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By Mark Russell
Monday, 06 September 2010
Even with the best technique in the world, to succeed at a high level you must be able to size up a target in seconds.
Clay shooting.
The ability to suss out a clay in the blink of an eye always mark out the top shots from the also-rans.
A top-notch shooter will see a bird presented once and instantly know how he is going to kill it.
He probably doesn’t even consider how he knows this, but his stance and ready position will be spot on from the start.
He’ll automatically decide the visual pick up point, and know instinctively the ideal kill point.
For good measure, he will also have a couple of contingency plans ready in the back of his mind just in case something untoward happens to the bird in flight - an unexpected gust of wind, for instance.
This uncanny ability is known as being able to ‘read’ the clay, and for most of us it’s a skill that has to be practiced constantly to become perfect.
After all, we can spend ages perfecting our gun mounting technique, dry mounting in front of a mirror for days on end.
We can then invest weeks’ worth of our hard earned salary on having our gun fitted properly.
Finally, we will then spend countless hours down at the shooting club trying to hit a variety of targets.
I emphasise the ‘trying’ bit because in order to achieve any measure of success we need to know where to point the gun before we pull the trigger – that is, we must be able to read the bird.
We all realise that to hit a target we need to shoot ahead / in front of it because the clay is travelling at several feet per second, as is the shot as it speeds towards the target.
What we’ve got to do is consider and allow for the time delay between these two variables, and position the muzzles in such a way that we arrange a collision between the clay and the shot stream.
It might help to think about it as the clay being broken by travelling into the shot, rather than the shot hitting the clay.
It’s this delay that sets us apart from rifle shooters.
If we aim directly at the target - as they do - we’ll miss behind, as by the time the shot reaches the initial position the clay will have moved on.
So we know that to arrange our collision we’ve got to be ahead of the bird as we pull the trigger, but where; and by how much?
At this point it’s worth mentioning that with certain disciplines, skeet for example, it’s much easier to read the clays, simply because the discipline rules state the targets must be consistent in their direction and velocity.
On English Sporting layouts, however, every stand could be different so here’s a few pointers that should help improve your scores.
LOOK & LEARN
Obviously the most important thing is to study the bird in flight, and you can do this before you step onto the stand by watching how other competitors tackle the target.
When studying any airborne target there are five main factors to bear in mind.
The first three points are pretty obvious and self-explanatory, the illustration will help, but the last two need clarifying:
TERRAIN
Be aware of sloping ground and ‘false’ backgrounds. If, for instance, the tree line naturally drops away to one side, a clay that is travelling (basically) horizontally can give the impression that it’s rising as it goes away from you - often fooling you into missing above the target:
THE WIND
Gusts of wind can play havoc with targets, especially non-standard clays.
If the bird’s flying into a head wind it will slow considerably faster than usual - and can be blown off its normal flightline in any direction up, down or to either side
Before you can read the bird’s flightline, and certainly before you pull the trigger you’ll need to:
» Make sure you know what type of target it is you’re shooting; standard, mini etc.
» Know exactly from where the clay will appear.
» Watch how the target is presented; face on, belly or edge on. Remember that a clay presented edge on may appear to be further away than it actually is.
» Try and gauge distance accurately.
If a clay appears from above the tree line, for instance, it’s probably about 25 yards above you.
TYPICAL TARGETS
So, taking all this on board, let’s look at a few simple steps to help read a clay on a few sporting targets.
CROSSER
By watching closely we can see that the bird has left the trap on a slightly upward curve before coming slightly around to our right, when it starts to slow and drop.
In this instance there isn’t a false ground/tree line to worry about. First step is to decide the pick up and kill points.
As you mount the gun keep the bead of the muzzles on, or just below the flightline.
Pull ahead of the target and keep the gun moving as you pull the trigger.
Don’t forget that the bird will almost certainly be veering slightly to one side so you must allow for this.
GOING AWAY BIRDS
It’s easy to assume this type of bird is travelling in a straight line... do this at your peril.
To check, make sure you know exactly where it disappears from view, either by hitting the ground or going behind any vegetation.
From this you can figure out if it’s straying off to one side or other.
Remember, the longer you leave it before you pull the trigger, the more likely the clay will deviate off its line as it runs out of power.
CROW TYPE TARGETS
Always watch where the clay falls. This can tell you if the target is drifting to the front, back, left or right.
Choose your kill point with this in mind. Be wary of ‘deceptions’ where a false tree or ground line, for instance, can lure you into following the shape of the principal object - rather than the actual flight path of the clay.
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