clay pidgeon shooting

[delta7]

At the weekend I had the chance to do clay pidgeon shooting for the first time . what a hoot it was really enjoyable. I was under the instruction of what turned out to be an ex- RAF member.

The shoots were coming towards you ; right to left and then fast left to right

I was ok with the first , was over compensating with the right to left and pretty poor with the left to right but managed to nail one.

I asked him what he thought and he said that I was good and had a good eye for a beginner and that my problem was that I had a stronger left eye( unusual) and he had had to adjust my aim to compensate for this- in fact he told me to shoot straight at the target going from right to left as althought I thought I was leading correctly I was doing too much and when I shot straight at it I naturally gave it lead ?!?

the fast left to right shot was very difficult and it was only when I managed to do a smooth traverse, accellerate through the flight path, fire and maintain the smooth line that I hit.

After the lesson I mentioned my interest in WW2 aircraft and that I understood the best shots in WW2 were those that had some previous hunting experience. It was then that he told me about his service, he joined just after the war and was such a good shot that they wanted him to be a gunner in bombers, he didnt fancy this and managed to get out of this and anyway he said they were moving to jets.

Unfortunatly the wife and kids were waiting patiently while dad played so I had to leave without following this up more.

anyway it was a facinating experience and I hope to do it again sometimes

what I picked up was

1) smoothness is critical

2) follow the flight path and accelerate through it and when you fire keep smooth

3) we all have a stronger eye and you have to make mental pictures of lead and use these

4) I got a good natured ticking off for a good snapshot I done- he said that for shooting the best chances for hitting are the smooth tracking shots

[Pooka]

The way I was taught, to detirmine your stronger eye, hold a pencil up in front, like aimming with both eyes open. Close one eye than the other, your stronger eye will stay the same as both eyes open. Your weaker will move off target as viewed with both eyes open. Pooka