Now, before you start thinking we’re for the legalization of Mary Jo, better just slow down and listen to what we have to say in answer to this question we’ve answered hundreds of times in the last two years: “Why all the interest in high rib guns and doesn’t that create a problem if you cant the gun?”
This reminds us of high school debate class when you were given a topic and had to argue for or against it, and you were told at the last minute which side you were on. Now, if you were an aspiring sporting clays shooter looking to get every advantage in your competition, and if you could afford to buy the advantage so much the better, why not? After all, claims of better, more clear sight picture (bird-barrel relationship) and a more erect head position when shooting targets does sound inviting.
It would be incredible to have a gun that, when you mount it, your eye is looking down the rib (not down on the rib) without having to bury your cheek in the stock or “roll your head more forward.” If you could have a gun that would shoot where you are looking not high and to the left if you are right-handed (just the opposite if you are left-handed), and all of this with just a swipe of a credit card, hell, even the Witt brothers would jump on that one! But what Dim and Nit have found out is that not all they’ve been led to believe about these new high rib guns is right for them.
Our first conclusion is that high rib guns are like sushi or medium-rare steak: you either love it or not. There’s no middle ground. That’s why Dim and Nit order fried shrimp and medium steak. They’ve always strived to stay in the middle and are easily swayed by something that seems to be the easiest way out, or the path of least resistance, especially if it will make them shoot better.
Well, our experience with the high rib guns is possibly more in-depth than most of you might realize, because we shot the first high rib guns at sporting clays. We’ll get to that a bit later in this series. Our attempt here is to give both sides of the dilemma that some shooters find themselves in when considering a high rib gun. We just might ruffle a few feathers here, but there are some things we’ve discovered in our journey of improving shooting performance in all shooting disciplines that we think deserve to at least be heard.
Since beginning our career as professional shooting instructors 28,000 hours (each) ago in 1992, we have learned a few things about shooting performance, both in the conscious and subconscious mind. One of the biggest factors in peak performance, whether it’s with a shotgun, fishing pole (if you can call them that now), a club, some kind of a ball, or even public speaking, is that you must be in the present.
This one thing is something all of the mental performance coaches we have worked with agree on. But most performers fail to grasp that you can’t be in the present if you’re thinking about anything.
That’s right. Regardless of how positive the thought is, you can’t be thinking or your actions will be the reaction of the conscious thinking brain. There’s a reason that the Nike slogan is not “Just Think About It!”
What does this have to do with high rib guns? Well, like slow-cooked Texas BBQ or the wine in our wine cellar, time does have a way of knocking off the sharp edges of the hardest diamond and turning it into something the Witt brothers would spend a lot of money on to give their mom for putting up with them all those years.
Hang on, we’ll get there. But we’re gonna have some fun while we do it. After all, sporting clays is a game. It’s supposed to be fun.
The first stop on our journey of enlightenment about shotguns and performance is, what is the difference between a target gun and a field gun? Well, weight, mainly. Target guns are heavy and made to be carried a little and shot a lot because heavy guns kick less than light guns. There is no trade-off between weight and recoil; light guns kick more than heavy guns.
That said, there is another dimension that’s always puzzled us when it comes to stock dimension between target guns and field guns: drop at the comb. Or really, the height of the comb in general. We don’t know why field guns have more drop than target guns, and it’s a mystery to us why almost all target guns have a thicker comb than field guns. We’ve been asking this question for years and have gotten different answers from different people, but none were definitive.
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