Practicing anything new?

[Crossing shot]

Added a routine to my home mounting/dryfire practice. Put a decoy out in the yard. I turn my back to the decoy. When I pretend hear the decoy flush, first thing I do is get my focus on the bird. While I am turning, I appraise the shot. Do I need to lead?. If little or no lead is required, I turn until the hand on the forend is under the bird. When this happens, my feet are set consistently perfect. My focus never leaves the bird. If I can see the head, the shot is easy. Shoot the bird in the head. If I cannot see the head, I must decide to shoot the upper or lower edge of the bird. If I focus on the upper edge and the bird is flying downhill, I will miss.

If the bird requires a lead, I set up ahead of the bird. The hand on the forend would not be under the bird, it is under the kill zone.

Are you doing anything different this year?

 

[birdshooter]

Perfecting the gun mount, especially from a position you would normally carry your shotgun in the field will always be plus. Us pointer guys do have a little advantage of knowing when a bird may flush, but not always.

That said, it's still useful to practice on moving targets and that's where shooting clays comes in. One thing that would possibly help is to shoot Sporting clays from a gun down ready position and have your shooting buddy release the target at his discretion so you won't know when it's coming.