Whether you prefer chasing grouse in state land clearcuts, pheasants and chukars at a local preserve, or ducks and geese over a windswept October marsh, one thing’s for certain — hitting a flying bird with a load of shot is hard and requires practice like any other sport involving eye-hand coordination.
Shooting throughout the year is always beneficial, regardless of skill level. Belonging to a gun club is a wonderful way to stay familiar with your gun, as is doing it with a few friends every weekend with a box of clays and a hand thrower (more on that later), but shooting more often doesn’t equate to becoming a better shot if you’re not practicing correctly, and with a purpose.
Assuming you always operate under the four cardinal rules of gun safety — treat every gun as if it was loaded, always point a gun in a safe direction, don’t put your finger on the trigger unless ready to shoot, and be sure of what’s behind your target — and wear eye and ear protection, the best advice for pre-season training is to train on the types of shots you’ll be taking. Sounds obvious, though not always followed.
Skeet and trap are fun “target” tests but don’t prepare you to shoot actual birds like a round of sporting clays does. For starters, they allow a shooter to begin with the gun pre-mounted, so if you plan to walk through the woods like that, or sit in a duck boat all day pointing at the decoys until something flies in, then by all means, practice like that. Now you can certainly shoot skeet and trap from low gun (not pre-mounted), but the distances and speeds really make it difficult, and frankly, not as realistic to a shooting situation. Many young shooters are taught from a pre-mounted position, then really struggle during the stress of a hunting situation because they haven’t been practicing how to find the bird and mount all at once. By the time they are ready to shoot, it’s well out of range.
Sporting clays requires the shooter to begin with the gun stock under the armpit, similar to how they’d carry it afield, and mount the gun only after they see the target. Courses are setup for the bird hunter and waterfowler, with stations to simulate everything from flushing woodcock to grouse rockets to incoming mallards.
But if you can’t find time for sporting clays, great practice can be had on private property provided there is a safe backdrop and shot isn’t crossing over property lines. Target throwers run the gamut of expense, from cheap hand-held jobs that work fine with a little finesse, to spring-loaded ground traps, to large ones that operate off car batteries and even rotate to keep things unpredictable. Targets, thankfully, are cheap, and biodegradable, though they might take a bit of time “degrading.” Regardless the home remedy, shooting clays in a safe setting where you can dictate just what type of shots you want to work on is really tough to beat. Rule of caution, though — many homemade clay events keep the shooter behind the target for nothing but easy “going away” shots. Make sure to change angles while keeping safety in mind.
Which shot to use varies with each shooter, but in staying with the theme of purposeful practice, I like to shoot targets with the same loads I’m going to use on live birds. This means that for my waterfowl hunting, shooting the actual steel loads I’ll be using in the fall. These boxes aren’t cheap, so I limit how many I’m willing to use and shoot the rest of the time with cheaper lead target loads. But as often as possible, I try to use on clay targets what I’ll be using on live birds.
So don’t wait until the last minute to dust off Old Blue, get out there and practice with a purpose. Simulate what shots you’ll most likely get this fall and see your shooting on live birds improve, not to mention putting a few more dinners on the table.