Sporting Clays

Robert Churchill, in his book Game Shooting, wrote: “Much more important than gunfitting are the basic requirements of good shooting: proper stance, grip and a stylish technique of gunmounting. A man who looks after that will always outshoot the bungler with the best tailored pair of game guns London can produce.”

Eighty percent of all misses are caused by a poor or incorrect gun mount. A shotgun is a dynamic tool of movement, and a good gun mount maximizes the effect of this motion. A ball-bearing-smooth gun mount is one synchronized movement of the body and gun to the bird or target with the feet, body, arms and head making a free-flowing, balanced swing.

Simply put, a smooth and consistent gun mount is the process of taking the gun from a relaxed ready position and bringing it to your cheek in alignment with your eye.

Following is a step-by-step look at how to master the perfect gun mount. (As background material, refer to my articles on footwork [Sept/Oct ’08] and head position [Nov/Dec ’08] and their importance in the process.) Instruction here is for right-handed shooters, and southpaws should simply “mirror-image” the steps.

First you need to set up your body. Your address to the target should be established so that you start and complete the shot in balance. This setup begins with your feet. Stand with your feet armpits-width apart and your belt buckle facing the point where you want to break the target. Then simply turn 45 degrees to your right.

If you imagine you are standing in the center of a clock, your leading, or left, foot should be pointing at the break point—2 o’clock—and your right foot should be halfway between 2 and 3 o’clock. This position will allow you to rotate in balance around the pivot of your leading leg through 180 degrees—90 degrees either side of the break point. This achieves the first part of a good gun mount: balanced movement.

Next is your posture. Distribute your weight 60/40 between your feet, with 60 percent of your weight on your leading leg. There should be a slight forward inclination of your body from the waist up toward the target. Your head should be positioned forward and down, with your chin parallel to the ground. Rotate your head slightly to the right. Now you will have created the perfect body shape to allow an unimpeded gun mount without any unnecessary body or head movement.

Ready Position

To repeat any act consistently, there must be established constants—beginnings and ends. At the beginning of the gun mount, the gun is held in the “ready position.” The last inch of the buttstock should be held gently between your pectoral and the bicep of your right arm. This gentle pressure takes some of the weight of the gun and allows your arms to relax. The muzzles should be on and just under the pick-up (gun-insertion) point on the target’s line of flight, with your eyes looking to the focal point, where you plan on first seeing the target.

This “ready position” ensures a smooth move to the target. Your left hand pushes the gun toward the target, doing the majority of the lifting, with your right hand mirroring its movement, and the gun is raised to your cheek.

The butt should never lose contact with your body. The “bayonet movement” to the target encourages the movement of the shoulder to the stock, eliminating the fault of pulling the stock into the shoulder. By lifting the gun to your cheek, you prevent the fault of dropping your head to the gun.

Complete in Your Cheek

The completion of the gun mount is when the gun is firmly in your cheek. Take a second to reach up with your forefinger and place it along the part of your face where your teeth meet. Now lift your finger up. It should be right under your cheekbone. This is where the stock must always be to complete a solid and accurate gun mount. The smallest gun-mounting error at the face means your eye is out of alignment with the muzzles, and the smallest error there increases incrementally at 20, 30 and 40 yards. A clearly defined beginning and end to your gun mount creates consistency and straight shooting.

Faults, Causes & Corrections

There are many causes of a poor gun mount: bad stance, poor posture, incorrect use of the hands, unnecessary head movement, or mounting the stock to the shoulder instead of the cheek. Any or all of these faults will cause the gun to “seesaw” or “rock and roll” during the mounting action and the muzzles will “rock and roll” over and under the target line. If your gun mount starts with incorrect foot position, your body’s restricted rotation also will cause the classic “rainbow,” or “windshield wiping,” roll of the muzzles off of the target line.

This uncontrolled muzzle oscillation on and off of the target line is the cause of more misses than any other element of the shooting action. The main reason this simple lifting action goes awry is your hands. The “seesaw” is created by your right hand overpowering your left and mounting the gun to your shoulder instead of to your cheek. In addition pulling the gun back into your shoulder pocket and stopping short of your cheek rather than pushing the gun to the target will negate even the best gunfit and shooting technique.

Hand Position

How to avoid these pitfalls? Your hands and arms are the most important component and have the biggest impact on a well-executed gun mount. So you need to reeducate your hands regarding their proper role in the gun-mount sequence.

As explained in my earlier articles, your hands mount and point the gun and your body swings it. However, your hands are independent tools—one on each arm—and are not designed to work together in sync. In golf the first hurdle is the grip, which requires the hands to work together as a single unit. The beginner always finds this awkward and uncomfortable. This is equally true when mounting a shotgun.

