doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion DoubleGun BBS @ doublegunshop.com Station 8 help

Went to the skeet range today, and despite it being cold and very windy, managed to run 23 straight, and I was trying to stay calm and concentrate, until I got to station 8, and lost both of 'em. So frustrating! I've yet to shoot 25 straight, and thought today might be the day. Oh well. I've always had a difficult time at that station, but maybe I just choked under pressure. Any tips for station 8 that might put me over the edge next time? I shoot low gun, and I'm shooting my 1880's 27" cyl/cyl choked 12 hammer gun, with 1 oz. 8's (I normally use 9's but my store is out of them for now).

If you hide the bird with the barrel and pull the trigger it will smoke. If you see it when you fire you miss
bill

Thanks Bill, that's exactly the kind of tip I was hoping for.

This ought to help:
http://www.nssa-nsca.org/wp-content/uploads/2010/08/station_8.pdf

1. Don't shoot low gun. You're not any less of a man if you don't. If, after you get the correct concept and can hit them, then go back to low gun and work on your speed if you want. First things first.

2. Shoot last. Ask your fellow shooters to all shoot the high before they move to the low. Watch the targets. Know the flight path, but don't watch the shooters. Just the targets.

3. Foot position for the high (right handed shooter) is at the rear corner of the station, farthest away from the center stake, facing the outfield. Your weight should be mostly on your pivot foot, and stay there. Don't shift your weight to your back foot, keep it on your pivot foot.

4. Hold a few feet out from the house along the target path, BE READY, and simply cover and shoot. I see some wild gyrations on station 8, and none of it is necessary. A follow through is a must, but your foot position should not change. Your gun should end up a few feet past where you broke the target. The closer to the house you break the target within reason, the better. Try for about two thirds of the way to the center stake.

5. For the low, face the house. Weight on left foot, lean a little left if it helps. BE READY, and just cover and shoot.

Station 8 is really fun. Shoot a couple boxes of shells there. It gets funner when you start hitting them.

Low gun does make the center shots a bit harder. Problem is that you need to have everything exactly right to hit station 8. If you feet are not set to allow you to swing easily you will never be consistent. There is no time to correct your mistakes on 8 unless you flinch. Not a good idea as I had a flinching problem that took a few years to stop.

Many of us are less flexible as we age. Shooting a bird that is coming right at us becomes harder as we tend to slow our swing down as we reach a point almost right over head. Try mounting a gun and swing right up with it. You will hit a point about 80% the way to right over head and you will hit an invisible wall. The old back is too stiff, the knees and legs just are slow to flex and the head will come off the gun almost every time as you struggle to keep the bird in sight.

Now if you turn so is more a side shot than a over head shot you can hit station 8 high and low 8 easier as you get older. You have no problem hitting the middles stations. So on the high bird turn you body more to the center stake. This makes the swing more of side to side shot and less of that directly over head shot.

On the Low bird, turn your feet slightly (more) to the center stake, hold out off to the side of the door and take the bird as a incomer with a upward and slightly side to side swing. You can not let the bird get under your barrels or much past you. Mount with fluid movement, smoke the bird and do not act surprised and you will amaze other squad members. And when in doubt remember every squad comes complete with four other experts that will give you free advice on what you are doing wrong. And who knows, one of them might be right. First time for everything.

I like the guys who load about 28 in every box. They will shoot two or three extra on every round so they end up with a 25. Lot cheaper than lessons and more fun than most advise.

+1 on Mr Jones advice, it's good. I shot International skeet for years, I would shoot with the gun off my shoulder, after starting low gun, you have to, bring the gun up blot out the target move the barrels and shoot. No rule says you have to shoulder the gun!
Of course I was younger and faster then.....

Great stuff, thanks! I much prefer low gun, as pre-mounted just feels very unnatural to me. And, I like to use the "goofy foot technique,(right foot slightly forward creating a shoulder pocket for the gun butt), so I'm probably just goofy all the way around. Thinking back in retrospect though, after viewing the link and reading the comments, I was leading it too much and possibly lifting my cheek. I'll put the butt of my gun up a bit higher before I start, and just blot it out next time. Shooting a couple boxes there would be time well spent.

If I do anything but look at the bird I miss. If I am thinking after I say pull I miss. Right before I say "pull" I say to my self "Look at the bird. Look at the bird. Look at the bird." If I am thinking after I say pull I miss.

You can tell I repeat myself a lot.

This was taken with our new Shotkam today.

http://youtu.be/rQSiZpD74mo

Hope it helps. I was suprised how much lead was there when it looked like you wer shooting right at it.

Cool!

I've never heard of the Shotkam. I'd like to know more about it.

http://www.mbabllc.com/catalog/item/7927876/9649169.htm

For more details and demos click on the ShotKam site.

I am offering a Christmas special to my BBS friends. Enter the discount code dgs2012 and receive a 10% discount through Christmas.

I shoot international skeet where we shoot low gun (butt must show below a line measured along the bottom of a vertical elbow) and once learned the no.8s are two guaranteed birds.

