Sporting Clays tips.

S

Sam Steele

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Hey guys. I have a Sporting Clays tournament this weekend and I was wondering if any of you had any tips for me. This is my second time shooting sporting clays, and my first time putting that many rounds through my 11-87 at a time. Am I going to have to clean my shotgun throughout the shoot or should it be fine for the 200 rounds? Any tips on body position in relation to presentation? What choke tube should I use? I believe I scored a 53% last time, so I have a lot of room to improve this year. Anything that will help increase my scores would be good. So far I have only shot trap with my 11-87, but last night I scored a 23/25 and a 21/25 so I am pretty confident with it. Thanks.


SS
 
Well I like to keep things simple so that I can concentrate on hitting those damm clays.:) Use good quality new shells that you have tested in your gun. Put in an IC choke tube and forget about it. Point your belt buckle at the point you want to hit the bird with feet about shoulder width apart. Don't get hung up on lead, the swing through or pull ahead method works for most birds. If some one says "lead that sucker by 3' " you'll find yourself measuring the distance and usually shoot behind because your swing slows down. Your gun should be fine but wipe the mag tube and rings after 100. The most important thing is to relax as much as possible and enjoy the expeirence. Shoot as often as you can because practice WILL make you better.:D
 
Good advice from bat on foot position and while I don't disagree with using Improved Cylinder for everything you can change chokes to suit the presentation. I usually have skeet and light modified chokes with me for sporting clays and rarely use anything tighter. Most often I just keep the light mods in the gun.

More important that chokes and shells is seeing the target. Watch it to determine the target line and how it is behaving. See the target as early as possible, figure out when it comes into focus and where you want to break it. Keep your gun moving and focus your eyes hard on the bird.

Don't rush the target. Move at a comfortable pace.
 
Once you get more comfortable on the Sporting Range you will no doubt want to change choke tubes for different presentations. For newbees the IC works fine for most targets. The reason I suggest leaving the tubes alone to start is so that you can focus all you concentration on the target as claybuster suggests. We've all seen the guy with a bag full of shooting gizmos busily changing tubes and juggling 5 different types of shells and who can't seem to hit a damm thing.:)
 
Claybuster said:
More important that chokes and shells is seeing the target. Watch it to determine the target line and how it is behaving. See the target as early as possible, figure out when it comes into focus and where you want to break it. Keep your gun moving and focus your eyes hard on the bird.
Click to expand...

Thats probably some of the best all around advice you will ever get and it goes for all clay shooting sports.

Tim
 
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