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Shooting a Full & Full choked gun at crossers on a skeet range will give scores like that, every time. Not to be a smart azz, but why do you think they call 'em skeet chokes?

Droll Mike.

Very droll.


: ) I did chuckle, however.

Regards

GKT

Head down, swing through, SEE the bird.
bill

Generally, yes... but if you see the bird as you pull the trigger of a full choke SxS you just might shoot under it. Most skeet guns have a high-ish POI, field guns usually are flatter stocked. Unforgiving with tight chokes...

Greg I've been there as well but my misses happened on the same gun. I belive your focus on the targets is probabaly not there although you may think it is. I mean what really separates a good day at the range (crushin targets) from a bad day at the range (missing left and right) using the same gun. Its the mental factor, plain and simple. If you shoot alot say 300 or 400 rounds a week that focus is immediately there whereas a part time shooters focus might be on right away or fade in and out. I'm not discounting gun fit but I would try concentrating harder on the targets first.

Greg, About the only way for anyone to consistently miss low birds from station one on a skeet field is to cross fire. The bird is for all intents right on top of you and as big as the moon, but pick it up with the wrong eye and you'll miss every time. This assumes a right handed shooter. As people age and /or get tired or suffer from eye strain [e.g., too many hours looking into the CRT of the 'puter] and stress some can have the normally 'off' eye just take over. That is one possibility.

Real long stocks are a hindrance, and it certainly could be or become an issue. You didn't mention how you were addressing the bird .. pre-mount, just off the shoulder and out of the pocket, under the arm, low gun?

The suggestion to go to theplate and pattern is a good one. For one thing it will eliminate or prove that regulation &/or POI is a contributing factor and if it was not then your confidence can move up accordingly. If it is then it should be addressed so that it is not.

Full chokes aside, Skeet is not a forgiving game. Rather, it has perhaps the lowest tolerance for doing anything wrong of any of the normally shot clay target games. You will see where some of the top skeet shooters have spoken of slumps and every time they 'go back to the basics' to get past it. Usually that is inclusive of a coach that knows what they are doing and some quality soul searching and thot on the part of the shooter to get back in the groove and bring their game back. Do anything at all wrong on a skeet field , even with a skeet choke and skeet ammunition and you just missed the target! It is a game of precision and one of repetition and exactitude.

I am aware that I have not diagnosed your experience's cause, but perhaps something said here will help you to do so. All of us has had off days and anyone who has tried to or that has become truely proficient at skeet has had to practice the basics and learn to not make mistakes, and that is irrespective of the 'method' being used. It applies just as easily to swing through as it does to sustained lead or push ahead or spot shooting .. every one of them reqiures precision. At 21 yards there is simply is no room for error.

tw;

I disagree with your final statement, flattering as it is to skeet and skeet shooters. Skeet choke at 20 or full at 40 may bloom to the same size pattern, but surely the difficulties introduced by range-magnified effects of shooter error and be-as-it-may POI will take their toll on shooters at medium and long range targets before they're paid much mind at skeet. There is of course no room for error on a big moonpie low 1 or high 7 with 40 pts of squeeze. It is fun to burn them with ic or mod but that's the furthest limit of the confidence zone for me. If you have one full, shooting the incomer just out of the house or the outgoer at the out-of-bounds stake or the end pairs inside out if you're doubly blessed or single-barreled could help. If Greg has had good success with the F/F combination in the past, he's needs this experience occasionally to maintain his hat size.

jack

Well like all shooting advice you will get four different opinions from the four other shooters on a squad. When I give advice I tell everyone three basic things. Gun fit is very improtant. Do not dwell on a missed bird, shoot it and forget it. And last left handers are backwards.

If the gun does not fit you are not going to shoot it consistantly well, no matter what shells you use or even what chokes you have in the gun. Your full and full chokes makes you pattern into an effective .410 skeet pattern. 18-21" not 30++" that a skeet 12 pattern is as a rule. So unless you are dead eye dick with a .410 you are just going to have to learn to live with a few misses.

Second Skeet and Golf are the only two games, known to man, where you practice your misses and mistakes until you perfect them. Miss a bird, forget it, for Gods sake do not shoot ten more until you can not hit a bull in the ass with a spade. When you miss low 1 you need to get back to basics. Call, mount, track bird only a short way then shoot it by your normal method, swing through or sustained lead. Keep gun up until the bird breaks.

Third and final warning is that a right hand shooter can not help a left hand shooter and the same goes for the reverse. Right vs. left is a different hold point, foot position and sight pictures. The hard bird for left handers are not the same for right handers. Low 7 is a gift to a right hand shooter but no gift to a left hand shooter as it is a slight angle shot that often is missed to the side. So make sure that the person who is giving advise understands the question, the problem, the solution and can explain it to you.

Now for your free advise. First check point of impact for your gun at 16 yards, if within 4-6" of your hold point forget about it. Shoot one pattern from each barrel at 21 yards. See how large your pattern is or how small it is. If you have a pattern less than 15" you are never going to hit that many birds but those you hit will be impressive. Should it be 24" or more you have no real handicap and are just getting too old to shoot anymore. Enjoy your misses. Few can do that with style and flair.

Years ago my right sholder was so bad I learned how to shoot left handed. Then I mastered shooting form the hip from the left and right side. Now, on any given day, I can flinch form either side with the gun mounted or from the hip. An iumpressive thing to be able to do even, if I have to say so myself. I am a cross firing, flinching, middle age fart who on any given day can run a hundred or as few as one in a row. The drama keeps me coming back.

Actually, I thought it a spoof, just to see if we're watching/reading your whole post. Sorry, didn't mean to appear droll. (grin)

Edit, for Jack's point made:

OK, then change that last sentence to read " At 21 yards there is simply not much room for error."

Yes, there is a difference in pattern sizes at that range w/ full vs. open or skeet type chokes and most of us have observed ugly one sided breaks or even delayed breaks where the target was hit by an errant pellet [the proverbial golden BB] and only fractured and the centrifugal force finally caused the target to separate making for a break. The former breaks involve the 'not much' and the latter 'luck'.

Also, some loads patterned thru skeet bbls at 21 yds are smaller than we imagine, or at least that has been my observation on several ocassions.