1. They are not overhead. They are crossing targets.
2. High 8 is the same target as high 5 but simply at a higher vertical angle.(no longer shot in international skeet)
3. Start shooting high 5 from that station. Break it before the center stake. When happy with yourself move two yards towards station eight. Set up exactly as station five ie: foot position and hold point. Look at the window of the house, be ready but relaxed. Call for the bird. Mount at the flash of the bird. Focus on the bird while mounting and WHILE CONCENTRATING ONLY ON THE BIRD fire as soon as the butt hits your shoulder (as you would a chukar diving over the ridge). Smoke the bird before the stake.
Repeat in two yard increments until you smoke it on eight.
4. DO NOT MOVE YOUR FOOT AND GUN POSITION IN TOWARDS THE HOUSE AS YOU MOVE TOWARDS STATION EIGHT! Remember, it is a crosser. If you miss move your gun position and feet AWAY from the house in increments till you hit. Be ready when you call the bird!

5.repeat the above from station three for low eight.

6. The bird has the same distance to travel from high house to center stake whether you are on station five or station eight. If you break it at the same point before the center stake YOU HAVE THE SAME AMOUNT OF TIME to break it from either station. There is no hurry. Shoot smooth and easy. Just react to the first flash of the bird to start the mount. Best done with a relaxed but ready approach.

Hope this helps and best of luck.

All the best

Skeeterbd

I shoot skeet low gun but decided Station 8 warrants an exception. I found Chris Batha's approach to Station 8 very helpful:

This and the post above are very helpful, thanks. I like how little wasted gun movement there is with this approach. I can see how the same idea could be appropriated for low gun shooting as well. I've been letting the target get nearly overhead, moving my gun quite a ways in the process.

Mark, I also shoot low gun--except Station 8, unless someone challenges me to do it that way (in which case we'll sometimes do a double, facing the high house). The reason I don't shoot 8 low gun is because I look at skeet as practice for field shooting, and you would NEVER shoot an incomer that close. Look at the way a centered 8 disappears in a ball of smoke and you understand why. What you'd do, in the field, is pivot and take the bird going away. You can do that, pivoting away from the rest of the squad, if they don't mind--or you can shoot the high while facing the low and vice versa. Those are more typical of field shots than taking 8's while facing the respective houses.

So I'd suggest mounted gun, if you're going to shoot them the way everyone else does. Like you, I do a "goofy foot" on 8 as well, but only on the low. Went through a lot of missing on the low when a friend--also a right hander--pointed out that he shot it right foot forward. I have ever since. I don't do that on high 8, for whatever reason. Covering the bird actually gives you built-in lead as long as you continue to swing. It's a very quick swing so doesn't seem that way.

Mark,

As for me, I shoot low gun at everything...I find that some days I struggle to catch the bird and other days I can make a smooth motion to ink dot the bird. The days I struggle... I might revert to "bench rest skeet".

Ken

Hi:

You have received great information! I want to add one thing that I learned at station 8 and that is DO NOT THINK about the shot!!! Get ready and just do it! You have NO time to think! It is an instinct shot! Cover the bird with the barrel,keep swinging and the bird will break!!!

Good luck,

Franchi

I will have to try it the way Chris Batha does it. I never faced the high house but pivoted my waist to shoot it.
Want to try fun, move 5 paces closer to the low house.

+1 with what Franchi said. If you "think" you WILL miss. Strictly instinct. I shoot it from low gun and hit a fair number of them (guess that proves what my wife has always said: I'm brainless!) Station 8 is just pure fun--don't ruin it with the premounted mechanics, etc. A hint: do point the muzzles a bit above the trap window and focus at or slightly above the upper left corner of the window. I also found, for me, that there is no time to have a perfect gun mount and put your head down on the stock, etc. Forget all that stuff and just shoot the gun.

It is unfortunate that everyone seems to make such a project of skeet stations, especially station 8. It isn't that complicated. Long hold point to the outside of the chute, look in the hole, mount while following a point ahead of the bird, pull the trigger when the mount is completed. Contrary to popular opinion, it is not a trick shot and you should be in contol of the target and the target should be in focus. Be serious here, guys, the target is in focus for those shooters who never miss one, why not for you?

Mark,

Thanks for asking the question - I've learn about some great resources on coaching from the subsequent posts. I don't get to shoot often - maybe once a month and the best shooter/only coach at the club only speaks Japanese - so learning is a bit difficult. Thanks for all the posts on education from everyone.

and slow down. imagine you have all the time in the world.

Plenty of good advice here but the advice AmarilloMike gives is spot on! I shoot skeet for fun and to stay tuned-up for upland bird shooting. Grouse and woodcock do not allow for the luxury of a pre-mounted gun so I practice at skeet with a very low low gun... about at my belt level most times and I break about 80% of high and low station 8 targets. Knowing you can become proficient at station 8 is half the battle. Right now you are doubting your ability - Have Confidence! DON'T THINK ABOUT IT AFTER YOU CALL FOR YOUR TARGET. That part of your brain that controls eye/hand coordination will take over... trust it to do so and it will.

I've had the best success teaching station 8 this way:

Start at 1; shoot a few L1's. Then, take a few steps towards 8, and repeat. Continue like this, breaking targets successfully before taking a few more steps. By the time you get to 8, you'll be "on"! I did this with my son, who had never shot skeet before, and he was succussfully breaking targets on 8 within a box of shells. Repeat from 7.

I agree with the philosophy of shooting it as much like a passing shot as possible, rather an an "overhead" shot. As a right-hander, when shooting H8, I point my toes directly north, the high-house on my left and the low house on my right, and wind up to my hold point. My hold point is "2 feet out, 3 feet up" from the lower right corner of the window. For L8, my toes are pointed to the low house. Hold point is just "2 feet out" for this one.