Last month we talked about shooting doubles and how your eyes must move to the second target before the gun in order for your hands to know where to put the gun. Well, this month we are going to talk about something that is not normally associated with wingshooting or shotgun shooting in general. It’s the “F” word in shooting a shotgun, and it is what causes all those words to be uttered out loud that end in hard consonants!
What is that word? Well, in a word, FEAR!
Fear, you say? Yep. We find there are a lot of fear-based decisions in the game of sporting clays and in wing shooting. After the 4th or 5th miss, fear kicks in, your focus goes to the gun to get the lead right, and you couldn’t hit the bird if it was sitting on a fence post.
Now wipe that smile off your face and read on. Let’s get you to become a better shotgunner every time you go out.
First, we are going to talk about how fear gets into your game when shooting clays. We are sure that there are still a few of you who are thinking, “What are they talking about? I’m not afraid when I go clays shooting?”
Well, hold on there, friend. Let’s take a little closer look at how you make decisions when shooting a “friendly” round of sporting clays.
What is the first thing that goes through your mind at the first station, especially when you are the first shooter? We find that is determined by who you are shooting with. If shooting with a squad of shooters you do not know, then there is little pressure on you, unless you can’t handle the pressure of being first. Now, if it were skeet you were shooting, you would have had ample time to think about (in fact, even dream about) what targets you would be shooting on Station 1 on the skeet field. And if you had shot a lot of skeet, then you probably would not be afraid to be first unless you were a recreational shooter and some guy showed up with a $15,000 Kreighoff with shooting vest to match and 100 straight patches all over his vest.
How does this change your thinking as the first shooter in the squad now? Are you as confident? What’s that you feel on your hands? Yep, it’s sweat. Now, hold on, bubba. Why do you all of a sudden have sweaty palms and shortness of breath? What has changed? High 1 will always be high 1 and one is never harder than another, because they are all the same. Skeet is skeet, whether in Houston, Texas or Wasilla, Alaska.
So, why, all of a sudden has your confidence left you? Well, let us introduce you to Fear.
Now as painful as this might be, let’s take this paradoxically cataclysmic situation we have put you in, albeit unwilling at this point, and try to understand what is really happening that creates the sweat in your palms. We define fear as “a programmed response to a perceived set of circumstances.” Fear in and of itself is not a bad thing, because you can’t be courageous if at first you did not fear. It is when fear takes over our thought process that things go south in a hurry.
One of the unique things about fear we have found is how people react to it in so many different ways. In fact, this has been one of the most amazing studies of our journey, and the more we are aware of it the easier it is to spot, explain and help someone deal with.
Perhaps the easiest way for us to illustrate fear is to take the scenario we just presented to illustrate how fear turned the same situation from one of relaxed confidence to being afraid to miss. In the beginning, you were shooting a round of skeet with people you did not know, therefore there was no expectation as to outcome. After all, you did not know anyone there, so big deal if you missed (no fear).
Then the guy with the expensive gun and all the scare patches shows up, and all of a sudden the situation changes from “who cares” to “Hey, this guy knows what he is doing, so I hope I don’t miss.”
Now my question to you is “How do you know he knows what he is doing? How do you know that he is not just a new shooter just like you who is thinking about buying a gun and taking up skeet?” The local Pro (who you know) loaned him his gun and vest and said go over and join that squad, shoot a round, and come back and let me know what you think about that K-80?
Nothing has changed, yet your confidence has evaporated like smoke from a wooden match, all because of what you thought about the ability of someone you did not know. We call this expectation. In the beginning you were going to shoot a casual round of skeet with shooters you did not know and you had no expectation.
But then the scare patches shows up and all of a sudden your casual round turns into something similar to Russian roulette with a single shot. Someone else is loading and you gotta go first. But this is just a casual round of Skeet!
Well, welcome to the other part of the shooting game: performance.
Fear does different things to different people, but this emotion does have a common thread in all reactions. Fear always puts the gun between the target and the eyes, because being careful with a shotgun is about not missing. The first thing almost every shotgunner does when this thought comes into their heads is to make sure of the lead.
The paradox is that, in making sure of the lead, the shooter’s focus comes off the bird as they look at the gap between the bird and the gun. When this happens, the gun stops or slows dramatically.
Well, guess what happens to the target? You guessed it; after as many as three shots, the target keeps right on going unscathed, allowing for the time necessary for you to get mad and then quickly think up excuses as to why you missed.
Would you like to know a secret that we have discovered? Well then, read on because you can be perfect in a couple of ways and still hit the bird, provided you have practiced your gun mount and the three-bullet drill.
Why is practice so important? Well, if you are thinking about what you are doing when shooting a shotgun then you are already behind. We have talked about this in this column before, but as we travel the world teaching shotgunners, we seem to repeat ourselves a lot. So why should this installment be any different?
It takes the conscious thinking brain 200 to 300 milliseconds to think about an action, give the command to execute the action and actually do it. It takes the unconscious athletic part of the brain 5 milliseconds to not think and just do and it is right all the time.
Here is where the disclaimer comes in, so listen up. You can understand that the gun must be ahead of the bird to hit it, and if you have done your job, which would be practice enough so that the move and mount is grooved and smooth every time you do it, then you will be successful more often than not. Then the more you shoot either in the field or at the sporting range, the better you will get and the easier it will become to be more consistent in your results.
Oh, you want to know about the secret? Keep reading.
We have discovered something that just might help if you want to become more consistent, because all of you have discovered that making sure of the lead doesn’t work. You can be perfect in two things, focus and gun speed. The more you can focus on the front of the target as you insert the muzzles in front, the better the input to the brain and the more precisely the subconscious brain can insert the muzzles in the correct lead.
There is one more thing that will help you, but you must be able to focus past the barrels and keep focus on the target: that would be gun speed.
Don’t trigger the shot until you feel the muzzle speed mirroring the target’s speed. Some of you will be able to see this and some of you won’t. Those who can’t just feel the synchronization with the bird. As soon as you feel you are moving the same speed as the target, pull the trigger while maintaining at least 95% of your focus on the target.
We think you will find, as we have, that if you will insert in front of the target and control your gun speed so that it is the same speed as the target (painted or feathered) and at the point of insertion, focus on the front of the bird, you will be more successful in the field and on the range.
