doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion DoubleGun BBS @ doublegunshop.com Shotgun technique: sustained lead or pass through

Sustained lead is what you'll hear competition skeet shooters teaching to newbies. And it works well at skeet because you have a whole lot of information you don't have when shooting birds rather than clay targets: where the bird is coming from, when it's going to "flush", as well as its angle of flight, speed, and distance. When you have all that information, sustained lead makes a lot of sense. Under other situations, it makes less sense.

Larry: I think you really hit the nail on the head here. As a competition skeet shooter I find myself 'locking in' in terms of stance with ideal foot positioning weight forward in such a manner where one swings at the waist and ankles rarely if ever using the arms to swing the gun. This is next to impossible to attain in other shooting venues, even trap, but certainly the case in the wilds such as grouse hunting, where proper stance is often times impossible and the shooter must rely on his arms to make 'the move' to target acquisition. Here, and as you mentioned, sustained lead is not very reliable, one reason being with poor stance and using arms to swing the gun, many shooters would be incapable of adequate follow through, I think.

Many many people who swear that they shoot maintained lead when analysed they shoot swing through, it just that the first part of the movement is blinded by the obsession to get in front. Always wondered how they shoot skeet ML at low 7 and other targets similar.

Peter, the angular velocity of target relative to gun is a very small component of target movement at low 7. Nonetheless, I think a shooter with mounted gun has muzzle "inserted" ahead of the target by definition as the target is originating "behind" the gun. I just raise the the butt to shoulder and fire. Like everything in skeet, it isn't a sure thing if the bird stalls, dives, or curls outbd or inbd but statistical uniformity of the target appearance is generally maintained. I can't see that however much practised this leads to a correct appraisal of target path in the field, but it does reinforce a sequence of events in which the trigger pull very quickly follows the appearance of the "bird." Few people shoot low 7 as it settles past the out of bounds stake on the other side of the field. So there's a conditioned response available when a situation similiar (not identical) to the condition on the skeet field appears.

As I stated earlier, I don't always have the visual acuity or hearing to "jump" the sound of the trap and move ahead to a quick break of 2 high. (Don't think you're supposed to move the gun on the sound cue in International.) However, I have done it. More times than not I chase and not so much swing thru as "close the angle" after the stake. Apparent lead looks pretty small. Several nervous Mervs of my experience make their first "move" (whether mounted or not) a muzzle movement toward the house as they call so there's no question even if the target breaks that they're shooting a desperate swing-thru with high muzzle momentum no matter what they think they're doing.

jack

Those skeets they good to eat ?

Have all ya want joe. Let us know if they pass thru.

jack

jOe: If you can get a hundred of 'em in a row with the .410er it is especially rewarding and a very tasty feeling. You should try it sometime! It's a little easier said than done tho.

I couldn't hit a 100 in a row with a punt gun.

Don't worry jOe those things don't fly like birds anyway. One thing in their favor is that you don't have to skin or pluck them.

Great video by Michael Yardley in the link below. He focuses less on particular techniques (MMS, pull away, etc.) and more on the fundamentals of the gun mount. This approach works well for me on low gun SC, skeet and birds, and I find that I become less conscious of which technique I am using when I focus on the rhythm and timing of the gun mount.

If you had to pigeonhole Yardley's method, I guess it would be MMS.

Positive Shooting