Rushing

One of the errors that newer and some experienced shooters make is rushing their shots. An experienced shooter I shot with last weekend had that problem, you could see that he wasn’t ready when he called for low 8 in the last round of the 28GA. He missed it.

 

You see young people rushing their shots a lot. At station 1, they load two shells, shoot the high house single and almost as fast as they can, they call for the low house. They miss the low house more frequently than they would if they just slowed down a little.

An experienced gentleman I trained to be a NSSA Certified Level 1 instructor last year was in such a rush in shooting the outer skeet stations (3, 4 & 5) that he missed the high house a lot. This was because he was in a hurry to get his gun barrel pointed at his break point for his next shot, the low house.

While pointing your gun at your break point before going to your hold point is a good system, he was making the next shot break point more important than hitting his high house target. Because of his rushing, he had little or no follow-through, and it cost him a lot of targets.

We need to keep our shots completely separate, ‘one shot at a time,’ or we may clutter our minds with too many thoughts and start missing.

One of the methods of slowing down when shooting singles is to only load the shells you’ll need for the shot you’re shooting. One shell for each single shot, two for doubles.

I’ve had young students that have gone from loading two shells to loading only one start to hit their second shot better and then they regress to loading two shells and start missing again. One reason they go back to loading two shells for singles is that they see more experienced shooters doing it and they want to be one of them.

If you take the time to watch good shooters you will see them take a little more time in setting up for their targets. They make sure they are ready and looking for the target as it emerges from the house. They seldom, if ever, rush their shots.

Shoot well, shoot often and stay safe.

Barry Hartmann is an NSSA Master Level and NRA Certified shotgun instructor who can help you improve your skills at American Skeet and wingshooting. To contact Barry, email him at threeat8@aol.com or give him a call at (918)803-2393.