Article ArchivesBender on 14 Jul 2007 05:21 am
Article Archives
Article ArchivesBender on 17 May 2007 05:31 am
A few years ago I was sitting on the tailgate of a pickup truck with a good friend of mine, Stan Brock. We were knocking back a few cold ones and recalling the day’s events that included a pretty good afternoon of quail hunting. After discussing some of the hunt’s better shots and flushes, and some that were not so good, our discussion turned to our respective professions. Stan at the time was a Tackle for the New Orleans Saints, in America’s National Football League. So I asked him, “Who was the best Defensive End that you ever played against?”
Without much hesitation, Stan Brock replied “Reggie White”, the great defensive lineman of the Green Bay Packers and later, the Philadelphia Eagles. Stan said that you didn’t block Reggie White, you just put off Reggie making you look bad. He continued, “…because at some point during the game, Reggie was going to blow by you, you just didn’t know when”.
Article ArchivesBender on 16 May 2007 04:04 am
As competitors, we are always looking for an edge, me included. “How do I get that extra target, or even half of a target?” “What is my competition doing that I am not?” As we all try to better our game, we look to all aspects of the game for improvement. This raises a number of questions as we try to fine tune our game in our quest for perfection.
One of the questions frequently posed to me is “what size shot do you use?” I chose to shoot Number 8 shot when I can. I do so because I have been told that 8’s and 8 ½’s have a higher antimony content than Number 9’s. They are harder, and harder shot means less deformity, which can lead to better patterns. Larger shot will also maintain greater energy over distance. So I shoot 8’s. Do I shoot any better because I go with 8’s? No. But, I hit them harder. And when I hit targets hard, I gain confidence. Confidence comes at a price though. Bigger shot means lower pellet counts. A normal 12 gauge 1 1/8 ounce load will contain approximately 650 pellets of number 9’s. That count drops to 450 number 8’s. Is it worth it? Should you go to bigger shot?
Article ArchivesBender on 15 May 2007 11:16 am
Every day during my coaching responsibilities, I have students express a difficulty in establishing correct and consistent hold points. This is quite significant because hold points, and more importantly, the consistent application of them, play a major role in any successful skeet shooter’s game. A hold point can make any shot on the field, either relatively easy, or exceedingly difficult. A surprisingly large percentage of shooters pay little attention to the critical placement of a hold point, or if they know where the gun movement should be at a particular hold point, they pay not enough attention to the consistent application of such a hold point. Lack of knowledge of fundamentally sound hold points, or lack of attention to their implementation, will lead to inconsistent shooting and frustration.
We will during the course of this discussion address general hold points for particular shots on the skeet field, but let us first understand what a good hold point is, and why it’s placement can be theoretically and fundamentally created. Given the correct parameters for obtaining a proper hold point, we can always find an optimum starting position for the gun in any situation. For this discussion though, we must assume that the shooter approaches obtaining lead by the sustained lead method of shooting, which is the generally accepted method by most professionals, champions, and the other successful shooters. “Swing-through” shooters, individuals who come from behind the target to obtain lead, would find our discussion useless, because my main objective is to never let a target get ahead of my gun.
Article ArchivesBender on 11 May 2007 08:06 am
Have you ever watched accomplished shooters during a long shoot-off and marveled at their ability to shoot their targets in the same location each time? Both first and second shots seem to be almost surgically placed, pair after pair. Even in singles, the top shooters are predictable as to where they will shoot any particular target, be it a High Three, or even a Low Seven.
This is no accident. Some call it timing, I prefer to call it placement. Timing is sometimes related to “spot shooting”, which is not what we are talking about. Spot shooting does not allow for a very critical part of successful shotgunning, matching gun speed with target speed. Therefore, at no time will any statement in this article relate to spot shooting. The most difficult part of shooting any moving target with a shotgun, is determining target direction, angle, speed and elevation. By matching gun speed with target speed, or “mirroring” target movement, all of these variables are automatically determined with gun movement. None of these variables are determined when spot shooting. Conversely, in spot shooting, the gun is moved to a predetermined point, and the trigger pulled. Although some shooters have become somewhat successful with this method, it does not offer us the true consistency that we desire.
Article ArchivesBender on 09 May 2007 06:11 pm
Every year, I start the season with a single goal. It does not focus on particular championships or specific feats, but is a rather ordinary objective. There is no statistical category in the records annual for completing this goal, nor will I ever be remembered for reaching it. Yet the achievement of this goal, allows for the realization of many more. Each year I begin the season, with the goal of not missing on the baseline, for the entire season.
