direction from the belly button. This means that the torso is partlytwisted before the shooter even calls for the bird.

2. The shooter sets up as though he or she were going to shoot the bird where it emerges from the trap house, rather than wherethe shot will actually break the target.

We need to look at these problems in detail in order to completely understand them. If shooters are unwilling to adjust problematic

habits, it will eventually cost them a birdmaybe only one in several hundred or more, but that is what mastering skeet is all about.Many shooters commanly set up poorly at stations 1 and 7. Figure 2.6 shows proper foot setup positions for all the stations.

Be careful as you begin to accustom yourself to new foot positions. Dont just use the geometry of the pad as your guide; that is, dontroutinely face the corner or one side of the pad. The pad may not have been put in square, or it may be round. You may even forgetwhich station youre on. Be sure to look down at your toes and then up at the trap-house window every time.

The Left-Handed Shooters Foot Positions

Left-handed shooters have to make essentially a 90-degree shift to the left (counterclockwise). At station 1 you face outward, like aright-handed shooter does at station 7. At stations 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, and 7, you face the high house window rather than the low. At station 8,you face the high house to shoot the high house bird and face out for the low house target. The same recommendations apply tokeeping the toes and heels equally forward; do not advance the right foot.

2.6 Excellent foot setup positions for stations 1 to 8. A right-handed shooter squares off to the low house window on every stationexcept 7 and high 8, where he or she faces out. A left-hander faces the high house window except at 1 and high 8, where he or shefaces out.

2.7 A common but troublesome foot setup on high 1. The shooter is balanced, his weight is forward, and his head is down tight, but theline across his toes is nearly facing the station 3 pad. He has almost managed to get his belt buckle to point at the low house window,but only by twisting his pelvis and torso to the left. This means that for any late low house second bird, he will have no torso twist left andwill have to add arm swing to stay ahead of it.

This position works reasonably well for high 1, because very little gun motion is required; it works 99 percent of the time for low 1 aswell. But it works well only as long as that second bird is shot in the first three-quarters of its flight. The farther in (i.e., the later) you shootthe low house bird of the double, the farther you have to twist your torso to maintain swing velocity and the proper lead.

2.8 Even though the foot position is not as extreme as that shown in figure 2.7, the shooter is forced to use maximum left hip and torsotwist to shoot a late low 1 target almost at the out-of-bounds marker. His right heel has to come up to stay with the target, his left hip hasreached maximum inward rotation, and his arms must come into play. The right shoulder dips below the left, resulting in loose facecontact on the stock. As this compromised swing progresses, the barrel speed slows down, and the gun is twisted to the right. Thetarget will likely be missed high and behind, all because of poor form.

A torso twist like that shown in figure 2.7 is progressively fighting your swing. The farther the low house comes past the center stake,the greater the muscle and ligament resistance. At some point, you run out of hip and spine rotation and have to push the gun with yourarms, since you are shooting the bird almost behind your back (see the shooter in figure 2.8). With luck and great skill, you may stillbreak it, but not with the consistency that winning requires.

Moving Foot Position between Shots on Singles

Many experienced shooters change their foot positions between shots on singles, and they do so enough to make a difference. Theyusually move to face more toward the house the bird will be coming from. I think most people do this so that they start each shot from azero point of some sort, which is fine. It is similar to stepping back and reloading the gun after your first miss rather than just swingingback to shoot the option.

If its a minimal shift, really more of a weight adjustment, thats fine. Just dont get into the bad habit of actually shifting the directionyou are facing. It is best to just shift sideways an inch or so to reset yourself for the next shot.

The Neutral Point of the Swing

You want your foot positions to be such that you can shoot the second bird of a double all the way to the out-of-bounds stake ifnecessary, while still going only modestly past your neutral point.

What is your neutral point? Surprisingly, it doesnt vary much for most shooters. Try this setup: Take your empty gun and set up withyour toes touching any straight line, feet comfortably apart. Mount your gun normally, and with your eyes closed, swing the barrel asfar to the left and right as comfortable. After several swings, somewhere in the middle you will find your neutral pointthat is, themost comfortable direction to point without any sense of strain or twist. Unless you are a very unusual shooter, your gun position willprobably be somewhere around 30 to 50 degrees to the left of where your toes line up (or to the right, for left-handed shooters).That is your neutral point.

If you put your toes on the front edge of the station 1 pad, the neutral point of the swing is about 45 degrees to the left of this, or about

halfway between the center stake and the high house out-of-bounds marker (see figure 2.10). That is just about where you usually wantto break the station 1 low house target or the second bird of the station 1 double. Further, you still have room to swing all the way to andpast the out-of-bounds stake, with very little sensation of resistance or windup. Your ideal foot position at setup will be very close to thatshown in figure 2.9 at station 1.

