What is Perfect Point of Impact??

[Wolfchief]

The "why", as you put it, can be for a number of reasons: foot position, not getting down on the gun (your eyes are your rear sight on a shotgun), aiming instead of pointing, not focusing on the target, mind games. As mentioned above--I like the idea of just telling the shooter "it's really hard to miss too far in front" When the shooter finally hits a 90 degree crosser, often the "light just goes on" and you hear them say "So THAT'S how far ahead I should be!"

 

[Bob Peters]

When I notice guys are missing crossing shots I tell them that they're probably not missing ahead of the bird. I leave it at that.

I can agree with that as a generality. I think people often, hell I know they always hear "you're behind it." Or, "it's hard to miss 'em in front." Then they apply that to all shots in the pheasant field, they luck up and get close to a sneaky old rooster, and he flushes hell bent for election at a shallow quartering angle (i.e. not much angle but definitely some). Drilled in their head is "you're behind it!" The hunter mounts and really gets the muzzles swinging in front, because he'll be damned if this trophy pheasant is escaping. He pulls the trigger once, twice, maybe three times and magically away goes Mr. Pheasant, his 30" tail flapping in the breeze as he lands in a phragmite patch in the middle of a 50 acre swamp. He crows and crows and soon a hen comes over to keep him company in his serene sanctuary. His crop is full of upper midwest corn kernels as he happily snuggles into the marsh grass for the night. The hunter has no idea how he missed this layup, but truth be told, his point of impact was far from perfect, he was miles in front.

 

[A5 Sweet 16]

The hunter has no idea how he missed this layup, but truth be told, his point of impact was far from perfect, he was miles in front.

Surely it happens, but I think it's the exception to the "shot behind him" rule. I think it's much more common to be so excited about the puff of feathers resulting from said trophy rooster & layup shot, that the shooter lifts his head to better witness the carnage, stops his swing, & shoots behind. Could be wrong, I suppose.

 

[Bob Peters]

Surely it happens, but I think it's the exception to the "shot behind him" rule. I think it's much more common to be so excited about the puff of feathers resulting from said trophy rooster & layup shot, that the shooter lifts his head to better witness the carnage, stops his swing, & shoots behind. Could be wrong, I suppose.

Or sometimes with me, I lift my head, keep the gun moving, and shoot 5 feet over the top of him. I've missed in so many ways it's hard to keep track.

 

[Miforester]

Something that helped me shim my Benelli 28ga was the Garmin Xero S1 on the trap range. Set it for Practice/Custom/Station 3 and lock the trap to throw straight ahead. Shoot 25 rounds.

For each shot it will show you this: It's a clean break (good hit), the center of the shot pattern was 7 inches high and a bit right of the clay which broke at 30 yards.
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It also gives a lot of other info, like reaction time. This will tell a lot about accuracy when shooting quickly or slowly. The green lines are breaks, reds are misses. It even gives velocity on the loads; helpful if you're a reloader.

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My club has one and it rents for $20 an hour. I think it's a bargain. In my case, it showed I was consistently putting the pattern low on the target. I was breaking them but I was always low. Easy job to adjust the drop up to move my eye up. After that I was putting the pattern pretty much right on the target. Took the gun over to the skeet field and broke 23 with it and solid breaks. Pretty satisfied.

YMMV but I found it more informative than the pattern board for adjusting POI.

That is pretty cool technology, has come a long way evidently since i last shot competitively. Thanks for sharing this.

 

[Miforester]

I try to just pull the trigger as i swing past the beak and continue with my follow thru. Tough shot is the straight away as I don't cover the bird and generally hit the arse of the bird.

 

[LittleBigHorn22]

I see things about shooting big game at various angles, mostly as it relates to putting a bullet or arrow through an animal's vitals in the most effective way.

But what about a pheasant? Let's assume the densest part of your shotgun pattern is pretty evenly distributed throughout a 30" circle. And let's ignore shot string for the time being. Where would that 30" pattern ideally be centered on a rooster?

As I think about this theoretical situation, it seems like anywhere from its butt (or almost that far back) to its beak should be just fine. If, in fact, shot is equally distributed in a 30" circle, the head, neck, wings, vitals, & legs should stand an equal chance of being hit, as long as they're somewhere in the circle. No?

Maybe some of you who do a lot of patterning have some different ideas. Would it be ideal to be high or low, since the wings spend the most time NOT in line with the body's axis? Or again, if you're centered somewhere on the birds axis, are those high/low wing positions equally well covered?

This may not be very interesting or helpful and is likely to cause me to miss shots next weekend. But does anyone have any thoughts?

If ignoring the shot string then yeah full pattern over the full bird would be best. Think about ground swatting a bird, you put the full pattern on it rather than try shooting for the head or something, unless its turkey and you have full chokes.

However if it's flying and you have shot string, then you want to lead simply because missing half the pattern and hitting all upper body is a dead bird, whereas hitting only lower body is a good chance at a cripple.