New shooter looking for advice

1343 Views 8 Replies 6 Participants Last post by Anonymous, Feb 13, 2004

Discussion Starter · Sep 16, 2003

Hello everyone,

I'm a fairly new shooter (about 2 months) and I just shot in my very first Trap Zone shoot here in Amarillo Tx. I used a Browning BT-100 with a 34" bbl. and Winchester AA 1 1/8 oz. loads. My score, I thought, was pretty good, but I want to improve it. I noticed that I wasn't able to get on the target and stay on the target untill it was out aways from the trap. What am I doing wrong?

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ysr_racer

· #2 · Sep 16, 2003

Welcome aboard. After a few rounds step up to sporting clays. It's the most fun you can have with a shotgun.

here are some helpful web sites:

http://www.vaskeet.com/skeet101.htm

http://www.remington.com/whatsnew/skeet/skeet.htm
http://www.remington.com/whatsnew/trap/trap.htm

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wwb

· #3 · Sep 16, 2003

You're not doing anything obviously wrong... everybody has their own internal clock - from the time you call "pull", that clock starts ticking down, and when it hits zero, that trigger finger goes, even if part of the brain is saying, "No! No! You're not on it!"

With several thousand rounds, you'll find your own consistent timing - and as the years go by, your natural timing will get faster on the bird (until, after enough years, you start to slow down a little... don't ask).

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clayshooter25/25

· #4 · Sep 16, 2003

All I can say is that it takes more than 2 months to be a good shooter. And if you don't already have one, get an instructer to help you out.

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rajaniblue

· #5 · Sep 17, 2003

I second the comments posted above. Give yourself some time. It takes a little experience to learn timing of clays and also train yourself to look for them. You will get faster on the bird the more you shoot.

Here are a couple of things that helped me acquire targets faster:

Make sure that you are looking beyond the end of your barrel. Once you have the gun shouldered, you should not be looking at the lineup of your beads, but rather out into the field where the bird will appear. The easiest way to do this is pick a spot out beyond the trap house - a bush, rock, bunch of grass, etc.- and focus your eyes on it before you call for the bird. At first, you have to force yourself to do this because the tendency is to watch the beads on your gun. As you do it more, you will automatically focus beyond the traphouse each time you call. If you are looking out beyond the traphouse, your eyes and mind are already on where the bird should be and you will start picking it up much quicker as it leaves the house.

The second thing that helped me is to shoot buddy shoots with someone who has good fast timing on clays. Both shooters take a shot at the same bird and the idea is to be the one to hit it first. You won't hit many at first but you will be training your eyes to find the bird faster than your partner.

Also, shooting doubles will help you find birds faster. Frustrating at first, but after shooting 50 pairs of doubles, you will go back to singles and find you have all the time in the world to hit just one bird coming out. You really don't have any more time, but it seems like you do because you've been training yourself to find and shoot at twice as many birds in the same time span you've been used to shooting just one.

Hope this helps
rajaniblue

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Tal/IL

· #6 · Sep 17, 2003

Daniel said:
I noticed that I wasn't able to get on the target and stay on the target untill it was out aways from the trap. What am I doing wrong?

I'll make one suggestion -

Don't move to the target, then ride it. Move to the target and break it immediately. You don't want to RUSH to the target. Just move to it and break it. Riding the target gives you too much opportunity stop your gun, or mis-point, etc., etc., etc.

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AAShooter

· #7 · Oct 10, 2003

practice,practice and hold a lower house, and don't ride the targer, and a zone shoot is good practice

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Discussion Starter · #8 · Oct 23, 2003

Thanks to all of you who did post answers to my question. I used the advice givin to me and wouldn't you know it, I hit my first 25 straight about a month ago. Thanks again for all of your help.

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Discussion Starter · #9 · Feb 13, 2004

Daniel,
Ok, maybe I'm alittle late on this. Where in Amarillo do you shoot ? I'm in Clovis, New Mexico and go into Amarillo when the wife wants a change of pace (resturant wise) and visting a mall. Figured I'd find a place to go shoot some trap after I drop her off at the mall.

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