• Watch Out for Scammers!

    We've now added a color code for all accounts. Orange accounts are new members, Blue are full members, and Green are Supporters. If you get a message about a sale from an orange account, make sure you pay attention before sending any money!

Shotgun wing shooters

Oh, determine your dominate eye. It MUST match your shooting side. Don’t fight it. If your left eye is dominate either shoot left handed or don’t shoot. It’s that simple.
Ah, not sure I totally agree with this. Yes, particularly if young then move them to the dominate side even if its not their natural handedness. And, perhaps also for people who don't have a strong handedness to overcome. But people like me, who can hardly figure out how to load the gun if trying to shoot lefty, a small occluder on the off lens (and yes, IMO everybody should wear good glasses when shooting anything) works.

I wore them for decades for registered skeet. Hated it at first, but it was effective and after a while I stopped even noticing it. I use a piece of frosted tape positioned so when the gun is mounted, I can't see the barrel with my off eye but when out of the gun I see past the patch and have two eye vision which reduces eye fatigue a good bit. Better, IMO, than plastering a 2" square glob of tape on a lens (and I've seen that up to the entire lens being covered in black electrical tape!!). I still wear a small occluder when upland wing/waterfowl shooting. Can't ever remember to squint and IMO closing the off eye ruins any peripheral vision and ain't good for balance (well, not good for a klutz like me! haha)
============
As far as the guy advocating looking down the barrel and "aiming" a shotgun...no, never. As soon as a shooter looks at the barrel, the gun stops moving as the only thing dictating gun movement is (should be?) the target (bird or clay). You can see this easily on a skeet field where most targets are crossers and there is time (like on a High 5) to check the lead. The barrel does this stutter step or stops altogether. I've seen it in new skeet shooters too many times to count.

But, I will say that sustain lead shooting like we do in skeet (gun starts in front of the target, eyes back to the house, and gun stays in front) tends to not work very well on live birds in a hunting situations. Old timers in skeet, and many/most hunters use swing thru or pull away. Personally, I like to view it from the technique taught in the UK. Point right at the target as you mount and pull the trigger as the gun hits your face or shortly thereafter. You are, in fact, not shooting right at the bird as your gun movement will continue and you do in fact shoot with lead...you just aren't really aware of it. On long lead birds (like pass shooting waterfowl), just a bit more movement after the gun hits your face and there's your lead. Again, probably not really see it.

Shooting when/very soon after the gun hits your cheek seems to work as the upper body gun movement when pointing at the bird during the mount is hard to sustain for any length of time without dropping a shoulder (and watch that muzzle pull off of the target as a result) and its also hard to transition it to lower body movement....of course almost impossible in a boat or blind for waterfowl. So, don't mount the lead...it will happen almost invisibly to you as you point/mount/shoot.

But key is that at no time do you look at your barrel...that is death. Eye on the target at all times is essential.

Disclaimer - I was no expert champ skeet shooter. Just a club shooter who donated to the purse at a lot of shoots! haha I was AA/AAA in the two bigger guns for a very short period of time but mostly I was an A/B class shooter. Nothing to brag about and I don't want to give the wrong impression. Now that I'm 71 with a fused lumbar, registered skeet is a thing of the past. But I do have a wonderful Krieghoff K-20 with 30" Parcours barrels (their light weight barrels) for upland birds (GA quail anybody? :) ) and I love swinging it. Fabulous gun and a present to myself on my 70th. Still have the 10 lbs tubed K-80 skeet gun but it does wear my back out.

Cheers and yes, I'm a bit bored today so you get a dissertation from yours truly! haha
 
Last edited:
@Baron23 is personal friends with Todd Bender (20+ world champ in skeet).

I took a course with Todd and it's wild the stuff he knows. He's got a great ability to teach people how to use a shotgun, and he even teaches folks a special operation command stuff other than just skeet.

I'd highly recommend looking him up, and checking out his DVDs / books / etc.

He also teaches classes around the country and it's completely worth it.

Lastly, everything that @Baron23 said is correct. He's much more knowledgeable than he's letting on.... Heh.
 
Skeet shooting really compares to little else. It’s known target speed, known target angle, known target origin. Known target destination. That is why perfect scores have been shot from a unicycle, blindfolded, and possibly both at the same time. Also why it’s a dead sport.
Since you can score perfectly blindfolded it obvious vision is not super critical.

For field and clays shooting vision is everything. Some don’t agree and they are always struggling. Never reach even consistent mediocrity.
 
Skeet shooting really compares to little else. It’s known target speed, known target angle, known target origin. Known target destination. That is why perfect scores have been shot from a unicycle, blindfolded, and possibly both at the same time. Also why it’s a dead sport.
Since you can score perfectly blindfolded it obvious vision is not super critical.

For field and clays shooting vision is everything. Some don’t agree and they are always struggling. Never reach even consistent mediocrity.
Why don't you come to Montana in January, stand knee deep in snow with gusting winds and a wind chill below zero and show us how to shoot a perfect score.
:ROFLMAO: