As we finished the first part of the epistle on lead, we said when experienced shotgunners are presented with a quartering outgoing shot, they perceived that they shot right at it. The word we want you to remember in the last sentence is perceive. This word plays a huge role in what we think is the most misunderstood part of successful shotgunning.
Let’s explain in understandable terms why angle determines perceived lead. We’ll go to a skeet field and talk about the difference in the perceived lead on Low 6 and Low 4.
Low 6 would be going away at more of a narrow quartering angle, and Low 4 would be crossing at 90 degrees to the shooter. If both targets are broken precisely over the center stake, the actual lead was the same due to the target’s distance from the shooter and the target’s speed where it was broken.
Although the actual lead was exactly the same on both shots, they appear dramatically different to the shooter. When you think about how angle controls perceived lead in a game as simple as skeet, where all the targets fly at known distances and speeds, you should then begin to realize how much angle controls perceived lead in sporting clays – a game where you never know the distance and speed of any of the targets.
Remember this: angle and speed are the two ways that target setters can deceive you the easiest with targets that are relatively close to you, especially if you try to shoot exact leads on sporting clays.
On skeet, we teach exact leads, because the targets are known distances and speeds. But on sporting clays and wingshooting, we teach shooters to stay ahead of the target and know the gun is in front. But “how far” does not determine consistency. Want to guess what it is?
The fourth and final variable that determines how much lead is necessary to hit a moving target is muzzle speed. We bet you didn’t think of that one, did you?
Our findings indicate that muzzle speed controls consistency – not the size – of the lead. Think about it! If the lead is correct on a target but the gun is moving faster than the target when the shot is triggered, then the shot will miss in front. And if the lead is correct but the muzzle speed is slower than the target, the shot will miss behind. Inconsistent muzzle speed does more to confuse shotgunners than everything else combined.
Have you ever triggered a shot on a target or bird and it looked right and the target or bird was not hit? Have you ever been shooting sporting clays and while your buddies were shooting the targets, they seemed to float and move so slow, but when you stepped into the cage what were trashcan lids floating across the sky turned into supercharged orange aspirin tablets flying at warp speed?
Well, if so, you have experienced something that everyone that has shot a shotgun has experienced at one time or another – some more frequently than others.
In this scenario, shooters typically start with a death grip on the gun and their eyes and the gun in the same place (way too close to the trap). When the target emerges, they find themselves behind a darn fast target, which makes those voices in your head start arguing about lead. As they pop the clutch (or stomp on the gas pedal, for you younger folk) and the gun lurches forward at a pace that can be called anything but smooth, they desperately begin to try to find something that resembles focus on the target.
Just after this point, the confusion is compounded by your focus on the bird being interrupted by the muzzle, because it must move faster than the target to catch up to it, and hopefully get in front far enough to break it if only for an instance. If you’re lucky enough to pull the trigger at the precise point when the muzzle is in the correct place, you break the target through no fault of your own.
What you witnessed visually resembled more an aerial view of 5-year-olds playing soccer with two balls at once than a swan swimming on a lake while making the only ripple present.
Even though you hit the target, you have no idea how or what the picture looked like when you pulled the trigger. As the Rocky theme song begins to play in your head and confidence begins to grow, you reload for another try and the voice says, “Great shot. You’ve got it now. Just one pair to go.” Then the alarm sounds on the bedside table signaling just another day at the office.
Yes, consistency with a shotgun without having control of the muzzle speed only happens in dreams and fairytales. When your muzzle speed is not the same as the bird speed, two things happen. One, the birds seem to speed up, and, two, you will miss the bird but the lead will be correct.
The only time the correct lead is correct and can be applied consistently is when the muzzle speed and bird speed are the same or within 1 to 2 percent of each other.
The reason that the birds speed up when you shoot is a visual phenomenon called “relative velocity” – in lay terms, how fast something appears to move. When your muzzles move faster than the target, the target will appear to speed up, because the eyes see the sum of all the movement in the scene. So, if your target is going 25 miles per hour and your muzzle is 40 miles per hour, everything looks to you like it’s going 65 miles per hour.
When you watch your friends’ targets, there was no gun waving around chasing the birds, so they looked slow. When you got in the cage and, after calling “pull” you quickly mounted your gun and began chasing the birds across the sky with the muzzle, desperately trying to figure out the lead. Your eyes began bouncing back and forth from the muzzle to the bird to the muzzle to the bird, creating a swing that resembled the second hand on a quartz watch, rather than a flying bird.
Finally, the shots were taken and followed by the words “lost pair.” When your muzzles are moving with the bird at the same speed as the bird, the bird will appear to slow down. It’s like cars on the freeway; as you merge at their speed, they slow down.
The lead is a relationship between two objects – in this case, the target and the barrel. You can only focus on one thing at a time, and in order to see the lead, you must take your eyes off the target and look at a spot somewhere between the target and the gun to see the gap.
As soon as your eyes come off the target, the gun is gonna stop like it ran into a cedar post, but the bird keeps on flyin’. It’s one thing to be aware that the gun is in front of the target and that the gun is moving on the same line and same speed with the target. But any more awareness than that and you’re flirting with disaster.
Our research shows that different people perceive lead in different ways. Some see it in terms of feet at the target and some see it in terms of inches at the barrel. Two people rarely perceive visually the same way.
If you think you can consciously take into account all the things that determine the lead on a moving target and combine that with all the unknown variables that the target is doing, then go for it. But a word of caution: you’d better have a lot of time to practice those sight pictures because they will vary on the same shots day to day and you’ll be guessing what they are on targets you’re seeing for the first time.