Most new shooters, and all fairly experienced ones, will complain that they feel uncomfortable and twisted standing this way to shootthe low 1. What they usually fail to appreciate is that an equal degree of torso twist in the opposite direction is necessary for any shottaken with their feet positioned poorly. They just dont feel it in the excitement ofshooting.

When coaching experienced shooters, we go through all the reasons why they should consider resetting their foot positions. Theymay even agree that the new position is comfortable when shooting at their normal target breaking point and makes it easier to swingpast the out-of-bounds stake. But then they load two shells, mount the gun, and without even realizing it, move their feet back to their oldpositions.

2.9 AAA shooter Peter Balunek is balanced and almost squarely facing the low house window. His toes are essentially in line with thefront edge of the station 1 shooting pad, but 60 percent of his weight has shifted to the flexed left leg.

2.10 The neutral point of his swing is about halfway between the center stake and this station, and he is able to swing easily past theout-of-bounds marker without any twist up. Note the level or slightly upslope shoulder turn.

Coil and Uncoil

Master Instructor Angelo Troisi says, You coil in from the ideal break point to your hold position and then uncoil to the break point.Stated differently, your hold point shouldnt be where youre most comfortable. You should be most comfortable at your target breakpoint or kill point, at or just approaching your neutral point. The spring-back of uncoiling, your bodys windup, should help your gunacceleration and swing. You shouldnt have coil-up resistance slowing your swing just as you approach the break point.

Summary

Every time you catch a wind-driven second bird just off the ground, and just before the out-of-bounds stake, thank your foot position.Remember, you want your bodys torque to help you, not fight you.

Refer again to figure 2.6, and note that in every case except for station 7 and high 8, a right-angle line is projected from the lineacross the toes to the low house window. A left-handed shooter uses the same rule, except that he or she points at the high housewindow and faces out at station 1 and the station 8 low house.

Can you deviate from these foot positions and still shoot top scores? Of course you can, with modest variations. Having your toeslined up doesnt mean that your feet have to be exactly parallel; one or both feet can be turned out a bit if that makes you morecomfortable. But dont allow yourself to adopt extreme in or out foot positions. They will inhibit free hip rotation, forcing you to do all yourswinging with torso twist and arm motion. If you are 17 years old with a torso that twists like a snake, you may get away with this. But at30 to 40 years old, youll have trouble.

Face anywhere that is comfortable, and before mounting your gun, turn both feet inward (pigeon-toed) as far as you can manage.Now mount your gun and try a maximum left and right swing. It is difficult because your hips cant move any farther; all the motionmust be done with torso twist and arm swing. The left hip stops your swing toward a high house, and the right hip stops your swingtoward a low house.

If youre still not convinced, turn both feet outward as far as you can. Your hips are locked in the opposite direction, and again,you can rotate your body only with torso swing. Once you run out of that, your arms take over. But arms-only shooting leads tomediocre or hunting-type scores.

POSITION ON THE STATION OR PAD

Most of the time, it doesnt matter where you stand. You can stand at the front, back, or any corner of the pad and still shoot a 100straight. But on four stations, it occasionally makes a bit of difference: station 1, station 7, and both birds at station 8.

Generally, you may be better off in the middle of most skeet pads, but the rules allow you to stand with any portion of both feet withinthe shooting station. Some shooters stand with half their feet off the front of the pad or so far back that only their toes are on the backedge. I have done so in conditions where the pad was three inches deep in water.

But what do you achieve? For an imaginary advantage, you give up the most secure footing. This is particularly true if the pad is notflush with the surrounding ground, which is frequently the case, or if it has a broken front edge or is unsteady. Burl Branham, a longtimecoach of the U.S. Armys Marksmanship Training Unit shotgun team, recommends standing in the middle of the pad. But becauseinternational skeet rules do not allow any portion of your feet to be over the edge of the pad, this is in some degree a safety play.

Why are stations 1, 7, and 8 any different? At staticms 1 and 7, it is occasionally necessary to shoot at a very late second bird on adouble. You have the potential of striking your elbow or arm on the side of the house if you are on the rear of the shooting station. Plus,visually, you have the feeling that you are about to run into the house with your barrel. This may cause you to check your swing. If youstand at the forward edge of the pad at both stations 1 and 7, you will have all the room you needeven for a shot as late as the out-of-bounds marker. Figure 2.6 shows this forward edge position.

What about station 8? Look at the layout of the skeet field in figure I.1. The center stake is placed 18 feet outside the baseline of thefield. So when you are shooting either the high or the low house, the swing is as much to the right or left as it is directly over your head. Ifyou stand close to the outer edge of the pad, the shot is more of a swing backward over your head and less of an oblique swing suchas an up-close station 7 high house.

So take whatever room the pad gives you, positioning your heels as close to station 4 as possible. This puts you 20 feet inside thecenter stake, and the angle of your swing is slightly easier. Do the same as you shoot low 8. In addition, use whatever minor timeadvantage you can get by moving as far away from the house as the pad comfortably allows for both the high and low houses, keepingyour heels at the back edge of the pad.

