Unfamiliar Venues Shooting skeet at different venues.   We shoot skeet at the Tulsa Gun Club. We almost always shoot on a particular field. We know which tree we need to have our guns pointed at in order to ensure that we have a good hold point. We use the distance marker on one of the adjacent fields to make sure we have a good hold point for high 2 or low 6. We use the white box that frames the high house window to identify our hold point for high or low 8. We use the fences adjacent to the high and low houses for our hold points on stations 1 and 7. We try to use the trap … [Read more...]

Peeking Peeking is something we avoided doing when we were young and playing 'Hide and seek.'   We learned to not peek at the answers when we were taking tests in school or to not peek at the answers that others were writing on their tests. Peeking was a way of cheating, we wanted to be fair and we avoided it. "What's all this have to do with shooting?" you ask. We, as shooters, must also avoid 'peeking' if we want our scores to meet our expectations. Peeking is where we look somewhere other than where we should be looking during the execution of a shot. In shotgun … [Read more...]

Wannabes There are several "wannabes" at every club. You know, the guys that jump on a field as soon as they have an opportunity to impress someone with their so-called knowledge.   I was recently told about one of these that went up to a teenager at a registered skeet shoot and told this teenager that he could help him improve his game. The teenager had just (five minutes before) shot his fifth or sixth 100 straight. The kid is very talented. The 'wannabe' has never been close to a 100 straight, but there he was. It's great that clubs have people that want to help new shooters … [Read more...]

Missing   Is missing a frustrating and aggravating experience? Of course it is.   When we miss, we feel let down, wonder what happened, and sometimes go so far as to dislike a particular target because we miss it frequently. Missing is a fact of life - even the greatest shooters miss occasionally. They just don't dwell on the miss while still competing but wait for the proper time to analyze and fix whatever the problem may be. Sometimes they seek help from other skilled shooters and/or instructors. You can easily look at missing as a bad thing; after all, you may not … [Read more...]

One Person Almost everyone at the range is more than happy to show or tell you how to shoot a particular shot. Most of these shooters want to help others learn our sport.   Whether it's shooting, cooking or riding a bicycle we all need someone to help get us to where we can do those things. With shooting, as with anything else, you can get opinions from almost anyone. While these are sometimes helpful they are sometimes way off target. One person may tell you to shoot a target a certain way and another person will tell you to shoot it a different way and a third may tell you … [Read more...]