Ready for Action

The road to perdition is paved with good intentions. The season is approaching. Any shooting man or woman must be excited at the prospect. But, is that excitement tinged with just a little anxiety? What was your shooting like last year? Did you perform as well as you would have liked? No? Well, don’t panic! The answer is now to hand – Dr Yardley’s 10 point plan for improved game shooting.

As a shooting instructor, I see people repeating the same mistakes year after year (a point that Stuart Ogden and his team of BASC coaches will no doubt confirm). They stop the gun, shoot with tension in their swing because they are on the wrong foot, they take their eyes off the bird, they shoot with their head off the stock and they poke their barrels rather than smoothly push them through the bird.

Now, before we get to the ten specific points, and because we have already mentioned some major DON’Ts, let us think about some fundamentals. I call them the Universals – the things you always need for effective, consistent, shooting (no matter the specific technique or style that you adopt). I imagine them as corners of an equilateral triangle.

 

The perfect shot always has these components. If one is lacking or less than perfect, you will not be shooting as well as you might: you may hit the bird on occasion, but you won’t hit it consistently. This is a holistic way of considering shooting. It is always part of my mental check list when I am instructing and I suggest it to anyone who is interested in analysing their own or someone else’s shooting.

Now, to our 10 points, the first three all concern vision.

1) Can you see the target properly? If you have not had a recent eye test, it is vitally important that you have one now. It will not only ensure that you have the ability to focus on a moving object. It will also screen you for conditions like glaucoma and diabetes.
	2) If you do not know what your eye dominance is, it is time to have that checked too. Do not assume that you know. There is a 50% chance that you will be wrong. Many men as they enter middle age develop left eye issues. These are, typically, dealt with fairly easily, but you need to know you have a problem to deal with it. Check out our 'How to' on eye dominance.
3) Vision in the context of shooting is a skill. The key point is that it is not natural to sustain visual contact on a moving target. The natural tendency is for one’s eyes to flick to movement – a primal response to danger – and then for focus to soften. TO SHOOT REALLY WELL THEREFORE, ONE MUST LEARN TO SUSTAIN FOCUS ON THE TARGET TRHOUGHOUT THE PROCESS OF SHOOTING IT. One must understand the need for maintaining fine focus. One must train the muscles of the eye just as a weightlifter develops his biceps.
	4) Gun fit is a related issue. The gun must fit for length (my simple test is to see two finger widths between the base of the thumb of the rear hand and the tip of the nose when the proven empty gun is mounted at the horizon). The cast must suit your physique and your vision (those with eye issues may need some compensating cast). The drop of the stock, i.e. the height of the comb, must allow your eye to look along the rib comfortably, when the head is in a normal position on the comb. If a stock is too low – and stocks often are – you will be encouraged to lift you head, or, the wrong eye may be encouraged to take over.
5) Learn to mount your gun well. Many really good shots practise their gun mount everyday. You should practise mounting the proven empty gun at sports on a wall in front of you, and you should practise the combined swing and mount. If you have problems mounting the gun, try the Churchill technique where the butt begins gently squeezed under the armpit. This slightly odd starting position forces you to push out the gun as you bring it up to face and shoulder. It may not be the ideal way to shoot in the field, but it is an excellent training exercise.
	6) Learn to use your body well. The power for the swing on a crossing bird should be generated from body rotation. The role of the arms is to lift and point the gun. The role of the front hand is especially critical – most do not use the front arm and hand enough and instead let the rear hand dominate – but one must make sure that the body is the engine of the swing. And, when you rotate, make sure that your shoulders stay level. The classic error, is to allow one shoulder to drop as you swing. 7) Use your feet. Another classic mistake is to shoot when wrong footed, or without moving the feet. You should normally shoot off the front foot – it helps to keep your weight forward and your head on the gun. And, you should step into the line of the bird whenever the opportunity arises. When you shoot clays you should always position your body towards the spot you want to kill the bird and wind back. When you shoot game, you should take a small step into the line of the bird – barrels and front foot moving together – to minimise the tension at the moment the shot is taken. Usually, one wants to see the rear foot at about 90 degrees to the point where one kills the bird. Try this business of stepping into the line, with a proven empty gun. Be delicate. Use the front hand well. Follow through on your imaginary bird.
8) Experiment with forward allowance. There is no glib advice here. We all see lead differently. It is a good idea to experiment with different techniques though – swinging through from behind, maintaining a lead and pointing and pushing. You must also experiment with your speed of swing (most people rush – if you use the body and front arm well, you will have more power, and will not need to be in a hurry) and with the pictures that you see. Most birds, of course, are missed behind, but, many close driven birds are missed in front as well. As a starting point, consider that a bird at 30 yards if travelling at normal speed will need about five and half feet of lead, eight feet at 40 yards.
	9) Select the right choke and cartridge combination. Don’t be obsessive, but do make sure that you are not making life more difficult than it need be. Many driven and rough shooters over-choke the first barrel. Unless you are tackling rocketeers, improved cylinder is the ideal first barrel (a statement made after careful observation and experiment). Most modern cartridges are good, but make sure that you select one that is comfortable to shoot, clean burning, and in which you have confidence. Payload and pellet size are personal issues.
10) Finally, and - safety apart - most importantly, don’t forget to have fun. Sometimes there is a temptation to get a bit neurotic about our shooting, to worry about the wrong things. CUT THE CLUTTER. Focus on the simple things that work. ENJOY YOURSELF. Worry brings the physical and psychological focus back to the gun. Typical result? A miss behind and above. A confident, happy, frame of mind has physical consequences. You tend to keep the gun moving smoothly and your eyes on the bird.