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Sporting clays and also trap and skeet are clay target games. The over and under (o/u) target gun has evolved over the years as the gun of choice for most target shooters for one main reason, weight. A gun that is heavy does not kick and tends to keep moving when you start it swinging. Most side by sides (SBS) are game guns. They are light, quick to point, and absolutely alive in your hands. Just recently I borrowed a Webley and Scott SBS from Chuck Webb at Briley Manufacturing to take on a few dove hunts. Chuck has been buying these old English SBSs and restoring them and he had been trying to get me to ty one. I had never shot a SBS in the field and I was some what apprehensive about what my results might be. I first patterned the gun for fit and it shot where I looked. While in the field, I was surprised at how well it handled on doves. It seemed to magically come up wherever it needed to be to kill the bird. It was light and very quick to point or change directions which is a necessity on live birds. However, for clays I much prefer the O/U because of its weight. My personal gun is a Beretta ASE Gold with 31 barrels that weighs about 7 3/4 pounds. The weight is much more conducive to shooting 150-250 clays in an afternoon because there is less recoil and the follow through is effortless. The basic difference between a field gun and a target gun is this. A field gun is made to be carried a lot and shot a little. A target gun is made to be carried a little and shot a lot. I personally have only seen one man that could shoot a side by side on clays as well as anyone I've ever seen shoot an over and under. The fact that he hunted over 125 days a year and shot clays as often as he could with the same gun probably had something to do with it! Comment Vs. Commitment There is a difference in comment and commitment. It takes a lot of hard work to increase your performance at sporting clays or anything else in life for that matter. When we are born we each have a certain amount of God Given Talent. Some have more than others, but we all have some. To be great at anything, we must make the commitment to develop our talent into a skill. Your expectations on a sporting clays course should be controlled by the depth of your commitment not by your dreams. How well you shoot in competition is controlled by many things, not the least of which is your commitment to prepare. My good friend, Jerry Meyer, used to quote someone when we talked about this and it went something like this-- The will to prepare to win is greater than the will to win Are you willing to make the commitment to prepare? When I say commitment I'm talking about things like:
Everyone wants to be the best they can be, but based on what guidelines? It takes a lot of hard work and a high level of commitment to be a great Sporting Clays Tournament shooter. Are you willing to make that kind of commitment? There is a psychological principal that states, "When your conscious desires (what you want or what you want to be) are in conflict with your emotions (how much you have really committed to get there) your emotions always win." A good, healthy, realistic expectation, based on the amount of commitment you can and are willing to make, will make this game more fun for you and those around you. Getting Ahead of the Target If your eyes are on the target and the gun shoots where you look, how does the gun get ahead of the bird? John Payne, Houston, TX. In short the subconscious puts the gun where it needs to be. Ill try to explain how this works. In order to understand how this works first you must understand your visual circle. Within your visual circle you have 2 types of vision, primary or sharp vision and peripheral vision. Look across the room at a small object, the corner of a picture frame or cabinet, the light switch or something. Although you are focused on the light switch, you are aware of everything else in the room that is in front of you. Your primary vision is focused on the light switch and your peripheral vision sees everything else in the room. While focused on the light switch become more aware of what your peripheral vision sees and you will begin to be aware that it is actually a visual circle. This is your visual circle and it is made up of primary and peripheral vision. Your primary vision (on the light switch) is .02% of everything you see. Your peripheral circle is 99.98% of everything you see. Your peripheral circle calculates distance, direction, and speed--that is its job. Your primary circle tells the peripheral circle what object to calculate this data from. The target always stays in your primary vision. We call this the conscious or impute side of the computer. The gun always stays in the peripheral circle. We call this the subconscious or output side of your computer. When shooting a target you must be consciously focused on the front of the target in order for your subconscious mind to be able to place the gun ahead of where the target is. The reason we say Focus on the front is that you obtain target location and line in one simple picture. Because of the size of the pattern and the length of the shot string, there is a tremendous amount of forgiveness with respect to lead. If and only if the gun and the target are moving the same direction and speed and the gun is somewhere (within reason) ahead of the bird. Be precise in focus and sloppy with lead. However, this forgiveness is only in existence when the primary or conscious vision stays on the target. The most perfect lead picture on the planet, if not placed at where the target is, is useless. To quote one of our more promiscuous politicians, It depends on what your definition of is, is The more you are focused on the front of the target, and merely aware that the gun is in front somewhere, the more targets you will hit. The more aware you are of exactly where the gun is, the more targets you will miss. If you had to stop your car quickly and when you applied the brake you focused on the front of your car, I've got to believe your premiums would go up. Patterning a Gun For Impact The first thing you should do when you get a new shotgun is to pattern it for point of impact. This is not the same as patterning for fit. Patterning for impact means where does the gun shoot when I aim it. Yes, I said aim it. The purpose of this is to make sure the barrels are aligned with each other (for over/unders and side by sides) and that the rib is aligned with the barrel. Some ribs are made to shoot high and others are made to shoot flat. There are as many opinions on where a gun should impact for a given purpose as there are shotgunners who own them, so I wont get into that. We personally prefer that a gun pattern 50/50 for sporting and field use. This means that 50% of the pattern is above the point of aim and 50% is below. The most precise way to do this, that we have found, is to pattern the shogun like a rifle, in sand bags, from a bench. Because the shotgun has no rear sight it is extremely critical that your eye is in perfect alignment with the rib and that the bead is centered on the rib. Although this is important, we feel that it is not the most important part of the procedure. The most important part of the procedure, is the size and shape of the target. Most people put a 3 dot on a pattern sheet and shoot at it. Because you are aligning a round bead with a round dot there is a 2-3 deviation built into the result. When you aim the gun place the bead so that it just touches the bottom point of the triangle. This will give you a very precise point of aim and will tell you where your gun shoots. The center of your pattern should be about an inch below the triangle. Use a Full or Modified choke at 25 yards to make it easy to find the center of the pattern. If you have an automatic or a pump gun your job is over. If you have an over/under or side by side you need to pattern both barrels separately. As long as both barrels pattern within 4-6 of each other at 25-30 yards that is acceptable. Remember: it's a shotgun, not a rifle! It is made to be pointed not aimed! If its a little off don't worry. You're not going to be using a Full or Modified choke on a 25 yard target anyway. The next and final step is to take your new gun to a competent, experienced gun fitter and get the gun fitted to you so that the gun shoots where you look. The reason for this is that a shotgun is supposed to be pointed not aimed. If the gun shoots where you look, you don't have to aim, all you have to do is look at the bird, mount the gun and pull the trigger.
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