This Is What Happens....

I have to admit, over the years I have thought how could a wall chart with stationary targets possibly aid in your shooting?
I was beyond skeptical to the point of thinking it was a gimmick though not vocally so. Just to myself.
Now I've shot at several shoots over the years where Terry was present and there is no denying he's a top of the game shooter and scores he posted at the shoots I attended always proved that but in all honesty I never considered the chart had a part of making those scores happen? Man has my mind been changed and eyes opened!!
About a month ago my wife, who was new to shooting of any kind just a few years ago decided to try her hand at trapshooting and really enjoyed it. Last summer was her second season and towards the end of the season she decided she wanted to try registered shooting.
Now she still didn't own a dedicated trap gun as she was happy using her 20 ga A400 that she hunts with but at the conclusion of her first registered shoot she decided she needed a dedicated trap gun. At the conclusion of the weekend long shoot she bought a BT-99 Micro with less than a flat of ammo through it from a gentleman who is a NSCA shooting instructor. He helped to check the fit and after his measurements, adjustments etc she was into the targets shooting her best scores to date.
Well fast forward to about a month ago and I came home from a day in the ice catching rainbow trout to find out she had spent some time on the phone with Terry and that she had ordered a wall chart. Once it arrived I hung it up for her, marked off the 16 yd line and her handicap lines with masking tape on the living room floor and sat back watching her practice.
After a few days I decided to try it myself and was shocked to see how many bad habits I had developed!! No wonder I was struggling! Well I stepped up my game and each day at some point I picked up my TM1 and shot 50-100 targets. After a few days the bad habits stsrted to wane until I was swinging smoothly and following through properly.
Today we opened the club for the first time since Oct 2020. Unfortunately my wife is away at camp working and missed out on this seasons first casual practice.
I stepped up on the line and told myself just do it the way you did on the chart, the way its explained in Terry's manual, the way I USED TO SHOOT before all the bad habits took over.
I cleared my head while awaiting my turn, turned my focus to looking for the target to appear after mounting the gun and settling in and called PULL. I changed soft focus to hard focus on the leading edge of the target when it appeared in my focus area and the gun moved smoothly to the target. I pulled the trigger and the target disappeared into a black boiling ball as the 1 oz load of 7.5's found their mark. I followed that one up with 24 more just like it, not a single chipped bird. Three more rounds produced a 24-23 and another 25 giving me a 97 x 100 for my first outing this season and first time since practicing with the chart. I have not shot a high 90's score with this gun in 5 years and knew the issue was not the gun.
Everything felt as it did years ago when I moved from A to AA class in the 2000 season. From 2000-2004 owing to lifes little changes I slowly moved away from the trap shooting and didn't shoot again until 2015. By that time when I restarted my health and vision had gotten to the point it made shooting discouraging. I didn't give up on either the shooting or getting healthier and after getting my health in order I was still really struggling to shoot a decent score which came few and far between.
I feel confident again that I will get back to where I was in my shooting years ago through doing lots of good practice with this system.
I am 110% sold on how well this wall chart dry fire system works and I will be shooting at home every chance I get between club visits and registered shoots. Another benefit is the amount of $ saved on practice and especially at a time when ammo is getting harder to source and prices are climbing faster than a rising target. This has to be some of the best $ invested in trapshooting I've been privy to. I would highly recommend this product to anyone who would like to improve their trap game.
 
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I can understand how that works it is all about muscle memory . I use the Gil Ash 3 shell drill but with 3 push pins stuck in ceiling at far end wall of my gun room for a gun mount drill . the 3 pins are spaced about 10" apart with the center one being blue and other 2 being red . alway look at the blue pin but mount the gun to one of the red pins . I am about 7 feet back . I shoot mostly sporting clays and some skeet . I find this drill really helps me with mounting the gun ahead of the bird . also helps train the eyes to only see the gun in your peripheral vision . it works no convincing needed here . hope you and the misses have a great summer of trap .
 
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rembolt said:
I can understand how that works it is all about muscle memory . I use the Gil Ash 3 shell drill but with 3 push pins stuck in ceiling at far end wall of my gun room for a gun mount drill . the 3 pins are spaced about 10" apart with the center one being blue and other 2 being red . alway look at the blue pin but mount the gun to one of the red pins . I am about 7 feet back . I shoot mostly sporting clays and some skeet . I find this drill really helps me with mounting the gun ahead of the bird . also helps train the eyes to only see the gun in your peripheral vision . it works no convincing needed here . hope you and the misses have a great summer of trap .
Click to expand...

That's interesting. I was wondering about skeet drills. I'll have to try that out. Thanks and hope you have a great summer season as well.
 
Ordered Terry's wall chart ,been playing this game a long time but always open to new ideas other than spending a ton on guns and expecting them to break the target lol...
 
They are available in 6, 8 and 10 ft lengths so you do not need a lot of room. We have the 8 ft and it is 8'x3'. We built a small lightweight frame to attach it to and hang it on the living room wall. When not in use we set it on the floor behind the couch. Our living room is 12'x20' giving us plenty of room for 16 yard shooting and handicap shooting for my wife. With the 8' chart you need to be able to stand 13' from it to get the proper scaled image to represent the 16 yard line. Unfortunately as my handicap is 25 yards I don't have the room to practice handicap. You need 1' extra distance from the chart for every yard after 16' from the chart(representing 19 yds hdcp). If you want to shoot stations other than 3 you need 5 feet to the side of distance for each station. We can get stations 2-3-4 in our living room but he stresses in the instruction booklet you do not need to shoot the other stations if you don't have the room. He said he has used it for thirty years in his basement where he can only get three stations width as well.
 
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