If you firmly adopt excellent foot positions and resolutely maintain them, you will be surprised at how soon they become automatic andperfectly comfortable.

PIVOT AND SHOULDER TURN

Every skeet target angles upward as it is thrown. From the high house it starts at 10 feet and rises to 15 feet at the center stake. This iswhat the rules require. It rises a bit more, flattens off, and then falls in an increasing parabolic curve as it slows.

The low house has an even more marked upward angle, starting from only 3 feet at the window to 15 feet at the center stake. Itreaches a slightly higher high point at its peak than does the high house, and it curves downward more as it slows.

It should be apparent that if you want to shoot every outgoing target before it reaches the center stake (high 2, 3, both station 4s, low5, 6, and 7), your swing trajectory must be upward as you firemore so for the low house than the high house. Only when shooting along incoming bird or the second bird of a double does the swing trajectory become flat or a bit downward.

So why does the tip of the gun barrel often follow a downward curve or arc as it moves to and through the instant of firing? There aretwo different but equally poor techniques that can be at fault: shoulder roll-off and reverse weight transfer. It is also common for shootersto do both at once.

Many otherwise excellent shooters depend too much on their arms. They make most of the upward swing with their arms, letting thegun fall away the instant they fire. In contrast, if their pivot and shoulder turn are on the same plane as the targets flight, the follow-through should always end up higher than the point of firing, unless they happen to shoot the bird very late.

Some shooters also bend the upper body toward the direction of the birds flight as they swing, while simultaneously letting theforward shoulder drop. This roll-off has the effect of pulling the barrel down toward the later part of the swing. It can easily lead toshooting both under and behind, particularly if the shot is a bit late. What frequently happens is that the gun barrel starts moving downeven before the shot gets away, and the swing slows. The result is a below and behind shot. You have to stay up in front of the bird.

Most good shooters with this bad habit manage to get the shot off before they have rolled off enough to miss the bird. But anyonewith this flawed technique who is forced to shoot a bird late may miss the target.

How do you correct this terrible habit of rolling off your shoot? Like many behavior patterns, it can be difficult to break. In my teachingexperience, the best solution is to insist that the shooter finish high to a dead stop before lowering the gun. If you come to a completestop before you dismount the gun, it will instantly be apparent if you are rolling off. One AAA shooting friend describes this as finishingas though you are posed for a picture of perfect follow-through. When you come to that stop, the gun barrel should be higher than at thefiring point for almost every shot, unless your target was taking a nosedive.

2.11 Shooter Jack Albanos excellent shoulder turn and follow-through on a low 5 target. The shot is being taken in the middle frame.

The follow-through is clearly on an upward plane for this sharply rising target.

2.12 Jack Albano on a high 6 makes a smooth pivot on his leading left foot, with a level or even slightly upsloped shoulder turn, andfinishes his follow-through. His shoulders are still in the same plane, the right a bit higher than the left. And his follow-through still has anupward swing. In other words, he finishes his follow-through with the gun higher than at the instant of firing. This is what I call finishingthe shot. He comes to a complete stop before dismounting the gun.

2.13 Here, Jack has managed to combine several errors in one poor move. His gun barrel has taken a downward arc and is evencanted to the right. His trunk is bent to the right. Note the increased folds in his shirt compared with figure 2.12. His weight has shiftedso far onto his right foot that his left heel has come off the ground. Only if Jack manages to get the shot away before all these things gowrong will he break this bird. Some off-balance shooters even take a step with the left foot after the shot.

WEIGHT REVERSAL OR REVERSE WEIGHT TRANSFER

Despite all advice to the contrary, many shooters persist in shooting with their weight primarily on the back foot. They may do this ononly a few stations and may not even realize it. On many of the easier targets, this habit may not be a major problem, but it is a majorflaw in shooting form and will cost them a target now and then.

You may start off on the front foot but steadily transfer your weight to the back foot as you swing with the bird, usually the incomers.This causes bad things to happen. Because you are moving the center of rotation of the guns swing (your shoulder and body) in thesame direction as the birds flight, this automatically slows your swing and forces you to make a faster pivot or, even worse, use yourarms for extra swing speed. This means that you are making compensating errors to break your target. This seems to occur mostfrequently for right-handed shooters on the incomers at stations 6 and 7 or sometimes high 8; for left-handed shooters, it occurs onthe incomers at stations 1 and 2 or sometimes low 8.

The cure is hard to do by yourself. You need a coach or a friend to place a finger or fist half an inch behind your ribs or hip and hold itthere while you shoot, not allowing yourself to back into his or her hand. It can also help to pick up the back heel and stand on the toe ofthe back foot while shooting incomers.

Surprisingly, many shooters who make this transition from weight reversal to a proper pivot shoot ahead of the bird for several shots.I think this occurs because their swing is suddenly so much more efficient, with a more positive follow-through.

