I hinted at this on an earlier post titled Ability, Gun Fit, Mentality. I firmly believe that the easiest part of DTL is hitting the clay. The more difficult aspect, is hitting the target every time, or as close to every time as is humanly possible.
I have yet to meet anyone who has come to shoot a line of DTL and not at least hit one target. My club has had days where complete beginners, some of whom have never seen a shotgun before let alone held one or fired one, have come and had a go at shooting. With a bit of help and assistance, a check for eye dominance, some basic safety procedures, and the basics of how to hold the gun and position their feet, they usually hit a few targets and they love it.
On the other side of that, there isn't a DTL shooter alive that has never dropped a target. Everyone will miss a target at some stage, it is just that the better shooters do so much less than those in the lower classes of the discipline. How do they keep doing that? You would have to ask them.
For me, I try to make things as simple as possible. I try to do the same thing in each stand. I won't go into detail of the techniques I've worked out for myself over the years. If I did, I could almost see coaches and our top shooters pulling their hair out. I've told people in the past of what I do when I mount the gun etc. and they've looked at me in pure disbelief. I should not be able to hit targets. But, I can hit targets and that is all that matters to me.
All the things I do, I have worked out for myself. My 'overthinking' and trying to make things as simple as possible has made shooting DTL Targets so much easier for me.
To do anything reasonably well you have to have a routine. Most of it you do without thinking. DTL is about repitition. About doing the same thing 25 inidividual times in a line. I beleive that more targets are missed from something not right on the stand, more than anything else.
The first aspect to get right is your stance. How you stand on the shooting stand can have a huge effect on whether you break a target or not. There really is no right or wrong way to stand but you must find a way that you can comfortably stand for the entirity of the line without getting sore. If you are standing in a way that your knee, hip or back gets sore, you will be thinking of the soreness rather than breaking the target. You also have to stand in a way that allows you unrestricted movement to move right or left after the target. You may have to change your position slightly when it actually comes to mount the gun and shoot the target, So, find a way that allows you to stand comfortably but that you can easily adjust to shoot comfortably.
An example of this was a guy at our club. He hadn't been shooting too long but he has a hunger for shooting that I wish I could have again. While marking the scores at a practice, out of the corner of my eye I saw a lot of movement in him as he shot. He mounted the gun, called for the target and as he pulled the trigger, he was rocking back onto his heels and the barrels of the gun were rising. He was really fighting with himself and the gun to get the barrels back down again if he needed to fire the second shot. He wasn't a danger to anyone or anything but he was really struggling to hit targets and get decent scores.
After the line finished, I took him to one side and gave him some advice of how to stand and to transfer more weight onto his front leg before he shot. He really took the advice onboard and has since won his class in our competition shoots. He just looks so much more comfortable. A simple change in stance has really helped him.
The next aspect is mounting the gun. It too must be mounted the same every time. Your trigger hand around the grip should be the same so that the trigger is pulled the same everytime. Your hand on the forearm should be the same everytime. The difference that the hand position on the forearm can make is quite significant. Too close to the action of the gun can have the effect of making the barrels feel lighter and you can rush through a target too quickly. The hand to the front of the forend can make the barrels slower to swing so you may not get to the target quick enough. Find a nice balance point for your gun and stick with it.
I had a habit once of holding the forend right in touching the block of the gun. At this time too I was holding my elbows high looking like some sort of a bird. I was missing a right hand bird from stand 4 more often than not. I was told that with my high elbows, when the bird went right from stand 4, my first movement was with the forearm and I was pushing the gun off my face. I was told to get my hand right out to the very end of the forearm and get my elbows down. It felt strange to start with but it definitely helped with hitting more of those particular targets.
The gun should be in the same place on you shoulder everytime. I have been as guilty at this than anyone. You have shot 15 targets in a line and you mount the gun for the 16th target and you know it is not quite right. The butt pad of the gun is sitting higher or lower, to the left or the right, of where it should be. You say to yourself, "...I'm shooting well, it won't matter...". You call your target, fire two shots and then hear the referee call "Loss". You really do feel a right tit!!! All it would have taken would be to open the gun again and go through the mounting procedure again. So simple yet you feel so silly when you don't do it.
So you have the gun gripped by the trigger hand, a nice balanced grip of the forend, the gun is in your shoulder correctly and you have your head down on the stock and are ready to call a target. The next part is the most important of all in my opinion and is the reason that I have been missing targets recently. Holding the gun perfectly still until you see a FULL target. Note that I have highlighted the FULL bit.
Rushing the target results in so many missed birds. You just get into a habit of calling the target, moving the gun and shooting at the target. The number of people who move the gun on calling the target, before they see the bird, is probably one of the main differences from people in the higher classes than those in the lower classes. A clay leaving a trap should be travelling at roughly 42mph. It is the slowest travelling target in any of the trap disciplines. You have a lot more time on the target than you might think.
It is most noticable when someone gets a 'no target' from the trap. You hear them calling pull then watch the point of the barrels rising even when no target has appeared to shoot at. You can notice a 'flinch' at times too standing behind someone and when they call the target, the barrels move left and the target could go right. It is extremely difficult to stop the gun, get it going in the opposite direction than it was travelling in and still break the target where you think it should be broke. It is a very difficult habit to get out of.
It comes down to people trying to break the target too early. Everyone's eyes are different but there is a part of the flight path of the target that is a 'flash'. An orange streak leaves the trap and at some point on the flight path, your brain picks up the signal from your eyes that there is a FULL target to shoot at. The best shooters have found a way to have their eyes picking up the full target only. It is only when they see this full target that they then start to move the gun towards the target. Instinct kicks in then and you almost automatically pull the trigger without thinking, in the right place. The whole lot happens in a fraction of a second but when you are shooting well it seems like you have all the time in the world. When I shoot well and get into 'the zone', people tell me I shoot very fast. It doesn't feel fast to me. When I am shooting well, when I call 'pull' and my eyes pick up the full target, it looks like I'm looking at a photograph. I don't see the flash of the target. I don't see any movement in the target whatsoever. I just see a target sitting there to be shot. When I am not shooting so well, I see a flash and move the gun before I see the full target and I am guaranteed to miss the bird. If I do break it, it is nothing short of pure luck.
So, the very basics of DTL are:
- Get your feet right
- Close and mount the gun to your shoulder
- Take up your hold point for the stand you are on
- Call for your target keeping your gun perfectly still
- See the full target
- Now move the gun
Pull. See the bird. Shoot the bird. That is how difficult DTL is. My problem is when I call pull, forget about the middle bit and try the third. It very rarely turns out well.
The only thing I haven't looked at above is the hold point. I'll take a look at this in another blog post.
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