Thread: Tips for beginners in trap and skeet

Originally Posted by schwen

I take your point about needing 6 months of regular shooting. I've shot skeet once, and found it both exhilarating and a bit baffling. One guy on my squad got a second crack at one of his missed birds, but I didn't follow why. I'm sure the sequence of birds on each station will become familiar in time. I think I'll improve on my 17/25 with a bit more practice, which is why I'm planning to travel to several different clubs around the region to shoot most weekends,

If you add up all the targets you shoot on all the stations it adds up to 24, the game of skeet was devised around a pkt of shells, ie 25.
Therefore you repeat as a single tgt your first miss,and that result is scored on the scoresheet as your 25 tgt,
If you get to station 8 without missing you will shoot a second low 8 tgt, and that makes up the 25 tgts needed.
Hope this makes sense

Originally Posted by Peteforskeet

If you add up all the targets you shoot on all the stations it adds up to 24, the game of skeet was devised around a pkt of shells, ie 25.
Therefore you repeat as a single tgt your first miss,and that result is scored on the scoresheet as your 25 tgt,
If you get to station 8 without missing you will shoot a second low 8 tgt, and that makes up the 25 tgts needed.
Hope this makes sense

That feeling of seeing that second low house station 8 target turn to dust when I did it for the first time will remain with me forever.

Originally Posted by schwen

I take your point about needing 6 months of regular shooting. I've shot skeet once, and found it both exhilarating and a bit baffling. One guy on my squad got a second crack at one of his missed birds, but I didn't follow why. I'm sure the sequence of birds on each station will become familiar in time. I think I'll improve on my 17/25 with a bit more practice, which is why I'm planning to travel to several different clubs around the region to shoot most weekends,

I was so lucky that I was shown/coached by a ex national and Aussie champ around the skeet field a few times so all that was explained. Only downside was he made it look so easy I thought that everybody who shot skeet blasted at least 23 clays. It wasn't until I watched the lesser guys, still good shots that I realized that some do miss. I really appreciated the time that Tony Truss gave and still gives me. Peteforskeet must know Tony Truss been around about 40 years.

One of the best bits advice I ever got for DTL, shoot your first shoot as soon as you can, don't dwell.

give it arseholes...get mad at the bird and get stuck in,dont overthink it...and enjoy it.

Originally Posted by chindit

I was so lucky that I was shown/coached by a ex national and Aussie champ around the skeet field a few times so all that was explained. Only downside was he made it look so easy I thought that everybody who shot skeet blasted at least 23 clays. It wasn't until I watched the lesser guys, still good shots that I realized that some do miss. I really appreciated the time that Tony Truss gave and still gives me. Peteforskeet must know Tony Truss been around about 40 years.

Yes I know Tony, he's had a great career,
As for shooting dtl targets as quick as you can, that's OK within reason,missing quick dosnt get you any extra points.
As for skeet targets all out goers should all be brokern before the middle station.

Just my opinion the 2 biggest factors in shooting Clay's is gun fit and feet position. You can use one gun to do it all will just need to change chokes. Skeet run a cylinder and dtl mod/half or improved mod/3/4. If wanting to shoot better in the field try 5 stand or sporting Clay's. Most important is to have fun and don't forget 2 eyes open and breath and relax and swing through your target

Pattern your gun against some targets, that will tell you how much rib you need to see.
I try to set mine up so 70% of the shot pattern is above the bead and 30% below. Just my preference.
Decent lessons are great if you a keen enough, theres a lot of BS that gets parroted about shotgunning that really isnt helpful for beginners.

What an excellent helpful thread this has been, thanks to all who have participated.
Carry on.

Originally Posted by country cuts

Just my opinion the 2 biggest factors in shooting Clay's is gun fit and feet position. You can use one gun to do it all will just need to change chokes. Skeet run a cylinder and dtl mod/half or improved mod/3/4. If wanting to shoot better in the field try 5 stand or sporting Clay's. Most important is to have fun and don't forget 2 eyes open and breath and relax and swing through your target

The guns seem to fit really nicely, and being nice and light, I can swing them pretty quick, especially for the extreme right hander on stand 5. Feet position, I'm working on. I'm currently standing comfortably, but with no rhyme nor reason for position. I've looked at other shooters feet position, but haven't seen any pattern to follow.

Having fun is not a problem. I love it. I tried ball trap at the Dargaville club for the first time on the weekend, and tried tightening the choke from 1/2 to 3/4. Got 22/25 and 20/25.

I started on sporting clays and that's what got me hooked. Unfortunately, Kaeo is the only Northland club that offers them on a regular basis but it's a bit of a hike from Paparoa.

This coming weekend I'd love to get down to Waitemata and have a crack at their 100t skeet.

Originally Posted by 7mmwsm

If your main purpose of trap shooting is to improve your field shooting skills, I would suggest shooting gun down.

Used to do this as I thought it as above. But now have changed my mind. For me it’s all about that sight picture. You might be good at say loopers. That’s because you know the sight picture and where to shoot. Until you get that sight picture I’d shoot gun up. Less movement means better consistency.
When your in the field you will have plenty of time to play with gun down.

Originally Posted by schwen

The guns seem to fit really nicely, and being nice and light, I can swing them pretty quick, especially for the extreme right hander on stand 5. Feet position, I'm working on. I'm currently standing comfortably, but with no rhyme nor reason for position. I've looked at other shooters feet position, but haven't seen any pattern to follow.

Having fun is not a problem. I love it. I tried ball trap at the Dargaville club for the first time on the weekend, and tried tightening the choke from 1/2 to 3/4. Got 22/25 and 20/25.

I started on sporting clays and that's what got me hooked. Unfortunately, Kaeo is the only Northland club that offers them on a regular basis but it's a bit of a hike from Paparoa.

This coming weekend I'd love to get down to Waitemata and have a crack at their 100t skeet.

That's not a bad effort on ball trap. Main one with body position is feet shoulder width apart and a little bend and weight on the front leg this helps with recoil. Talk to some of the guys up there everyone has a different way of standing and starting point or hold on the trap find one you like and stick with it if you chop and change to much it can get frustrating

As a rough rule of thumb; point your leading foot at where you expect to break the target and refine from there. Also if you are a right handed shooter you will find you can swing / pivot further to the left than to the right so adjust your feet accordingly. If you run out of pivot you will shoot low.

Lessons from the weekend at Waitemata:

You can use 9 1/2 shot for skeet rather than the 7 1/2 loads used for DTL. That's the benefit of a larger club I guess, they offer a larger range of ammunition for sale to their members.

The Universal Trench seems like a really good way to burn money out the barrel of a shotgun. Not recommended as a beginners discipline.

Originally Posted by Ground Control

Find someone at the club who is a good competitive shot and wins competitions .
Ask them to show you how to set up from each position ( feet and where to hold the gun etc ) , don’t overload yourself with every aspect of the sport which is the problem every new shooter encounters .
Keep it simple and work on the base fundamentals - feet & hold point .
George Digweed who is probably the greatest living Shotgun shooter says that most targets are missed by two feet , not two feet out at the target but the two feet your standing on . If your not set up properly you are hindering yourself even before you call pull .
As you get better add new things to try but only after each step is ingrained.
Ask for help from knowledgeable people that have proven results, the problem with many clubs is that the most helpful people are often not very good shots . Even if the top shot won’t help you , watch what they do you can learn alot from watching the shooter not the clay .

Sorta like the old adage ...miss in front.