FOLLOW-THROUGH

Every shooting manual, video, or coach emphasizes the importance of follow-through in shooting skeet. I sometimes give shooters adummy shell, with shot but no powder and a fired primer. Or I have students load one barrel of an over-under and then look away while Imove the barrel selector back and forth. If they dont know whether the gun is going to fire, they become aware of how they are stoppingthe gun with little or no follow-through. This often reveals that they jerk with the finger and hand, pulling the barrel down sharply. It is thusnot surprising that they shoot below and sometimes even ahead, if they manage to keep their heads down.

Training themselves to keep the gun moving smoothly through the instant of firing is difficult for some shooters. Although pistol andrifle shooters make extensive use of dry-fire drills, few shotgun shooters do so. But during the years that I shot a great deal ofinternational skeet, I used a dry-fire swing, mount, fire, follow-through drill extensively to hone the quick and automatic mount required.And more recently, when making the late career transfer from right-handed to left-handed shooting, I used the drill described here for sixmonths to help the transition. Try it. A dry-fire drill can help eliminate shoulder roll-off, reverse weight transfer, and trigger jerk whilesimultaneously improving follow-through.

Take your gun to a convenient place either indoors or outdoors. Use a set of snap caps or empty shells so that you can snap thetrigger without harming your gun.

For a right-handed shooter, picture station 6 high house; a left-handed shooter should imagine station 2 low house. Pick fourpoints in the background to represent the following: (1) the trap-house window, (2) your hold point, (3) a normal amount of swing towhere you would break the bird, and (4) a point half again farther and a bit higher.

Mount your gun to an imagined normal hold point, look over at point 1, and swing smoothly all the way to point 4, snapping thetrigger as you pass point 3, your normal firing point. Come to a complete stop at point 4 for a full second, and only then bring yourgun down.

Concentrate on a smooth swing and pivot, keeping 60 to 70 percent of your weight on your front left foot all the way. Dont allowyourself to shift your weight to the back right foot. Pull the trigger smoothly in the middle of the swing, and finish the swing with yourgun barrel higher than at the firing point. Do not look at your front sight during the swing; look just behind it.

Barney Hartman, Canadas great post-World War II champion, called this bedroom skeet. Sometimes its the only effectiveway to change bad habits.

One of the most important things that this drill accomplishes is to imprint on your brain that the act of pulling the trigger is just one

element of a smooth swing. There should be no feeling that you are doing three separate things: swinging, shooting, and followingthrough. Your follow-through is an integral part of your shooting form and swing, not something tacked on afterward.

I frequently suggest that skeet shooters watch professional golfers as they tee off. They set up perfectly and then take anuninterrupted, balanced swing from the beginning to a frozen finish at the end. The ball strike is simply an incident in the middle of theirswing. Likewise, your trigger pull should just be an incident in the middle of your swing; the barrel should neither jerk nor hesitate.

Or if you are a basketball fan, watch the free throws. Each player uses an identical setup for each tryeven having the seam on theball in the same positionending again with a frozen follow-through.

FINISHING THE SHOT

As you go through the chapters devoted to each station, you will see that the last item in each list of fundamentals is finish to acomplete stop. What is the point of this technique? If you let your head come loose and the gun barrel start to sag during the follow-through on singles, you will be establishing a habit that can hinder you in two ways. First, it may start happening earlier and earlier in thefollow-through, until it actually starts to happen before you get the shot clear of the barrel. Second, you have to stop the barrel completelyto reverse direction for the second target of a double. If you cant do so while keeping your head tight down on the comb, youll be introuble for the second bird.

Your goal is to train yourself to make the kill zone for all outgoing singles an area from 25 to 15 feet before the center stake, with ashort 10-foot follow-through to a complete stop. If you work at this, you will finish your follow-through at or just before the center stake. Ifyou cant train yourself to take the bird this early and with a short follow-through, you may become a good doubles shooter duringregular rounds, but youll rarely be a top-notch one in all doubles, where you shoot them at stations 3, 4, and 5.

THE IMPORTANCE OF FORM

As a final note in this chapter on shooting form, Todd Nelson commonly sees shooters with guns that pattern perfectly but are fittedwithin the parameters of poor shooting form, such as a loose head or jerking of the trigger. The most common result is inconsistentscores, regardless of the shooters classB or AAA. If you are unwilling to change poor shooting form and persist through theuncomfortable period of adjustment, you will fall short of the consistency you desire. Other experienced instructors have commentedthat at least two-thirds of the shooters who go through their clinics revert to all their previous bad habits within days. My own coachingexperience confirms that. Those who come back for additional coaching and reinforcement are much more likely to make a permanenttransition to a higher level of success.

