Maintained lead
After struggling to find an improvement, maintained lead helped him break the speed barrier and finally enjoy his shooting once again
came to the conclusion a while ago that shooting instructors can either be godsends or a nightmare. It all depends on which one you pick, pay and put your faith in.
Don’t get me wrong, I absolutely believe that anyone new to shooting – unless they have a mentor with impeccable credentials to show them the ropes – should put themselves in the hands of a coach and book a course of lessons from the outset.
IInstruction
First, you learn how to handle a gun safely. Which is vital. Second, you’re taught a method of shooting, either “follow through” or, more probably these days, “pull away”.
Clay Pigeon Shooting Association (CPSA) and BASC coaches preach the latter. It’s a sound shooting technique that teaches the importance of “target acquisition with the muzzles” – smooth gun mount, swing and the correct foot placement required for a successful shot.
It’s a method that works well much of the time on a sporting clay range or skeet layout where you get time to position yourself – and the gun muzzles – before calling for the target. The same, too, with driven gamebirds taking a level line over the gunline. However, what so many coaches don’t tell you is that the method doesn’t pass muster when kneeling in glutinous mud shooting waterfowl in nearing darkness, or under the moon.
Compromised
Unless you hear the whistle of their wings, or call, there’s precious little warning of where the ducks are coming from, or at what height. Getting that all-important “line” in such circumstances is, shall we say, somewhat compromised. The same goes for hedgerow rabbits bolted by a ferret, walked-up snipe or woodcock flitting through tree branches. And what of woodpigeons that appear suddenly over the hide from unexpected angles and directions… not those setting their wings and approaching the decoy pattern as the textbook describes? What of a fast, high woodie coming from behind and quartering away from the hide? The window of opportunity for such a bird is a the blink of an eye. No way are you going to get “its line” in the time allowed by coming from behind, or pulling away from
“To say it was a revelation would be an understatment”