The best way to describe the proper use of the hands during the gun mount is to think of your hands’ placement and movement when cutting a pipe with a hacksaw (one hand being on the handle, the other on the front of the saw). To cut a straight line, you create a small amount of resistance between your hands. This stretching action helps your hands work together.

If your front hand overpowers the rear, the line is straight but the cut weak and ineffective; if your rear hand overpowers the front, an inaccurate and jagged cut is made. The gun mount is no different. Your hands have to work as a single unit to mount the gun consistently and effectively.

The easiest description of your rear hand’s position is to take hold of the grip as if you were shaking hands with the gun. Your thumb should be wrapped over the grip. The thumb is the key part of the grip and gives you control during the shooting action. Try this: Hold the unloaded gun with your thumb firmly wrapped around the grip. Now move your thumb to the safety—the muzzles drop an inch. The pad of your forefinger should be correctly placed on the trigger.

The position of your leading hand is the next consideration. The target that requires the most gun movement is the high driven or passing bird. Adopt correct footwork and stance; now mount the gun into your shoulder replicating making the high overhead shot. The placement of your left hand should be on the forend so that the angle created between your wrist and the forend/barrels is approximately 45 degrees.

Your hand, regardless of the gun configuration (over/under or side-by-side) should have the forefinger extended. On a side-by-side your forefinger should extend along the forend and barrels on the underside of the rib, forward of the forend catch. Your grip is achieved by the thumb, fingertips and extended forefinger. On an over/under your forefinger should extend along the forend and onto the side rib. This positioning of your forefinger harnesses your natural ability to point at and maintain contact with a moving object.

Now imagine that the action of the gun is made of rubber. Gently attempt to stretch it apart. Don’t stretch so hard that you create too much tension. You want just enough “stretch” that your hands are aware of each other’s actions. This slight pressure between the hands goes a long way in eradicating the dreaded “rock and roll.” The gun will be balanced between your hands, ensuring a horizontal mount and creating a controlled, smooth movement. In addition your arms will act like a car’s shock absorbers, soaking up a good amount of recoil. The result? More comfortable shooting and more consistent second-barrel shots.

Hand Movement

It is crucial to match the muzzles’ speed to the target’s speed. Certain field-shooting situations and many sporting clays presentations will require you to swing the gun at different speeds. By moving your leading hand forward or back, you can move the moment of inertia (MOI)—or how a gun’s weight is distributed—between your hands to accelerate or decelerate the muzzles.

Try this experiment. If you move your leading hand closer to the breech, the gun will swing quicker. Extend it a little farther toward the muzzles and the gun will swing slower. You need to experiment to find how much movement gives you the maximum benefit and what target presentations to use it on.

Jack Mitchell had a wonderful way of teaching the reeducation of the hands. He would ask students if they would like a wee dram. He then would ask if he were to over-fill the glass how they would raise it to their lips without spilling a drop. The observed result was always the same: a cautious raising of the imaginary glass to their lips. He then would explain that this is exactly how the right hand should move during the gun mount. The left hand should lift and point the gun at the target, in effect driving the gun, and the right hand should mimic that action and pull the trigger. This way both hands work in unison and the resulting gun mount will be smooth.

Practice, Practice, Practice

You have to put in lots of practice to perfect your gun mount. The place to practice is in your home or garage, not on the shooting grounds. Find a place where you can safely and comfortably mount the gun. Always double check that the gun is unloaded and safe.

Adopt a good stance, good posture, and good hand and ready positions. (Be sure to wear your usual shooting attire, including gloves, glasses and ear protection.) Initially, all gun-mounting exercises should be performed slowly. The brain learns muscle memory far better when the action is performed this way.

Stand facing a mirror as you slowly mount the gun. Watch for any seesaw in your mount. Pause for a count of One thousand when the gun is perfectly in your cheek and your eye is looking directly back at you along the rib of the shotgun. Repeat these slow mounting exercises until you are able to mount the gun perfectly to your cheek without conscious thought.

When you have mastered this gun-mounting movement, you can combine the mount with a full body swing. Place a small Maglite or Arrow Laser Shot in the end of your barrels, mount the gun, and trace a light path along the joint of the walls and ceiling. You instantly will be able to see just how smooth your mount and swing are becoming.

As you develop these new motor skills, you can introduce snap caps to the exercise and dry-fire the gun on completion of your gun mount. A good rule of thumb is that the longer you can see the target, the longer your mount should take. The shorter you can see it, the shorter your mount.

Remember: Take your time—do not rush. The cardinal rule to a good gun mount is “Rushing Ruins Rhythm.” Smooth and slow is the secret to cleaner kills and improved scores.

Chris Batha’s book, Breaking Clays, and his DVD, “Mastering the Double Gun,” can be ordered by visiting www.chrisbatha.com.