CHAPTER 3

Gun Fit and Mount

With Todd Nelson

Gun fit is one of the mysteries of shotgun shooting. Many shooters hardly think about it and shoot mediocre scores with a gun that wouldbe more appropriate for a junior shooter or an NBA guard; conversely, others are so obsessed with gun fit that they are constantlychanging some insignificant element that they believe will make them shoot perfectly, usually without any thought that shooting form istheir primary problem. Gun fit and excellent, consistent gun mounting are inseparable. If you dont mount your gun almost identicallyevery time, your gun fit would have to be changed for every shot. You need to make your form as perfect and consistent as possible tomake consistent scores.

You may know (or think you know) that your gun fit is perfect. If you are absolutely confident, you might choose to skip this sectionentirely. But if you sometimes wonder a little, it may be a good idea to use this chapter to examine yourself and your gun, perhaps withthe help of an observant friend. If nothing else, it will make you a more sophisticated and involved participant in any gun fitting or customstock work you might choose to have done. You will also be much more likely to achieve a satisfactory result when working with a stockmaker or stock fitter because you will understand your goals.

Gun fit has nothing to do about whether you shoot a semiautomatic, over-under, pump, or side-by-side. What is important is howeasy it is for you to put your head and eyes in exactly the same place every time you shoulder the gun, preferably without ever looking atthe rib or front sight, and keep them there during your swing and firing. Critical elements of gun fit include head position and point of aimand patterning of your gun. Gun dimensions also influence gun fit, including: cast-off (the offset of your eye from the guns rib); combshape, height, and alignment; length of pull; pitch; in or out toe; and drop at the heel. All these play a role in making the sight pictureperfect as you fire the gun, but some are more important than others.

Your overall size also markedly affects how a gun fits you. Specific aspects of your anatomy that relate to gun fit are the size of yourface, both height and width; the vertical distance from your mid-shoulder pocket to your eye, which largely depends on the length of yourneck plus the size of your head; and the length of your arms and your chest shape.

HEAD POSITION

Head position on the gun refers to where the guns comb is in relation to your face. Until you have learned to put your cheekbone downfirmly and consistently on the comb of the gun and keep it there, you wont achieve success on the skeet field. Nothing else will havesuch a positive effect on your shooting. According to one of skeets World Champions, Almost every time I miss a bird its because myhead came up.

As stated earlier, the size of your face is an important element of gun fit. In particular, it depends on two aspects of facial anatomy: (1)the distance between the pupil of your eye and the bottom of your cheekbone, and (2) with your eyes level, the distance between thepupil of your shooting eye and the side of your cheekbone.

Why should your eyes be level with a properly mounted gun? Because of an inborn brain impulse called the righting reflex, ourbalance mechanism constantly wants to return our eyes and head to a horizontal plane. You may be able to train yourself to keep yourhead cocked 15 to 20 degrees without any change during gun swing and shooting, but your brain could defeat you at a crucial moment.As a result, your dominant eye will move a quarter inch both sideways and upward as you level your head. When this happens, you maysuddenly shoot over and either ahead or behind the target, depending on the house.

But what if, to keep your sights lined up with your eye centered on the rib, you must tilt your head 15 degrees? Or, conversely,suppose that you are tipping the gun toward your face 15 degrees to achieve the same purpose. Either one is a significant problembecause it means that your gun doesnt fit. It has either no cast-off or an insufficient amount for the size of your face. But dont startadjusting your stock or head position until you know the following: does your gun really shoot exactly where you point it after you havelearned to keep your cheek down firmly and your eyes in alignment?

It does little good to get a custom-fitted stock until you have learned to put your head down on the stock in a consistent manner. If youput your cheek down more firmly, the comb height that was satisfactory last year will be too low (or vice versa). Or you may put yourhead farther forward on the comb. Or you may have simply gained or lost significant weight. Or perhaps youre not tipping your head tothe same degree constantly. Unfortunately, any of these situations can mean less than ideal gun fitting.

3.1a Todd Nelson with a firm cheek on the stock and a properly fitted gun. His head is erect, and his cheek is firmly down. There is totalcontact between recoil pad and shoulder.

3.1b Note in the right panel that his eyes are not only level but also looking toward the targetnot down the rib at the front sight. Alsonote how pushed up his cheek looks as he puts his cheekbone firmly on the comb.

3.2 The cheek of Champion Shooter Dick Cameron may appear to be down in the top photo, but its not: I asked him to pick his headup half an incha recipe for a clean miss over the top.

On the right, he has put his head back down using his normal amount of cheekbone pressure on the comb. Like Todd Nelson, he isan eyes-level shooter.

If you have done any pistol or rifle shooting, you understand that to raise the point of impact of your shot, you raise the back sight.Some shotgun shooters who have never sighted-in a rifle or a pistol are puzzled by this notion. The essence of the matter is that the trueback sight of your shotgun is the pupil of your eye, and if you raise your eye, you will inevitably shoot high. If you let it wander aroundfrom side to side, it results in either too much or too little lead. A half-inch lift of your head at the comb will raise your pattern about 10inches at the distance most skeet birds are shot. Only if you are lucky (or holding too low) will you chip a piece off the top of your target.

