Brian you are right in that where and what you shoot at matters a great deal. I am spoiled by open shooting on pointed birds in the wild and preserve birds outside of regular season.

Open shooting lanes and without question over a point makes shooting within 20 yards with open chokes a relatively set shot. I am not a great clays shot, especially on distant targets. I don't have to be. I imagine if all I shot was passing ducks or doves I would get to be good at that (today I am not) It is no different than the skeet and trap shooters who used to depress me when I was a teenager and couldn't break over 20 out of 25 except by luck. They shot 24-25 everytime or so it seemed. They were consistent as they shot a lot of the same sets time and time again. Practice, Judgement, the right equipment, and time on any particular thing matters.

My grouse hunting days when a LT behind a Lab definitely had much lower percentages than my current 1-2 shells per bird on most days. Say more like 4-6 if I could find my notes from then. If I went back to it I would probably start out the same or worse for awhile.

I learned a long time ago in western Kansas when I showed up with my beautiful double, that the old guy with the worn out 870 was fairly likely to out shot me regardless of my clays practice and perfect fit. He knew where to be and when to shot, and just as importantly, when not to. That is the result of a lifetime of working the one game with the one gun. Interestingly I can recall more than once discussing quail in eastern kansas with the western boys and hearing from the great pheasant shots that quail was tough shooting compared to pheasant, while I thought the opposite as I cleaned up on quail all the time back then. They shot few quail and did not have the practice I did. Today, I am still not a great pheasant shot on unpointed birds.

There is hope for any of us who pursue this with a passion that we will improve to a fine point and hold it there for awhile till age takes down a bit. My father towards the end could only preserve shot or block on pheasant and his speed to acquire and fire meant he missed taking most shots. I noted he still went out and tried all the up through age 83 still bagging a few. It was more about the dogs and being with the boys than killing things.

I do not comment much about the overall quality of shooting as I cannot truly judge it. I know how things are where I have hunted over time and what I have witnessed. I know that it is not an accurate measure and my buddy who guides at a preserve sees the whole spectrum from deadly accurate to very very sad.

I was sad once too so I do not blindly hurl rocks at the general public on skills I cannot judge. All that said, those of us who frequent this board are a self selected and a probably over passionate group who take what we do too seriously and therefore are not a good sampling of the population. I suspect we do shoot above average, I sure hope we do. I believe the question changed to how many shells per bird versus percentage would change to 90% plus score to 1-2 shells per bird with 90% plus taken within those two shots.

PS 3 shells per grouse on the woods is pretty good.

Michael Dittamo
Topeka, KS