Sporting clays, how to approach targets so they carryover to the pheasant fields.

B

BrownDogsCan2

Well-known member
I’ve been shooting a little this spring and summer. This weekend I went ahead and joined a club and bought 1200 clay birds. I’ve been shooting 75 birds a trip. Less the round on Saturday I have 15 rounds to shoot remaining this summer.
I’m competitive and even just shooting against myself I’d like to break them all. I don’t obviously.. Some stations will give me fits. Week to week it changes I’ll shoot the front half of the course well one week the next week it may be the back. I’ll generally reshoot a target until I can break it and I generally won’t shoot pairs as true doubles instead as a report pair or a delayed report pair. I try to mix in high gun mounts with a few low guns depending on the station.
You can YouTube about anything but it seems to be missing. You guys have any tips that will help me to break birds and keep me interested that will carryover into hunting season.
 
Chessie 67 said:
I don’t shoot sporting clays, but I do shoot skeet. I always shoot from a low gun position to get as close to a hunting situation as possible.
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Thanks Chessie. Low guns definitely a goal.
Maybe I’m not going about it right but I think I’m going to shoot 5 more rounds trying to get my eyes trained to see the front edge of the bird. The next 5 rounds tightening up a choke and more focus. And the last 5 rounds low gun.
 
Mix in 16yd trap and skeet, always low gun. Walking hand trap with a friend trying to mess with you. Practice dry gun mounts in your house.
All will help. Never too much practice. It will carry over to live birds.
 
Wind River said:
Mix in 16yd trap and skeet, always low gun. Walking hand trap with a friend trying to mess with you. Practice dry gun mounts in your house.
All will help. Never too much practice. It will carry over to live birds.
Click to expand...
You’re right I do need to mix it up. Good advice thanks Wind River
 
I am a firm believer that about any type of shooting with SC, trap or skeet or even just throwing clays with friends directly helps with bird killing. I know for me personally the years I don’t get to shoot quite as much in the summer and fall my bird shooting is not quite as good. Shoot them up!!
 
I’d like to get more consistency. I’ve always been a streaky shooter even hunting.
I came out of hunting season and purchased a new to me gun . I shot mm and sons in March and shot 18/24 on the course and 24/25 on the wobble. I think they were both set a little soft. I dropped my gun off with them for 7 weeks to get cut. Shot the course again at about a month with a gun I’ve never shot well and it was more like 40 percent. I shot it a couple of more times with the new gun and it was more like 55-60 percent.
A couple weeks ago I switched courses to stc. They had just run the high school state where an 88 won it. I shot it at around 80 percent. I shot it again a week later after they switched up some targets and it was more like 60.
I’m not shooting many true doubles and not shooting it as as a 100 round course or even as a 50. I just shoot a pair of delayed targets at a station to get a gauge for what my score might have been and then reshoot my misses. At stc I’ve also shot 4 or 5 stations on an adjacent course in the woods that gives me fits.
If I was shooting 50 or a 100 rounds by the rules my scores would be a lot lower.
 
BrownDogsCan2 said:
I’d like to get more consistency. I’ve always been a streaky shooter even hunting.
I came out of hunting season and purchased a new to me gun . I shot mm and sons in March and shot 18/24 on the course and 24/25 on the wobble. I think they were both set a little soft. I dropped my gun off with them for 7 weeks to get cut. Shot the course again at about a month with a gun I’ve never shot well and it was more like 40 percent. I shot it a couple of more times with the new gun and it was more like 55-60 percent.
A couple weeks ago I switched courses to stc. They had just run the high school state where an 88 won it. I shot it at around 80 percent. I shot it again a week later after they switched up some targets and it was more like 60.
I’m not shooting many true doubles and not shooting it as as a 100 round course or even as a 50. I just shoot a pair of delayed targets at a station to get a gauge for what my score might have been and then reshoot my misses. At stc I’ve also shot 4 or 5 stations on an adjacent course in the woods that gives me fits.
If I was shooting 50 or a 100 rounds by the rules my scores would be a lot lower.
Click to expand...
At the peak of my shooting game, I shot a round or two of sporting clays a week and lots of casual games with buddies. Like you I would work my way up to the 80's, then they would change it up, then I'd drop back to 60's. There always seemed to be some sporting clay targets that I felt were out of my range with the 16 and definatly with the 20. I also shot trap for a while and enjoyed it also, although I don't think it was as good at honing bird shooting skills. Then started shooting skeet. I believe low gun skeet is about as close as you can get to honing your mount and lead. It takes gauge out of the game since all the targets are pretty close. Having said all that no matter what game you pick it will help your bird shooting. A couple years ago I didn't shoot any before season. It was a pretty embarrassing season.
 
I have taught kids how to shoot at a 5 stand sporting course. I am a decent shot average in the mid 80s in sporting clays. So here is my advice.

When you go to a station look at the birds and decide where you will see the bird (it doesnt have to be at the house) and where you can break the bird. Come up with a plan and set your feet and stance accordily.

Shoot all stations low gun. It so much faster and in turn will slow things down. This sounds stupid but guys do it all the time. Even before you call pull get your gun on level with the target. I see guys having their gun pointed in the sky on a rabbit and then have to pull it down. It is wasted time and movement. You should be pointing at the target as you are mounting the gun. So important, think if I shot before the gun is shouldered I would have a chance to hit it. Try to get gun movement down to a minimal

Don't sleep on doubles. I shoot doubles better then report pairs sometimes. Less time to think, ride the bird and miss. If you hit a tough true pair it will make your day.

There is so much more so consider getting a lesson. One lesson could go a long ways. Good luck
 
BrownDogsCan2 said:
I’ve been shooting a little this spring and summer. This weekend I went ahead and joined a club and bought 1200 clay birds. I’ve been shooting 75 birds a trip. Less the round on Saturday I have 15 rounds to shoot remaining this summer.
I’m competitive and even just shooting against myself I’d like to break them all. I don’t obviously.. Some stations will give me fits. Week to week it changes I’ll shoot the front half of the course well one week the next week it may be the back. I’ll generally reshoot a target until I can break it and I generally won’t shoot pairs as true doubles instead as a report pair or a delayed report pair. I try to mix in high gun mounts with a few low guns depending on the station.
You can YouTube about anything but it seems to be missing. You guys have any tips that will help me to break birds and keep me interested that will carryover into hunting season.
Click to expand...
I also like to shoot sporting clays.

I often will go solo, 100 targets and will leave a station when I hit both targets.
If I miss, I will stay at that station until I hit that target 3 times in a row.
That helped me improve substantially.

Some targets are optical illusions that the course-setter designed based on that first target
and once you figure it out, they become easy.
Soft focus with eyes at the start, hard focus at the visual hold point.
For some target, the key is timing the shot at the top of the arc.
For other targets, the key is the line that swings through the target's tragectory (rising or falling) at the break point.

For me, often minimizing gun movement to the break point and really focusing on the target
(do I see the top rings, the bottom edge of black on an orange target), etc.
And as in most sports, follow-through is critical for success.
 
When I shoot sporting clays I don't do any sort of mount and I let whoever has the remote throw the target whenever they see fit so I can work on timing and mount. Try to keep it as close to hunting contition as possible. Consistent gun mount has always been my issue so I find that technique helps the most.
 
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