Take your empty shotgun and put the front sight on any distant object with your cheek down firmly. Without moving the front sight, liftyour head half an inch. Now the front sight looks too low. In live shooting on the skeet field, you will automatically lift the front sight(i.e., the barrel) until the picture looks correct, but then the gun will shoot too high. During the swing and shot on the skeet field, youwill never notice that you are also seeing too much of the shotguns rib between the two beads. You simply miss by shooting overthe bird while everything looks perfect.

Everyone tells you, Keep your head down, but no one ever tells you how to accomplish it consistently and comfortably. Many

shooters dont know what it means to have the cheekbone really tight. Also, shooters commonly mount the gun too low on the shoulderbecause it is more comfortable; thus, they start with the head much too low. The tendency to let the head lift during the swing is almostunconscious and unavoidable. Much of the time, this problem can be solved by a lesson in cheeking the comb properly. Figure 3.4shows the mechanics of this.

3.3 Many E- to B-level shooters, as well as a few better ones, utilize a head-down position like the one shown here. This shooters headis cocked more than 15 to 20 degrees, and he has pulled the skin of his cheek tightly over the comb to position his shooting eye so thatthe sights line up and he can look straight down the center of the rib. This rapidly results in a sore cheek, which is commonly blamed onthe gun rather than poor technique.

In addition, this gun is mounted so low that the shooter is forced to bend his head down markedly to get his eye in line with the rib andsights. This low head position compromises his upward peripheral vision, which is a particular problem on station 1 high house. Evenwith shooting glasses, the top edge of the frame or top edge of the lens might be too close to the flight path of the target. If the shootercould maintain this head posture throughout his swing, shot, and follow-through consistently, all would be well. But after shooting a fewrounds, his cheekbone will become tender.

3.4 Start your face mount as shown on the left, with the gun mounted high in your shoulder pocket. Keep your eyes level and head high,and bring your chin (not cheekbone) sideways firmly against the stock. Then bring your head down while keeping your eyes level,causing your cheek to push up and bulge out until the bottom side of your cheekbone is resting firmly on the comb, as shown on theright. If you find that your eye is no longer perfectly centered down the rib, turn your chin toward the stock to bring it in line. Dont tip yourhead sideways to center on the rib.

You will find that your cheekbone is now free to slide from front to back easily with the recoil of the shot, without jerking your cheek.Cheek discomfort from recoil often disappears.

Most shooters who attempt the maneuver shown in figure 3.4 dont start with their heads or gun mounts high enough, forcing theirheads down too far to reach the comb. If a shooter brings the stock all the way to his or her cheekbone without dropping the head below

neutral, one-third to one-half of the butt plate or recoil pad will likely be protruding above the shoulder, as shown in figure 3.4. Theshooter now complains that the shoulder fit doesnt feel comfortable (discussed later).

POINT OF AIM AND PATTERNING

Until you have learned how to put your cheekbone down on the guns comb, the results of testing your guns point of aim and pattern willbe very unreliable. It is frustrating to spend months working on your shooting skills only to find that your gun doesnt shoot to its point ofaim or that you cant shoot it to the same point of aim consistently. Likewise, you may believe that your gun patterns poorly when yourinconsistent head position is the real culprit.

Remember, the beads or sights on a shotgun are simply alignment devices that help ensure that your cheek is down firmly and yourshooting eye is lined up exactly with the rib. Most skeet and field shotguns should be manufactured to shoot to the exact point of aim atdistances from 20 to 30 yards, but it always pays to be sure that your gun actually does so. It is astonishing how many excellentshooters have never patterned their shotguns. If you have never done this for your competition gun, now is the time to do it. Two booksthat cover the patterning of skeet guns are Hob Bristers Shotgunning: The Art and Science and Overfull and Thompsons TheMysteries of Shotgun Patterns. The latter is hard to find, but Bristers book is excellent and readily available. You can also pattern yourgun for skeet shooting by carefully following the accompanying instructions. This should be accomplished in a safe environment, awayfrom any shooting competition.

Set up a pattern board or large piece of cardboard at 16 to 20 Jyards18 yards is ideal, since that is where most skeet birds arebroken. Cover this with a large piece of wrapping paper, as you will need to repeat the test a number of times. Put a big, 2-inchblack dot on it, with a big cross through it. Include a 30-inch circle if you can. You will also need several boxes of skeet loads.

With the two beads of the shotgun exactly lined up and completely overlapping each other, fire 5 to 6 shells at the target. Youllhave to repeat the test with the other barrel of over-unders (or side-by-sides).

It is also instructive to look at each barrels pattern from as close as 8 yards, since some birds are shot at this distance (station 8always). You may be shocked at the small size of your pattern at such a short range.

Initially, you should do this pattern testing free-hand, without resting the barrel on any support, just as you would shoot a skeettarget. Patterning from a rest may fail to show that you flinch or pull down and sideways toward your trigger hand as you fire.

