walfy wrote:

I struggle to keep the barrels moving when I shoot. But I am getting there.

walfy wrote:

I did notice on the DTL range, trap 2 is a L-R rising.

sako243 wrote:

OK had a quick skim through and some half decent advice here.

First and foremost as others have mentioned the single most important thing with shooting a shotgun is gun fit. Rifles you can adjust your body around because you're often taking one shot and not quickly. Shotguns not so - with a good gun fit it should be aiming where you are looking and you don't have to think about it. I'm not going to get into a brand wars here but I personally don't like and have never got on with Beretta's and find Silver Pigeons very barrel heavy. My competition gun is, and has been for the last decade or so, a Miroku MK38 32" Trap gun. It's been Teagued (multi-choke retrofitted) but I only ever have 5/8t and 3/4 fitted, in fact when the gun went for re-bluing about 5 years ago it took us 45 minutes to get the chokes out . Having shot at the highest level I doubt I would spent much more than £1.5-2k on a shotgun, there's really no need. An interesting seg-way but useful for illustrating the point of gun fit: back in 2009ish I was on a course at Doveridge for CPSA coaches and we'd covered gun fit that day. After the day's instruction finished we and the instructors went out onto the ranges for a bang. A few were interested in my MK38, one of the coaches was 5ft something small and one of my fellow trainee coaches was a 6ft8 Yorkshireman. Both tried my MK38 and both shot well with it and found it fitted them (including myself obviously - being 5'9), to the point Tracey (instructor) bought one on the way home at the end of the week and the Yorkshireman was going to look into one because normally he had to chop the stock in half to lengthen it, this was the first "nice" gun he was prepared to buy to lengthen.

Secondly get your eye dominance checked (there's a really simple technique to do this yourself if you want). Eye dominance is far more important than your personal handedness. If you've never fired a shotgun before or done anything significant it will feel as awkward shooting left handed as right handed. If you are left eye dominant even if you are right handed I would recommend learning to shoot left handed. If you shoot right handed you will either have to close one eye or compensate depending on what direction the target is moving. Closing one eye is simpler but means you lose depth perception which is rather crucial. The alternative of compensating is possible but requires a skilled shooter - ergo you have a chicken and egg situation here...

Thirdly - "forget" lead you're going to get people saying you're missing behind it, in front of it, over the top, etc., by and large you will be but not because you've got the lead wrong, you'll almost certainly have poor technique first, sort that out (happy to offer some advice). By technique I mean how you hold the gun, picking up targets, body stance, etc. Fluid motion of the gun and correct body stance is more important than worrying about lead when you're learning. Once you have those nailed then lead is easy to teach, getting someone to keep changing the lead picture with poor technique just confuses matter.

Fourthly - you're going to have ups and downs, don't worry about it, enjoy it and keep at it, it'll come. Important rule to remember, very few people can make money or are self-sufficient in shooting, so therefore you're doing it as a hobby. If you're not enjoying it what's the point?!

I'm going to buck the trend with the advice given here - yes having a local shoot is great for learning the basics and having somewhere regular to go. But the best way to improve your shooting is to see a variety of different targets, local clubs have a tendency to put up similar targets the whole time - not always their fault but sometimes the ground limits what targets can be presented. I was lucky when I learnt to shoot that my teacher had been Welsh champion for circa 10 years on the trot and between us we ran the local shoot and had a reputation for setting tasty targets.

Cost wise they've been fairly well summed up - but don't be surprised when things start racking up. I have no idea what a SGC costs - since I renewed mine a while ago and as I have both FAC and SGC they get a discount when renewed together. Shotgun is basically what you want to spend, anything from free to 10s of millions are possible (have a family friend who have a one of a kind Purdey which, if ever went to auction, Christies suggested a reserve of 750k, expecting it to go into the millions if the right people were interested).

Annual local club memberships are typically £20-100 depending on the kind of ground. Bear in mind most clubs also like you to be a member of the CPSA, WCTSA, BASC etc., which might add another £100 per annum but does provide insurance for you.

Ammunition and shoot entry will be the biggest expense, local club shoots down my way are 40-bird days, £7 / head but you do get a pub meal (stew, bangers & mash, fish and chips kind of thing). Then you've got cartridges, they can vary massively but when I started shooting years ago I was around the £100 / 1000 ballpark, now I'm paying ~£230 / 1000. Slight change in cartridge but even the stuff I shot before is still around the £180 / 1000. If you want to try out the bigger shoots etc., then costs can rack up significantly. When I was shooting a lot I'd be averaging about £250 / weekend by the time you factored in ammo, fuel, food, entry etc.

If you want some scary costs then in 2007 when I shot the Worlds representing Wales I'd shot circa 30k cartridges that year, the trip out to the states came in at about £8k I think all in, of which I had to fund more than half of it even after sponsorship etc. Thankfully because of my parents and a bit of money saved up I could go out there and thoroughly enjoyed it, but it was a kick in the teeth financially for a 19 year old...

If you've got any questions fire them over and I'll do my best to answer them remotely

jst wrote:

Walfy you should be top shot on clays, you weren't with a rifle! from your own admission!

I was an Engineer, if it came to the point where I had to shoot, things had gone wrong, as a searcher I had an Infantry cordon around me while I looked for stuff that was going to go bang. After that I was either building bridges or blowing up. No need to shoot.
And yes, by my own admission, I couldn't hit a barn door at 5 paces  110 D250 SE HT
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