Greg:
I'm hardly a consistent duffer skeet shooter so you should get better advice than mine but here's my .02. Specifics are hard to diagnose by mail, aren't they? We can't see your head, feet, and gun barrel. But just a couple of general comments. I think you're practising your miss. When I was starting not so long ago, I thought it would be helpful to practise at one station. I heard this was good for beginners. See the same shot until you hit it, hopefully do everything the same way the next time, imprint the biomechanics. Bad timing and bad biomechanics imprint just as easily, so that caution about "perfect practise" from Mr. MacIntosh does come into play in "volume practise". At my age 200 light loads expended might not appear to challenge my physical endurance but would certainly challenge my focus, visual acuity, and even desire to be there doing that. The only benefit I can think of from a lot of reps is the situation where someone (squadmate, coach) is watching. Without diagnosis, you'll groove your miss. For instance, I was shooting last summer with a fellow who swings from behind on high house 2. I do much the same thing as this is a hard shot for me to do short-stroke sustained before the stake. It's also a very easy shot beyond the stake after it's "straitened out" and the "apparent" angular momentum neutralized. So he misses the single, misses the option, misses it on the double. Our squads are pretty informal so "gimme dat agin" is not a problem. On the fifth or sixth miss and just before the onset of hysteria, one of the guys noticed that Mr. Shooter's first move from the hold point (he's a "just off the shoulder" low gun shooter)was to take the muzzles back towards the house at the call. Made aware, he stopped doing this and hit two in a row and we moved on. I think when we are miss-tifyed, we should remember that skeet is largely a matter of the body doing or not doing what it's always done. Add something, take something away, different timing, different result. Altho skeet is largely a matter of repeated mechanics, I think it's better to shoot with a squad, get the reps intermittently, maintain at least part of the illusion that skeet provides the same opportunities for using reflexes and instinct that hunting provides. The 499X500 shooter probably wouldn't agree; just my thoughts.
jack