If you have screw-in chokes, you should use your skeet chokes, and be sure that they are in tight. A loose or bad choke tube maythrow an errant pattern. If you cant put your cheek down firmly and still see the front sight of the shotgun, the comb is too low. Youneed to build it up with a temporary lift until you can cheek firmly and still see the front sight with one eye closed before youcontinue. Use half-inch strips of a Styrofoam cup, Dr. Scholls Molefoam, or a similar material masking taped to the comb.

With your cheek down firmly, if you can see the rear bead below the front bead and some rib in between, the gun may pattern abit high, but this isnt of immediate concern. Stock adjustments can fix most vertical patterning problems. The pattern should beeven and centered, both horizontally and vertically, on your dot. If it is, your gun and your initial sight picture are probably close tocorrect. If this is not the case, your gun may need attention from a good gunsmith. However, if your gun shoots low and possiblyright or left, before consulting a gunsmith, repeat the patterning exercise using a bench rest or other firm support, because you maybe the cause of the error.

Some otherwise excellent shooters tense as they pull the trigger and pull with the whole hand. This may be a partial flinch inanticipation of the recoil. Most commonly, this causes a pattern shift low and to the right for a right-handed shooter (low and to theleft for a left-handed shooter). So if the gun patterns correctly off a bench rest but shoots low off your shoulder, your firing techniquemay be responsible. If so, work on your gun mount, head position, and trigger control. If it patterns 6 inches left or right with acareful bench rest test, you need a gunsmith. But be sure to tighten the choke and also try a different choke tube, as that particularchoke tube could just be the culprit.

Commonly, we like to set the comb height of a shotgun so that the pattern is 60/40that is, about 60 percent of the pattern is above

the exact point of aim. Stated another way, we want the gun to shoot 4 to 5 inches high. If your gun shoots to exact point of aim withbeads overlapping, you can repeat the exercise with the front bead perched just on top of the rear bead, a so-called upside-downsnowman or figure 8. This usually raises the center of your pattern the optimal 4 inches. Every gun is different, however, based on its ribtaper and contiguration. It may be necessary to elevate the comb until a split figure 8 is seenthat is, the beads completely separatedto get the desired 60/40 pattern distribution.

Most skeet shooters prefer a 60/40 pattern because it allows them to center their shot pattern on the target without ever having tocompletely. cover it up. Even on a zero lead station such as low 7, they can shoot with the target just on top of the front bead and stillcenter the shot.

Trap shooters frequently prefer their guns to center higher, 10 to 12+ inches above the point of aim, because they are always comingup from below the bird, but that is not ideal for shooting skeet.

CAST-OFF

Traditionally, many gun stocks were made with the stock bent or ant;led, deviating somewhat to the right (or left) of the barrel line whenlooking from butt to bead. This deviationcatied cast-oftwas intended to make it easier for the right-handed majority to align theirright eyes with the rib. Naturally, this put left-handed shooters at a disadvantage, which may be why so many lefties learned to shootwith their heads canted markedly to the left. More recently, many skeet guns are being designed with perfectly straight stocks withoutany cast-off.

How can you determine the cast-oft of a gun? Eyeballing is not a very accurate method, but measuring your own gun is not thatdifficult (see figure 3.5).

Human anatomy is such that the pupil of the eye is rarely centered over the cheekbone. Generally, the pupil is offset sideways towardthe ear by at least inch and frequently by as much as to inch. As a result, to get your eye in line with the two beads with aperfectly straight stock, there are only a few options:

1. Either tip your head over the comb or tip the comb toward your head. This is only a temporary solution until you can get aproperly fitted gun.

3.5 Put your empty gun down on a table with the fore end and barrels lying belly down and the trigger and stock hanging off theedge. Tie a loop in a string and place it over the front sight. Pull the string straight back over the middle of the rib or back sight,clear to the recoil pad. Sight down vertically to the midpoint of the comb at the same area where your cheek would be.

Note that this gun with its adjustable comb is set up with about to inch of cast to the right for its right-handed owner. It isalso set with about 10 degrees of toe-out to the right, but with very little drop at the heel.

2. Take a rasp or a carving tool and begin whittling off the side of the stockbut only if you dont care about appearance.3. Get a stock maker to hot oil bend your stock to introduce some cast-off or make you a brand-new stock to your specifications.

Most stock makers own a try gun that can be set up with any adjustment, including cast-off in either direction. This is anexpensive fix, and if you change your weight or gun mount habits, it may not stay correct.

4. Get an adjustable comb installed on your stock. This is the best and most cost-effective long-term solution. In addition, your gun

can be refitted to a new owner in the future at little or no costa plus in the resale market. I would recommend putting on anadjustable butt plate and recoil pad at the same time.

