Pheasant leads

practice makes perfect

When it comes to being a lousy shot and wondering what I'm doing wrong, there are years where I'm guilty as charged. The years I trained the last two dogs, the fall after working them on planted birds I shot lights out. All that practice made for some good shooting when the season opened.

However, the last 3 seasons, I've done almost no shooting prior and it sure showed in the field! Shame on me.

The key is to get enough practice that shooting becomes instinctive. Just like taking off the safety as you shoulder your gun. Who on this site ever thinks about it? I don't. I've shot birds where my hands were so cold I couldn't feel the safety, etc. and clicked off the safety without knowing I did. Instinct takes over and will top math every time. The less you think about it, the better.
 
Ranger Rick is right on with instict. I burn thousands of shells a year shooting trap and the more I try to think about the target, the speed/distance/rise etc. the worse I shoot. When you relax, see the bird, and follow through with your shot you will be a lot better off. It takes practice though.
 
Wingshooting has alot to do with your personal hand eye cordination. Some people got it :cheers: some people don't:confused: not really "rocket science". Heres to killing pheasants, be it one shot or two:cheers:
 
As a fellow engineer you have a few options.
You could try to calculate the leads but its hard to work the slide-rule and shoot at the same time.
You can put together a DOE (design of experiments)


Or you can use my preferred method, get a good pointing dog, and open choke and shoot them before they fly 10 yards, not much lead required. :cheers:
 
SetterNut said:
As a fellow engineer you have a few options.
You could try to calculate the leads but its hard to work the slide-rule and shoot at the same time.
You can put together a DOE (design of experiments)


Or you can use my preferred method, get a good pointing dog, and open choke and shoot them before they fly 10 yards, not much lead required. :cheers:
Click to expand...


x2 :10sign: :D:D:D
 
Gentlemen (and Ladies, I hope...) I think if TlG reads this we may have a hunter. Shooting is tough. Hunting is tougher. Go out and shoot some... :D

But don't knock the guy for thinking out loud... Could be he could deliver ``the'' solution.

Everybody hug everybody else!
 
When I first hunted pheasant, I was so afraid I would kill a hen that by the time I had convinced my self it was a rooster, he was darn near out of range. Well meaning partners had told me the hen has a shorter tail...
therefore without thinking about it I was focused on their tail and unfortunately I was shooting them in the...(take a guess here!)...Tail = likely dead but not found bird!!!!! After a while I realized the front end is the end you have to kill to get the bird! Now I am focused on the ring and don't even see the tail. That will help you get on them much better. For years I shot high because I was not mounting the gun and getting my face down on it. Lead doesn't matter at all if you're shootin' high! It is still a miss. Get some body to watch you shoot and they can tell you a lot about what you are doing. Another way to practice is to focus on the ceiling and wall joint and practice throwing the gun up and tracking that line. Try to see the difference in where the gun is pointing and where you think it is pointing. There can be a big difference. Hope this helps. Is is an instinctual thing like throwing a ball or rock or shooting a bow and arrow. You can't shoot where they are and kill 'em, you have to shoot where they're gonna be!
 
Put the shotgun's site bead on the birds beak and pull the trigger. You will hit it somewhere. That's what I did during dove this year and I shot 40.
 
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