Barrel Draggers   I tend to ride the target a lot. I seem to always pull the trigger later than I want to and later than I plan to. How can I fix that?   You have identified one of the key principles in successful clay target shooting: commitment to break point. A clay target changes speed and direction from the time it exits the trap to the moment it hits the ground. A quartering target, for example, undergoes significant "personality changes" throughout its flight path. A quartering target thrown from a trap located 25 yards to the right of a shooting stand and thrown at a … [Read more...]

Hearing Loss   Why do the older shooters that have been shooting for a lifetime all seem to have hearing problems? Am I at risk for hearing loss?   The short answer is, yes. It is important to understand a few basic facts about hearing loss: 1) Hearing loss is cumulative. Damage to your hearing occurs over a person's lifetime. 2) Hearing loss can be somewhat hereditary. 3) Hearing protection (plugs or muffs) reduces exposure to damaging sounds from the shotgun, but no hearing protection can eliminate the risk of damage. 4) The only way to completely eliminate the risk of … [Read more...]

Gun Fit   I notice that some top shots don't have their head on the gun when they shoot. They "soft mount" the gun and don't bring their head to the gun. I'm guessing the shooter's eye is well over the rib, yet I saw in your gun-fitting video that you recommend that the shooter's eyeball be perched on the rib like a marble on a table. Can you explain?   Let's start with the premise that a shooter must be able to see targets over the shotgun and that the shotgun should shoot where the shooter is looking. When I am performing a gun fitting and checking the fit of a particular … [Read more...]

Dirty Choke Tubes   I get a significant amount of plastic residue on the inside of my screw-in choke tubes after a couple of hundred targets. Is there a technique you might recommend to clean the chokes?   Everyone seems to have his or her favorite chokes and cleaner. For traditional metal/aluminum chokes, I find that soaking them in Slip 2000 for at least 20 minutes and later running a wire brush through them is the most efficient way to clean them. While I have not personally tried them (but have many students and friends that use them), Muller Chokes seem to be a … [Read more...]

Visual Pick-up Point   Can you go over the process of picking where your eye should be during the pre-shoot routine and where the barrel should be? Should I look beyond the flight path? An instructor told me it's better to focus way out than in because it takes one's eyes longer to focus out than in.   The visual pick-up point is the spot along the target's flight path at which the eyes should settle when the shooter is in the ready position and calls for the target. While there is no hard-and-fast rule, it is important to be intentional about your visual pick-up point. What … [Read more...]