I can't hit birds out in front when game shooting!

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By John Bidwell

Tuesday, 28 August 2012

I'm fairly competent at game shooting, but I do struggle on higher birds and can’t kill them in front, as I tend to do with the others.

Do I need to change my usual approach?

GAME SHOOTING
John Bidwell
If you are consistently missing birds in killable range then, yes, you probably do need to have a re-think about your game shooting – but without doing anything too drastic to how you usually shoot.

One or two minor tweaks will probably help get things sorted.

To start, forget about trying to shoot birds in front with your weight classically placed on the leading leg – really high pheasants are at their most vulnerable when they are directly overhead, so stand accordingly.

It’s a small window in which to work and you need to free-up as much gun movement as possible so spread your weight between both feet.

If you miss with the first shot it’s now an easier job to transfer weight onto the back foot to keep the swing going, even passed the vertical if necessary.

Watch a high bird game shooting ‘expert’ in action and you will notice he actually stands sideways to the bird, so instead of taking it driven, he’s shooting it as a crosser.

Again, he will transfer weight from one foot to the other to keep the gun moving smoothly but the advantage now is that he is better able to see how much forward allowance he’s giving the bird.

You can practice all this through dry mounting at home but nothing beats actually firing the gun so take yourself off to the nearest high tower and practice the game shooting moves on clay targets.

You will soon get in the swing of things.