Improving your shot leading ability will naturally come with practice and real-time hunting experiences. I am nowhere near where I should be with this skill (as many Muskoka grouse would agree) but there are some things you can do as you start the journey to improving your shot lead. This guest blog post, from my old blog site, provides some great tips for the beginners (and the deniers) that visit this blog.
I learned to wingshoot from my grandfather and my father. Started out with a 410 single shot. It was most frustrating for me, but after a while I got to where I could hit a clay target with it about 1/2 the time. Later, I used a Remington 410 autoloader and got pretty good with that one…sometimes running as many as 22 of 25 clays from the 17 yard line on a trap range. Thing is, when you learn with something that has a very small amount of shot in it, you are immediately better when you graduate to either a 20 or a 12 gauge.
I would recommend that you NOT start with a 410, but rather a 20 gauge. Couple of reasons for this:
1) ammo is cheaper by about $5.00/box.
2) The frustration factor does not kick in quite as early.
Biggest thing in getting at least proficient is having a shotgun that FITS you. Too short or too long a LOP (Length of Pull) and you are having to adjust yourself to the gun until you ‘learn’ the way it fits you. When you mount the shotgun, your cheek should be on the butt and your eye looking straight up the length of the barrel. No adjustment on your part should be necessary.
If you are shooting a shotgun that does not have a raised rib, the sight picture (relationship between target and muzzle) will have to be altered just a bit. It should be a bit lower. If you don’t set the muzzle further under the target, you’ll be shooting over it. The line of the bore is under your line of sight. Sort of hard to explain in words…graphic drawing would explain it more easily. Your eye is higher than the centerline of the bore by as much as two inches. If you drew a line representing the CL of the bore from the muzzle back to where your eye is located, then drew a line from your eye to the muzzle, then extended those lines out from the muzzle to infinity, you will see that there is a marked difference.
Having a shotgun with a raised rib eliminates a lot, not all, of the difference in the sighting plane, and the plane of the bore.
It was written by, John, who used to blog at the Nutria News Blog. (Used with permission)