COMB SHAPE, HEIGHT, AND ALIGNMENT

Figure 3.6 indicates how the usual factory comb is measuredthe drop at its forward end and then the drop at the heel. If it is a MonteCarlo style, the drops at the rear of the comb and the heel are different. Having gone through the patterning exercise, you should bequite sensitive about having your comb height correct.

Adjustable Comb and Parallel Comb

The adjustable comb has become extremely popular for a number of reasons. For one thing, it lets you vary the adjustments during anextended period of shooting until it seems to remain constant. It also allows accommodation for weight gain or loss. Another significantadvantage is that it lets you specify that your adjustable comb be set up so that its top edge is exactly parallel to your rib, a so-calledparallel comb.

Many skeet shooters have adopted the parallel comb in the last decade. Trap shooters have used this style of comb much longer, butbecause skeet shooting began as off-season practice for upland bird hunting, skeet guns were essentially hunting guns. Almost withoutexception, hunting guns combs are too low for ideal skeet shooting; in addition, the comb slopes downward from front to back, usuallyabout an inch.

Somehow, this design has persisted in skeet guns, despite the fact that manufacturers should know better. In the quick action ofhunting, the comb usually just slaps up to the side of the chin. The eye is close to the correct height and may be close to alignment, butnot with the consistency required in skeet.

Recently, some manufacturers have begun to offer skeet guns with parallel combs. However, the disadvantage of a fixed parallelcomb is that it is a perfect height for only one size of face. So now some guns even come with adjustable parallel combs (see figure3.7).

3.6 Measurement of comb height is shown above. This is a typical sloped comb from the factory on a Ruger 20-gauge over-under. Ithas a temporary soft elevation for a student. Measure at both the front and rear ends of the comb.

Measurement of length of pull is also shown. It is measured from the middle of the trigger to the midpoint of the butt plate or recoilpad.

3.7 Close-up of a stock fitted with an adjustable parallel comb. This one hasainch soft cover on it, a personal preference of theshooter. Note also the amount of drop at the heel provided by the adjustable butt plate and recoil pad.

If you are a big person shooting skeet with a sloped, fixed comb, you may set your head forward, where the comb will be too high,causing you to shoot too high. Conversely, if you are small or just have a small eye-to-cheek distance, and if you put your head downwell even at mid-comb, you may see nothing but the receiver. You will be forced to raise your head enough to see the front sight, butnow youll have a loose head, with your pupil wandering aroundnot the prescription for a 100 straight.

An adjustable comb allows you to vary both its height and its offset or cast-off until they are prefect for you. Another significantadvantage is that when it is installed, you can request that the comb be exactly parallel to the rib. Then, no matter where your headcomes down on the comb, your sight picture will remain constant.

Most experienced shooters believe that they almost always have their heads in exactly the same spot on the comb and arentconcerned with parallel combs. But with different types of shooting apparelfrom hot-weather T-shirts to long johns and down jacketsmost of us bring our heads down in slightly differently places in each case. Or head position may vary just because we are tired oruncomfortable on a particular day. The adjustable parallel comb is a significant asset in eliminating this problem.

Checking the Comb Height

How can you tell whether your present stock, given its present length, is a reasonable fit for you? Try the following.

Put on your normal shooting jacket or vest. Youll also need two quarters or nickels and some adhesive tape. Take your empty gunand put your cheek down very firmly on the comb at your normal positionif possible, firmer than usual. With the nonsighting eyeclosed, you should normally be able to see a figure 8, with no rib visible between the beads (i.e., the front bead just on top of theback bead). Tape one coin to the rib just in back of the rear bead. Now, with your cheek down firmly, you should see only about halfof the front bead. Tape a second coin on top of the first; now, with your cheek tight, the front bead should be gone. Without thecoins, if you see any rib between the beads, the comb may be too high, and you may shoot too high with the gun. But rememberthat the size of your face and head is a factor, so go back and consider the section on patterning before coming to anyconclusions. Some guns require you to see rib between the sights to give you a 60/40 pattern.

If a fixed comb is too high, you can either carve away some comb or pull your head backward until the slope of the comb results in a

better sight picture. The latter cant be done consistently, however, since that isnt where you comfortably position your head. Anextension to the butt plate may work, because that moves your comfortable head position back on the comb a bit. Try taping on buttspacers until you get a decent sight picture with a comfortable head position. Then see about adding the same amount of spacersunder your butt plate. If this makes the gun feel uncomfortably long, you need to change the comb height. You can have the comb cutdown and the entire stock refinished. I would recommend getting an adjustable comb installed as part of that package, and probably anadjustable butt plate at the same time. Competent stock makers or titters can do so without refinishing the whole stock.

If a comb is too low (with your cheek firm and the off eye closed, you see only the back of the receiver or just the rear bead), you wontbe able to hit the bird at all or youll have to shoot with your head loose. Putting your head father forward helps with a sloped comb. butagain, you cant do this consistently, and you may get a sore cheekbone. Most