Shooting Woes - Help Needed

remy3424 said:
Be ready all the time, always be expecting a flush, it won't seem like a rush if you are ready.
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Making an emphasis to hold my gun in the "ready" position with 2 hands years ago significantly increased my harvest rate. The amount of time required to grab the shotgun with a second hand, shoulder it, and get a good bead on a bird is often exponentially magnified when fractions of a second count. Walking around with the shotgun on your shoulder, in a sling, or other various type of convenient carry is a recipe for less roosters in the bag.

I tell people who come with me this too. "Be ready" with 2 hands on your shotgun.
 
gim said:
Making an emphasis to hold my gun in the "ready" position with 2 hands years ago significantly increased my harvest rate. The amount of time required to grab the shotgun with a second hand, shoulder it, and get a good bead on a bird is often exponentially magnified when fractions of a second count. Walking around with the shotgun on your shoulder, in a sling, or other various type of convenient carry is a recipe for less roosters in the bag.

I tell people who come with me this too. "Be ready" with 2 hands on your shotgun.
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Good point, when I taught beginners to shoot 5 stand and sporting clays, I took it one step further. Not only be ready but as you are mounting the gun, be pointing at the target as you are getting the gun to your shoulder. Think if I shot before it hits my shoulder I could kill that bird. You see so many guys pointing at the moon as they mount the gun. Then have to come down to the bird. There is a problem if your barrel is above the bird you cant see the bird very well. So then when you see the bird it is probably gaining elevation, where you are losing elevation with your gun. A recipe for a miss for sure. Any shotgun instructor will tell you keep your shotgun movement to a minimum, so point at the target as you are mounting. Doesnt mean stopping your swing. Good luck 😁😁
 
My ready position is the gun butstock against my body barrel slightly elevated until the bead is just below my eye line. Similar to the stance used in FITASC.
I do this when I see the dogs getting birdy and prepare for the flush whether it be a rooster, a hen, or a lolly ole meadowlark.
 
Red Ryder said:
Unsure here but just guessing, did someone piss in your wheaties?
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Nope no piss in my serial bro, just that cattails really don't slow down a roodawg at all. Maybe if they chuck full of super fresh snow but otherwise no. Specially if they find a deer trail to run on which happens all the time. Phez run circles around guys and dogs in cattails.
 
2point said:
I disagree. Clays slow down as soon as they leave the machine. Sporting clays and 5 stand run around 50 miles an hour. A pheasant is just the opposite get faster as they leave. They can hit 60 mph in a short period.

Clays are predictable, watch one they all do the same. Pheasants not so much. I have shot in the low 90s on a sportng clay course. I can only wish I hit 9 pheasants in 10 shots.
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Clays are coming out of the thrower faster than a pheasant who is taking off from the ground at least mine is. If you are shooting those kind of scores 9 out of 10 is reasonable goal. In fact I’ve seen many misses myself included who mount up too quickly on a birds, wait for it to get to a decent range, go bead focused and miss the pheasant. The second common problem I’ve seen myself included, not adjusting your feet for the shot. Add in wind, wildness, other factors pheasants can get tricky, but on a calm day when they are playing ball, they are a fairly straight forward shot.
 
gim said:
Making an emphasis to hold my gun in the "ready" position with 2 hands years ago significantly increased my harvest rate. The amount of time required to grab the shotgun with a second hand, shoulder it, and get a good bead on a bird is often exponentially magnified when fractions of a second count. Walking around with the shotgun on your shoulder, in a sling, or other various type of convenient carry is a recipe for less roosters in the bag.

I tell people who come with me this too. "Be ready" with 2 hands on your shotgun.
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This does make a huge difference. In the past, before I understood Iowa was not a party hunting state, I would just about always shoot more birds that anyone else. I was not the best shot, but I was always ready and I am tuned-in & fixated on the dog. Now I will have my 3 birds before anyone else. Once a couple years ago my bubby got his 3 in 3 shots, before I had fired a single shot. I was stoked for him, I told him to keep shooting. I had my 3 before he got the opportunity to add to his total. Just be ready.
 
ANY CLAY SHOOTING IS BETTER THAN NONE! Personally, I prefer skeet because it gets you to lead and follow through and those are the most important. I also shoot all my shots low gun to help quicken my mount. Sporting clays every weekend for the summer will put you at the top of your game, but some of the shots you probably will never see in real life. For a lot less than price of a summer of sporting clays, you can buy a Walmart electric thrower and a cheap lawn mower battery. Then you can shoot anytime you want (if you have a place). Only shots I can't replicate are true doubles and rabbit shots.
 
