I am at my best when they surprise me and I just react. I think the Billy Bob focus on the head thing has merit. Aim small miss small.
I think a lot of people are best with reaction shots and I believe it's because thinking is a shotgunners worst enemy. If you're in the field and miss a couple birds you start thinking about it and it snowballs from there. Most of the time it's just improper gun mount or lifting your head off the stock. A lot of people think I'm blowing smoke when I say I shoot for the head/neck and that you can't head shoot flying birds. Here is the truth, if you can focus on and break clays, you can focus on and hit birds in the head/neck. The targets are of a similar size, the head and neck of the duck being a slightly larger target than the side profile of a clay.
Robert Stack who in addition to being an actor was a championship shotgun shooter when asked about how he could shoot ducks with a 410 said”. Easy, shoot them in the head”. The issue is you gotta train that way.
I can indeed confirm this. I'm glad I had been doing it for years already because this past season with the .410 it really paid off.
oh so true , is the more you pull the trigger , the better you'll get ! The more you experience success , the easier it will be to repeat itself . It's all muscle/eye memory and how relaxed your body moves to the target , rotating from the hips in a forward motion . it's that bird barrel relationship we gain after doing it so many times but some have that ability naturally , to see that intersection of the shot-cloud and the target no matter where the gun is being held . Really good shooters are 90% born that way , the ones who have excelled , have refined that ability by practicing their craft , a lot ! Shooting in the wind is a learned experience , the more you do it , the easier it becomes , as some , it takes them longer to instantly see the sight-picture of where the shot needs to be ! IMHO Sporting Clays has helped waterfowlers a lot , seeing these angles !
Sporting clays the absolute best training there is for a wing shooter when shot gun down. Another fun game is to stand at the 8 station on skeet field gun down and shoot birds from the low house ,gun down, breaking them before they pass you. That will absolutely teach you instinctive gun mount and shooting. The dedicated skeet shooters at club we use to practice at always frowned upon us when we practiced for sporting clays on unused field.
Most of my first shots, if everything goes right, is around 20 yds. By the 3rd shot, I can easily be out to 30 or more. Farthest shots on previous video would be 40 to 45 yds. Average shot is probably 25. Skeet 1 choke for all. I try to target head neck area. After awhile, you can tell where you hit them by how they react.
All I can say is , your video's are a learning tool that should help most folks but I can only guess , you not spending much time in the field as , with your multiple bird up's , your limits are filled in short order ? You say you shoot a Skeet 1 and if I remember right , you shoot 3's and BB's in steel shot ? Are these in a 2 3/4" or 3" shell and at what velocity do you prefer ? I also believe in the K I S S method when you're into birds on the X !
Where the average shooters ability is less than 35 yds , I'm having a hard time seeing where this post from the OP is going......I think , wishful thinking ? There is hope and poke tho , along with , spray and pray and Hail Mary's of all kinds........As sportsmen , we surely only take shots we're capable of , Right ?
