Clay pigeon shooting: Should I treat driven targets like crossers?

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Should I treat driven targets like crossers?

A lot of clay pigeon shooters adopt a sideways stance when faced with high driven targets.

By Clay pigeon shooting

Monday, 25 January 2010

Clay pigeon shooting: I'm struggling with high, driven targets. I pick up the clay nicely enough but as I follow through, the muzzles obscure my view of the bird and I end up missing.

Some fellow shooters turn 'side on' to the flight path and treat them as crossers. Should I try this, or do you have any other tips to break this type of clay?

Clay pigeon shooting
JOHN BIDWELL
You've got nothing to lose by trying that approach.

As you say, a lot of clay shooters adopt a sideways stance when faced with high driven targets, and very effective they find it too - as do many game shooters taking on really high driven pheasants.

By turning side-on to the bird they are able to clearly see how much forward allowance they're giving it.

The only problem for the English Sporting shooter is that this approach can't be adopted when shooting from a safety cage with an overhead cross bar in place.

If that's the case then you're back to picking up the clay and blotting it out with those muzzles again!

The quickest way to find out where you're going wrong with a conventional approach to this target is to take a lesson with a coach.

He will be able to find out if you're slowing, or stopping, your swing after passing the clay thereby missing behind, or lifting your head from the stock and missing off line.

Equally, he might find that you are losing sight of the target simply because your gun is too low in the comb, impeding your master eye's view of the clay and allowing your other eye to take over.