Walked-up pheasant shooting!
With walked-up birds everything has to be coordinated and acted upon in a fraction of a second.
By Pheasant Shooting
Monday, 10 October 2011
Shooting coach Mark Russell treks to the outback of his shooting ground at Grimsthorpe - in the pursuit of perfecting his driven pheasant technique.
‘Fancy a bit of a walkabout?’ A phrase I’m sure that’s guaranteed to bring music to the ears of any game shooter.
And as we’re now into the pheasant season, it seemed a logical time to look at making the best of any walked up days you might have lined up - and how by practicing on clays can boost your chances of improving your hit rate.
Walked up shooting can be a daunting experience for the novice, and I suppose it’s generally because you don’t have total control of the birds and how they’re presented.
On the clay ground you can get everything sorted; your stance, ready position and intended kill points, long before you call for the bird.
Additionally you’ll have seen how the bird is going to be presented, where it’s coming from and how fast, so there’s not even the element of surprise to catch you unawares.
This is not so with walked-up birds, however, where everything has to be coordinated and acted upon in a fraction of a second.
So we know what’s expected of us on walked-up targets, we need to get the basics right on conventional going away clays, and by doing so we can then utilise and adapt our technique to cater for live quarry.
TOP TIPS
DON’T!
» Don’t cover the line of the bird with your muzzles.
» Don’t aim, rush or snatch at the trigger.
» Don’t forget to compensate for any curve of the bird’s flight.
DO!
» Do keep your wits about you.
» Do get your stance and weight correct.
» Do have a positive mental attitude - ‘controlled attacking.’
AWAY CLAYS
First off it’s important to remember that this type of bird is a target just like any other, and if your approach to killing it is correct it shouldn’t really cause major problems.
So let’s look at a typical going away bird on an English sporting layout.
The first thing to consider is your ready position, the gun mount and stance.
The stance should be comfortable, leaning slightly forward, with the weight on the front foot that should be pointing along the line that the clay is going to travel.
The muzzle of your gun should also be pointing in the same direction. If your gun is pointing too far to the left or right, you’ll have to swing onto, as well as through the target to hit it.
On a clay ground I’d opt for a ‘halfway house’ type of gun ready position, where the stock is just out of the pocket of the shoulder, rather than shooting either gun up or gun down.
This means the amount of travel to mount the gun is kept to a minimum.
When you raise the gun to your shoulder you’re looking for a single smooth action, using both your hands - don’t let the trigger hand do all the work - keeping the gun parallel all the time.
If the muzzles of the gun are initially too high they can obscure your view of the clay as it leaves the trap.
Alternatively, if they are held too low, you’ll probably end up playing catch-up with the clay resulting in a rushed shot.
In summary, your stance, ready position and gun mount should never compromise your view of the target as it leaves the trap and flies along its line of travel.
You need to be able to see the bird at all times. The most common reason that shooters miss going away birds is summed up quite simply – it’s because they aim! Maybe because the bird looks easy it draws you into aiming - just to make sure of a kill!
Another mistake is to try and cover the target and then fire. This invariably results in missing over the top.
In general terms I reckon the best approach is to choose your kill point, bring the gun up smoothly and when the bead on the muzzle is just about to touch the bird, pull the trigger.
Don’t forget you might have to take natural conditions into account, though.
If there’s a crosswind, for instance, you’ll need to compensate slightly for any deviation in flight that the clay might take - it’s unusual a clay will ever fly dead straight along the entire course of its travel. It obviously helps to have a positive mental attitude before calling for the bird.
(If you think you’re going to miss you probably will. Conversely, if you know you’re going to dust the target, invariably you do!)
As such, try and develop a ‘controlled attack’ approach. This doesn’t mean snatching at the trigger pull, though, as this can often result in muzzle flip and another missed target.
Finally, don’t be intimidated by the impression of speed of the bird or the quick release, the clay will never get away from the speed of your shot.
All you have to do is arrange a collision between the two!
ON THE GAME
So then, that’s all you need to know to hit going away clay birds, but what do we have to do to bring the theory into play on the feathered variety, and what are the main differences?
To be honest, as far as the technique goes, there aren’t many things you have to change.
A smooth gun mount, bring the bead up to the bird, pull the trigger and keep the gun moving is about as far as it goes.
What is different, however, is your approach. Instead of standing in a cage or hoop with the gun just out of your shoulder deciding when you call for the bird, you’ll be walking slowly forwards, sometimes over difficult terrain, and probably following a gang of dogs that are flushing the birds.
The important thing now, though, is to be alert and ready to respond to a rising bird. The moment you see, or even hear, a bird flush, the gun must come into your shoulder and be locked onto the target in an instant.
Hesitate, and the pheasant will no longer be in a shootable position.
The principal difference is the way we carry the gun. No one but an absolute dickhead is going to walk across farmland with the gun ‘up’, ie already in the shoulder.
Instead you must walk with a closed, loaded gun- but obviously with the safety on - and with the muzzles pointing upwards.
I know a lot of shooters, those not involved with game shooting, will say this is dangerous, but it really is the only way.
This is walked-up game shooting for Christ’s sake, not skeet!
In my view, as long as the safety’s on and the muzzles are skywards it’s perfectly acceptable.
Walk with the muzzles anywhere near the horizontal, however, or heaven forbid maybe even pointing straight at your neighbouring Gun’s dog, and you’re waiting to be sent home - or worse!
The attitude and positioning of the muzzles does present a problem, however.
To get on to a flushed, rising bird you must get the bead onto or slightly below the target as you mount the gun from its vertical position, simply so you can then swing the muzzles up onto the bird.
There’s no easy way to practice this in the field, so the only thing I can suggest is to try using a ‘vertical gun’ stance on a going-away target at your local clay ground.
Remember to leave the safety on (after you call for the bird) until you actually see the target.
This will add to the realism and help sharpen up your reaction times!
Comments