Watching shooters practice...or rather observing them... can be a learning experience in itself. I spend a lot of time doing this in the hopes that some form of enlightenment will come and help me with my shooting and give me an inspiration for this blog. By the way, I really appreciate the comments from you, the readers, good or bad, it inspires me to continue and to do my best to improve the content so you, hopefully, benefit from my ruminations.
Last week at the local club I was shooting practice with some folks I had never shot with before. Although they were all pretty good shooters, the pace was such that I felt if I dropped a shell I'd lose my turn! Pull-bang, Pull-bang, Pull-bang.... Then me............. Pull bang! I think we shot the round of singles in some sort of record time! After which I felt like I was letting the squad down by shooting at my own pace. Which, if what my usual squad mates tell me is true, is not slow.
The last time I checked, we don't pay by the hour (or minute in this case) to shoot trap, skeet or sporting! I couldn't figure out what the hurry was with these folks so I decided to rest on the clubhouse porch for a round or two and just observe. The result was interesting and informative to me and, with a bit of luck, to you as well.
What I saw was interesting. The same group went out without me and managed to shoot even faster! I could hardly believe just how they seemed to toss the gun to their shoulders and as soon as the cheek and gun met holler "pull". I would have been impressed a lot more if they were breaking all the targets. Unfortunately each shooter missed a handful. It was fairly obvious that all the shooters were competent gun handlers, they just were never really ready to shoot the target when they called for it. Consequently the misses added up quickly.
I have always stressed a pre-shot routine for shooting good scores and as we get older our eyes don't focus as quickly as they did in our youth. Shooting at a speed where you can't establish your routine, even though it may be faster than some, can spell disaster in a game where the difference between winning and losing is 1 or 2 targets. Try not to get caught up in a fast squads rythm when you are shooting practice. Use your own set up routine and concentrate on each target. Make sure your eyes are quiet (still) when you call for the target.
What this will do for you.... is translate to your competition shooting....hello...that's what we practice for is it not? At the club you can usually choose your shooting squad mates. You will find during a comptetition however you might be stuck with a really fast group of shooters or at least one or two in front of you. Your ablilty to use your practiced routine will no doubt allow you to prevail and shoot a good score!
Shoot well and often,
Bob