Be Early in the Break Point

Dear Vicki and Gil,

I have been a skeet shooter for over 20 years. Friends introduced me to sporting clays a little over a year ago and I have made it to ‘B’ class with 5 punches. When I started shooting sporting clays, the method I instinctively used was MOVE-MOUNT-SHOOT. I learned about the OSP method and have read everything (almost) that you have in print.

I am starting to regress now in my score. My mount is excellent, my gun speed is correct, and I intersect the target just like always. But the problem really manifests on 35 to 40-yard targets. I look at the front edge of the target always, my eyes are at rest just beyond the flight line of the target and I take the shot just as the stock reaches my face.  And on doubles I always move my eyes before the gun.  I trust that my focal vision will put the point of the impact just where I am looking.  I never ever see my gun barrel so I am not measuring the ‘lead’ as I shoot for zone one, two or three.

I am now confused with regards to some of the things I read in your articles. In essence, look with laser sharp focus at the front edge of the target, “be precise in vision and sloppy in lead.” Slather the gun somewhere out in front of the target… let the sharp focus put the gun barrel where it needs to be. However, on a fast 40-yard crosser (Zone 2) do I move my eyes off the target and in to Zone 2 before taking the shot? Even if my gun speed is equal to the target speed and I shoot at the front edge of the target, my shot will be behind the bird. 

Please explain to me how the vision interacts with the zones. I thought I understood this but now I am confused.  

Thanks,
Phillip.

Phillip,

Here are a few things to contemplate. In order to hit the bird in the break point, the muzzle must be in the break point before the target arrives. We feel that you’re trying to get there at the same time as the target, which will always put you behind the target.  This is common, and a plateau that all shooters must go through eventually. 

Most targets on a sporting clays layout are Zone 1 targets, either because they are quartering or they are inside of 25 to 28 yards and slow when they are broken. So, as a result, all shooters get comfortable with Zone 1 targets and letting the gun mount just in front of the target, or having the muzzles arrive at the break point slightly before the target arrives simply because they have done it successfully many times. 

The reason the longer, faster targets give people problems is not because they’re harder to hit. It’s because they haven’t hit them consistently enough times to be comfortable with the timing of the shot – and remember, it is all timing! To say it another way, they are not comfortable with the gun arriving in the break that much ahead of the target. And when the gun wants to go there, their lack of comfort causes fear, which switches their focus from the bird to the gun, and nothing good happens.

This anomaly occurs on a skeet field on Stations 3 Low, 4 High and Low and 5 High. Those stations give improving shooters trouble because they aren’t used to the gun having to be that far in front of the target to hit it. Once you got over how much apparent lead those targets took, it was easy to let the gun go out there. But until then, that little shoulder angel would say, “It can’t be that far in front. It just can’t be!” This made you concentrate on the lead, which shifted your focus off the target and on to the gap, which caused the gun to stop and miss behind and over. 

The only way you overcame that fear was to do it enough times so you were no longer afraid to just put it out there! At that point, you began to realize that “out there” is very forgiving. You quit measuring and just let it happen. Then you began to feel the timing of the shot and were less worried about the lead, and you became more consistent. This happened not because you told yourself that you could do it, and not because you learned the correct lead picture, but because you finally overcame the fear of letting the gun go out there where it wanted to go all along.