The baseline is defined as the straight line on a skeet field that runs from the high house to the low house. The baseline targets are those shot from Stations One, Seven and Eight. The shots that to most shooters are the “gimmes”, the easy shots. Within one tournament event, depending on where you take you option shot, the baseline targets account for at least forty percent of the one hundred targets shot at. That’s a large percentage, but still the fulfillment of this goal may seem mundane. But in my twenty-seven years of shooting competitive skeet I have accomplished the goal of not missing on the baseline during a complete season, only four times. But here’s the clincher. Those four seasons were the years that I carried my four highest overall averages, the years that I did not give away the easy ones.
Article ArchivesBender on 07 May 2007 07:51 pm
Shooters who have worked with me are well versed on my mantra, “head on the gun, eye on the target”. This is because all of shotgun shooting, be it American Skeet, Trap, Sporting Clays, or even field shooting, requires the three fundamentals of head on the gun, eye on the target, and have the proper lead, to be successful.
When shooting a shotgun, we must keep our heads firmly on the stock, so that visually we see the “uninterrupted” correct relationship between the target and the barrel. A shotgun has two sights, the front sight, which is the front bead on the barrel, and the rear sight, which is you. Much like the sights on an open-sighted rifle, as the rear sight is adjusted the impact point changes, the sights line up differently, slightly changing the direction that the bullet is sent. Raising the head off of the stock will cause the brain to “see” an improper relationship between the barrel and the target. As the brain immediately corrects this imbalance, it realigns the sights, usually resulting in a miss shot over the top.
Why over? Assuming a straight line from the rear sight, your eye, through the front sight, to the target, as the head is lifted the alignment become non-linear. The eye will see the front sight as being below the line of the now, perceived, impact. Even though the gun is still aligned with the target, because the front sight has yet to move, the eye perceives this anomaly because of its new position. In realigning the sights, the muzzle is lifted, to bring the front sight back in line with the rear sight and the target. Although the brain “sees” the alignment as satisfactory again, in actuality the muzzle has been raised, as has the point of impact.
Article ArchivesBender on 07 May 2007 07:37 pm
Utilization of the Body for Gun Movement
Much like a golf swing, in shooting it is body movement that controls, or really dictates the final destination of the shot string. If your back swing in golf, and ensuing stroke down to the ball deviates from proper form, then it is likely that the ball will not go where it is supposed to. At least that what happens when I hit a golf ball.
A shooter’s foot position can play a major role in that shooter’s ability or inability to move on a particular target. Obviously, if I stand and face in a certain direction, then turn my body at the waist, one way, then the other, I will find that I have limits. I can only turn so far to the right, and also have limits to the left. It is the way that the human body is built. Although elementary, this standing demonstration illustrates that the human body has limits as to what it can do, and to the degree that it can do it.
Article ArchivesBender on 21 Apr 2007 01:55 pm
Although lead is the third of the three fundamentals required to hit a moving target with a shotgun, and even though the first two, head on the gun, eye on the target, are much more important to our conscious plan, lead is still a necessary ingredient to the mix.
Lead is necessary because modern day target ammunition has a muzzle velocity of only 1200 feet per second. As the shot string moves through the air, it meets resistance in the form of air molecules, slowing its velocity and losing energy. So by the time a one ounce load of number nine shot travels twenty yards, its velocity has dropped to 800 feet per second. I find this energy loss astounding, but nevertheless, 800 feet per second is still very fast!
But so is fifty miles per hour, which is the velocity that a normal American Skeet target flies. So unless you have shotgun shells that go the speed of light, we need to lead our targets, that is, shoot in front of the moving target, to allow time for the shot string to intercept the flight path of the target.
Article ArchivesBender on 21 Apr 2007 01:51 pm
A very misunderstood aspect of the shooting sports is the use of occluders, or “tape”, that restricts vision, so that clearer sight pictures may be obtained. The reasons for the use of occluders revolves around one thing, eye dominance.
Much like being right handed or left handed, we also have dominant eyes. The brain favors one eye over the other, in most cases. Determining eye dominance is not as easy or as clear-cut as some would believe. The old tried and true method of pointing at an object and closing either eye can be flawed. This method will show you your eye dominance at that point in time and under those present conditions. But understand that when an object is placed directly in front of an eye, a shotgun, and or when fatigue and stress are introduced into the equation, eye dominance can change.