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

Focus on the target and not the lead. Works with all these techniques.

I'm no Master Class shooter by any stretch. I do well to break 23 or 24 on the Skeet Fields. One of the board members at our club is a Master Class Skeet Shooter, head coach of the local high school shotgun team and will be inducted next month into the GA Skeet Shooting Hall of Fame. He has coached kids that have gone to nationals for the last four years and even some shooters that have been recruited by the Army Marksmanship Unit and are being grommed for future Olympians.

He offers lessons out at the club and asks a very important question to everyone who signs up for a private lesson. "What is your goal? Do you want to be a better wing shooter/bird hunter or a better competitive shooter?"

The answer to that question greatly influences the techniques and leads he teaches.

A high school shotgun team? In this day and age? Wow, I'm shocked. Good for you guys.

Buzz,

I currently use the pass through method for skeet, but have been reading more about the sustain lead - that it gives you more time. I feel comfortable with pass through and the ability to pass through to the required lead before pulling the trigger. But still have a lot of work to do. If I could get to the range more often, I would try sustain lead since it seems to be the technique used by most successful competative shooters.

I DO when I have less time to think and just react. I do know my clay shooting pointed out my lack of lead (and the resulting misses) on my last pheasanthunt / pigeon shoot.

Still, I currently like the pass through for skeet and would use it when I could for live birds.

It's a growing movement, JRB. Surprised you don't have it in ND. In a lot of places, they shoot under the auspices of the Scholastic Clay Target Program (SCTP). It was originally started by the National Shooting Sports Foundation, but grew so quickly that NSSF split it off and SCTP is now a separate organization. State HS shoots, etc. A lot of folks are under the impression that the libs have taken over K-12 education. Well, if they have, then they must be making an exception for kids with guns in a lot of places. We had a rifle team (shot in the heating tunnels under the building) when I was in HS, and an archery team. But we didn't have a shotgun team. This movement is a real positive change--for the future of both the competitive shooting sports and shotgun hunting.

This is great news. I always said that it takes more talent to put a bullet in a bullseye at 200 yards than it does to put a lousy basketball in a hoop. I tip my hat to all those schools that have a shooting team.

JRB, I you can't find the Scholastic Clays program in the schools check with your state Game and Fish Dept. In many states the Game and Fish has picked up the sponsorship as a recruiting base for new hunters. I am not a resident of the south east, but many of those states have traditionally been more active in the shooting sports and with active duty military volunteers.

Here's something for all you guys to think about. Try looking ahead of the bird the amount of lead necessary to break it. For example - a station 4 skeet target takes about 4 foot of lead. If the gun shoots where you're looking and you look at the bird you'll shoot 4 foot behind it. Peter Blakley recommends looking ahead, and some top shooters use it. I was doing it before I read some articles by him. I had trouble " seeing " the barrels enough ahead of the bird, or " lead " if you will, when looking at the bird. Rule number one is the gun should shot where you're looking. Rule number two was concentrate on the bird. Why ? I'll shoot behind it every time. I do a MMS and as I mount I shift my vision ahead what I think is necessary and when I see it there I pull the trigger. It's called the "intersect method". Try it, you may like it. Paul

Paul, that's awfully close to what I'd call sustained lead for skeet targets at 3,4 & 5. You remember all that guff you got when you first shot skeet about not "measuring" lead. I sure as hell do "measure" but I do it without eye movement or stopping the gun. Somehow I think you have to develop a "binocular" brain which fully recognizes the total product of peripheral vision. YMMV.


jack

Jack, ya that's about it. What I was trying to say is I look down the barrels where the gun is pointing and "see" the bird behind them instead of looking at the bird. Shoot [look]where the bird is going, not where it's at, or you'll hit where it was. Paul