I am 61, have been using the same shotgun for close to 40 years, maybe 10 year's ago I started reloading my shotshells and still using the same components. I haven't fired a shot at anything other than a pheasant for 2 or 3 years now....something to be said for muscle memory and being confident and knowing your equipment. I was never good on clays, but usually don't struggle with a big slow birds.
 
birddude said:
ANY CLAY SHOOTING IS BETTER THAN NONE! Personally, I prefer skeet because it gets you to lead and follow through and those are the most important. I also shoot all my shots low gun to help quicken my mount. Sporting clays every weekend for the summer will put you at the top of your game, but some of the shots you probably will never see in real life. For a lot less than price of a summer of sporting clays, you can buy a Walmart electric thrower and a cheap lawn mower battery. Then you can shoot anytime you want (if you have a place). Only shots I can't replicate are true doubles and rabbit shots.
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I agree about skeet. It is truely a game in which you can practice mount, swing, and shot execution on a set continuous basis. The shot is always the same at each station. Never have to guess or look for it. Mount and swing become muscle memory.
 
Ditchmaster said:
Clays are coming out of the thrower faster than a pheasant who is taking off from the ground at least mine is. If you are shooting those kind of scores 9 out of 10 is reasonable goal. In fact I’ve seen many misses myself included who mount up too quickly on a birds, wait for it to get to a decent range, go bead focused and miss the pheasant. The second common problem I’ve seen myself included, not adjusting your feet for the shot. Add in wind, wildness, other factors pheasants can get tricky, but on a calm day when they are playing ball, they are a fairly straight forward shot.
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I want to hunt with you where they play ball. 😀 I can hunt 100 miles from my house on high pressured public land with a lower population of birds and it is very tough. I can go north and more birds, way less than 10 years ago,but it seems lately way less close flushes. CRP is gone and the farmers are turning cows into the fields after harvest. Way more out of range flushes. If I can push a rooster against a pond or get a close flush I do pretty well, just seems less oppurtunities. I love watching the SD videos and dream of that many bird contacts at reasonable ranges. I agree with your comment on footing. That is my problem, I jump a lot of ducks on a ditch in a field that was deeply plowed so it is like walking on basketballs. Boy some times I look stupid twisting myself in the ground. It is true what guys have said, you have more time to get your self squared around and feet set.
 
2point said:
That is my problem, I jump a lot of ducks on a ditch in a field that was deeply plowed so it is like walking on basketballs. Boy some times I look stupid twisting myself in the ground. It is true what guys have said, you have more time to get your self squared around and feet set.
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I had that happen the last week of SD season, on the edge of a slough that had bog features of humps and hollows, a foot or so apart, and about a foot from the bottom of the hollow to the top of the humps (for those who haven't encountered these), which were now frozen solid. Darn rooster got up behind me or to the far side of me off to my left, outside the cattails. I couldn't get my footing in time to make the shot. Then another one took off from the cattails behind and to the right of me, and couldn't get on him in time either. A flat, stable, cement pad, with clay pigeons being launched in front of you, looks pretty good about then.

I agree that easy pheasants are easy. Just watch some videos of hunting those tame roosters in ditches on the edge of private land in SD for examples. :D :ROFLMAO: :ROFLMAO: :ROFLMAO:
 
I hope I didnt come off as if I was saying all SD hunting was an easy cake walk. Never been there and it would be a bucket list hunt for sure. I know that wild roosters can be very challenging, no matter where you are at.
 
walk213 said:
I gained weight. Not ideal. Same jacket, pants vest etc. Nothing changed. I noticed my mounts were horrible. I worked to fix that during the season. As my confidence went down, I started to rush everything. I do feel a sense of guilt when my dogs do their job and I continously fail. Patterning will happen in February or March. Thank you.
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Keep in mind, this insight is from one video…..it looks like you rushed every first shot. It never looked like you got on any of the birds. It looked like a panic moment for you instead of a pull, follow and pull process.

In my opinion, you need a lot of time around a lot of birds.
 
2point said:
I hope I didnt come off as if I was saying all SD hunting was an easy cake walk. Never been there and it would be a bucket list hunt for sure. I know that wild roosters can be very challenging, no matter where you are at.
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Not at all. I was just having a bit of fun with someone who hasn't responded to my reply yet.

Some of those private land ditch birds are so tame, people use very flushy flushers just to get them to fly in a sporting way. :unsure: :sneaky::ROFLMAO:

You framed it very well. Highly pressured birds, and lower numbers (which leads to the remaining birds being all the more pressured) is tough. It is sometimes a numbers game. The more birds, the greater chance we'll find some that flush too close to us.

Overall, SD has more birds, hence more chances at closer birds. We can find concentrations of birds in certain areas of other states, and there can be areas of SD that are less desirable, but overall, they've got the numbers.
 
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