High pheasant shooting instruction

Shooting UK is your complete shooting resource. From gun reviews to shotgun licence and firearms certificate information, to clay pigeon shooting, game shooting, shooting lessons and gundog training.

| Next

High pheasant shooting instruction

If a bird is appearing over the trees, it's a safe bet it's going to be over 15 or 20 yards up in the air.

By Mark Russell

Monday, 14 November 2011

High driven pheasant shooting lesson: It’s getting to that time of the year when the birds are really beginning to fly well.

Admittedly, some shoots have the topography to make even the most mediocre fliers seem high to the Guns, but that aside, wherever you are there’s one factor you know will make the birds perform well - and that’s that the birds have been there, seen it, done it.

They know what to expect. By now there’s a good chance that many of them will have been shot at already, and their natural defence mechanism tells them to get up as high as possible, and as quickly as possible.

These are generally pretty testing targets, but they’re genuinely sporting and they’ll be the ones you remember at the end of the season.

But to be fair to the quarry, you must know how to tackle them properly.

Unlike clay targets, where it doesn’t really matter if you miss, live quarry has to be respected so if you don’t think you can kill it cleanly, don’t pull the trigger.

With this in mind I thought this month we’d have a look at what it takes to master hitting high driven birds - and how we can practice for them on a sporting layout at the clay ground.

HOW HIGH IS HIGH?
Most of us can visualise what a certain distance looks like, certainly shorter distances. The example I always cite is 20 yards, as most of us know it’s about the length of a cricket pitch, or roughly the distance between streetlights.

That same 20 yards up in the air, however, is another thing to judge altogether - and it doesn’t matter if that’s 20 yards directly overhead or to the side or front.

The problem shooters now have is there are no reference points to draw on in an empty sky.

As such, assessing how far away the bird is will often be a problem and there’s no easy way of learning other than through practice.

Sight pictures memorised over the years are the best you have to call on here to help you out. Having said that, common sense can help.

If the bird is comfortably clearing the tops of the trees you can make a pretty good guess that it’s going to be roughly between 15 and 25 yards up in the air.

To put this into perspective you need to think how much forward allowance you’d give to a straight crosser if it was flying at this distance - and give it the same amount of lead when you pull the trigger.

As always, taking your time to study the target closely before you fire will pay dividends and result in fewer missed, or pricked, birds.

Being steady on your feet is really important for hitting high birds consistently, and transferring weight from your front to back foot during the swing is probably the best way to keep things smooth.

Daft though it might seem - especially to the missus as you run through the motions in your living room - regular dry mounting practice at home will make the whole process intuitive, natural and second nature.

Assuming you’re right handed, the distribution of your weight needs to be taken from the toe of the left foot, through a neutral flat-footed stance and onto the heel of the right foot.

(Obviously it’s the opposite if you’re a left-handed shooter.)

Try and achieve a nice, smooth rocking action. Whatever you do, though, don’t be tempted to keep the weight on the front foot and simply bend from the waist.

Not only will you probably do your back in, but also this odd, contorted, stance will severely restrict the swing of the gun.

WAITING GAME
Generally speaking, A high target will be in view for quite some time, so don’t be tempted to mount the gun too soon. If you do, you’ll end up aiming at the bird rather than getting in front of it with a moving muzzle.

Holding the gun in the shoulder for a long time will also make your arms ache - the gun will start to wobble, you’ll probably lift your face from the stock and, almost inevitably, you’ll miss the bird.

Shooting at high birds inevitably means that your head and neck are going to be tilted backwards while you watch the flight of the bird, and this can cause its own problems.

It’s important to remember that whatever the angle of the muzzles as you mount the gun, you should always aim for a parallel gun mount.

This way the gun will come into the face as it should. If the gun isn’t mounted properly it will not point where you’re looking, resulting in a miss.

One would assume that with a smooth, parallel gun mount and your face planted firmly on the stock, all you have to do is judge the lead required and pull the trigger.

This is certainly true to a point, but the biggest mistake we make when presented with a nice high bird is to aim at the target - and we all know from our very first shooting lesson that this is a recipe for disaster.

As with all moving targets, you must swing the gun - and keep it moving after the trigger has been pulled.

Because of the distance, high birds often appear to be travelling slower than they really are (at just 20 feet above the ground the same bird would appear to be really motoring).

This optical illusion ensures a shooter underestimates the challenge and makes him assume it’s an easy shot and prompts him to ‘aim’ directly at the bird, just to be sure.

This, of course, brings about an inevitable miss behind. You must remember to swing the gun!

The only thing we haven’t discussed so far is how to get ahead of the bird. There are pros and cons for all the shooting styles, be it swing through, pull away or maintained lead.

Given a choice for high birds I’d generally opt for the pull away (CPSA) method.

Swinging through the target or using maintained lead could be counter productive, as the muzzles can often obscure the bird.

This in turn makes the shooter raise his head off the stock to get sight of the bird, the shooter is then not looking where the gun is pointing and you’ve got another miss or pricked bird to contend with.

SUMMING UP
Keep the muzzles up as the bird comes into view, but not so high that they obscure the target.

Don’t mount the gun too early, and try to pull away rather than swing through.

Be ready to transfer your weight onto the back foot if necessary.

If the bird is really high, move your hand down the fore end towards the breech as this allows more movement at the muzzles and will not restrict your swing.