Clay Target Nation, April 2019

pick one and shoot single targets over and over again until your brain understands what it will look like when you pull the trigger Now you are probably saying that this doesnt sound like much fun and your attitude about what you are doing will determine how long it takes to achieve mastery but you must start somewhere Learning to see separation between the target and the gun is a necessity for improving consistency and higher scores We call this peripheral acceptance or how far in front of the target you are comfortable with the gun The farther behind the muzzle you are comfortable seeing the bird the higher your scores will be This is what we have found that keeps shooters especially new shooters stuck at the many plateaus that are in our game They love the going away birds because the gun and bird are so close together but on a crosser the bird and the gun have to be in two different places at the same time Knowing what that looks like allows for higher scores and performances APRIL 2019 CLAY TARGET NATION 23 TRAINING TIPS SPORTING CLAYS BY GIL AND VICKI ASH Where Do I Go From Here Are you having trouble moving past a plateau or developing consistency in your game S o youve been shooting for a few years and you have shot a few tournaments and you are starting to develop some consistency in your game but where do you go from here Youve gotten this far on your own by asking how other people shot certain targets watching free how to videos on YouTube and just shooting a lot but now youve hit a roadblock and p Gil and Vicki Ash theres no roadmap to get you to where you want to be Dont feel alone because everybody who shoots sporting clays has to face this situation eventually You really want to get better but you dont know where to turn You are spending most of your time thinking about shooting and it seems as if every time you get a spare couple of hours you find yourself at the gun club shooting clays The problem is that regardless of what you do when you look at your results it finally hits you that you are not getting any better Your frustration turns into determination and you make an even greater commitment to shoot more and try harder What youre looking for is an A B C D course that will take the conglomeration of methods you have developed and will mold them into a consistent shooting system but unfortunately that is not the way skill is built If we were shooting skeet or trap finding an A B C D approach to developing a game would be simpler because the targets are always thrown the same way which makes it much easier to identify a problem target or trajectory In sporting nothing is the same not the speed distance angles background or presentation station to station Not even the size of the targets is the same all the time This is the good bad and ugly about sporting clays try as they may the target setters cannot set a course that will play the same morning to afternoon or day to day It will be the same but it will not play the same due to wind angle of the sun and how that changes contrast between the target and the background and other factors as well Because of this great variation to be a great shooter in our game you must first learn how to handle the gun from a low mount and premounted position You must learn how to control the target from in front and stop chasing the targets down from behind and trying to fix the shot at the end The first step is breaking the game down into its component parts crossers from both sides and quartering from both sides and targets going up and down As professional coaches our findings indicate that of all the presentations in the game mastering the crossing shot should be at the top of your list This means you must back away from playing the game and shoot single targets and it doesnt matter from which side just THADDIUS BEDFORD p Mastering crossing shots should be at the top of your priority list That means intentionally working on single targets not just shooting a round with your buddies and calling it practice u Gil and Vicki Ash are NSCA Level III instructors who host shotgunning clinics at gun clubs around the country Learn more about their OSP Shooting School at www ospschool com