It’s one of the hardest things to get to grips with in shotgun shooting: understanding first what the target is actually doing, and then how you and your gun working together can hit it consistently to increase your score and your average. The first part of this is knowing where your gun is shooting at set distances of 25 yards and 45 yards with the cartridge and chokes you would normally use. This needs to be done on a pattern plate with sound professional help from someone who really understands how you shoot as an individual and the type of shooting or discipline you are going to want to do. Take time to find the right coach and advice – it will be an invaluable exercise going forward.
Once you have established this, then the next part is to start to understand what the target is actually doing when it is moving through the air. Over time you will start to build up a catalogue of knowledge, which will help you decide what to do with any given target that you are presented with in a competition.
It’s vital to analyse what the target is doing before your turn to shoot
Scary loopers
Of all the targets you might see on a Sporting layout, the looper is the one that clients most often tell me they dread. The looper can certainly be daunting and difficult to read, especially as a novice. That leads to misses, and so the dread grows and grows. So let’s try to break the target down and look at its movement, and see how best to shoot it consistently.