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Bum, Belly, Beak, Bang!


Caravanman
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Depends doesnt it? If the birds coming into the deeks at say 30yds then its probably as good a method as any. If its 50yds up crossing through the trees with a gale up its bum, then its probably bum, belly, beak, bang and miss behind by quite a bit!

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it works just the same if you keep swinging but i know nothing i wont argue the point we all see lead different to me the speed of swing and the shot reaction time takes you well ahead

 

Agreed. As long as you see the puff of white feathers, thats all that matters

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please tell me why not i understand you are far better than i will ever be but what is the difference

 

If a bird is coming towards you into the decoy pattern all you ever see is it's head. So no bum, no belly.

 

If a bird is going away from you all you see is it's bum. No belly, no beak.

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if you are decoying close in....15-30 yds....bung in 2 skeet chokes and use 30gm 6's or 7's.....then just shoot at em......when you get the hang of it and are shooting further out reduce the dia' of the chokes......just keep on shooting and work it out ...

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to be honest I don,t go for any of that look at the head or bum belly beak bang, I just see the whole bird as a whole target and give it the right amount of lead well not always the correct amount but you get the idea then swing through and pull the trigger, you can go into finer details but end of the day its about lining the bird up and giving the lead it needs to be shot

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Firdom has it spot on. I changed in the mid 70's; re-educated by a fellow who sorted out my bad habits (well, some of tnem).

 

Clearly straight towards or away are just the same except they all happen at once! No lead required. You just naturally pick your rate of swing dependent on range and speed of flight. 'Overtaking' a fast crossing bird needs a faster swing, so the lock time almost sorts out the extra lead as long as you keep swinging fast. They don't need to be hit by 50 pellets of sufficient striking energy, particularly if you wish to eat them.

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I spent ages trying to get this method to work but never really got anywhere, I came to the conclusion that there's a LOT more to it than it sounds. I.e; you're moving faster than the bird so building an automatic lead and you're watching the bird, not the barrels - but! It doesn't work for everyone.

 

My advice, for what it's worth;

 

For crossers; start quite well behind them (at least 10 feet), swing the gun at a little more than twice the bird's speed on the path that it's just travelled and keep that speed the same. Pull the trigger as the bead hits the birds head but never slow down until you've seen the bird drop.

 

For a pigeon as it slows to land in decoys; sit the bird on the bead and maintain that as you pull the trigger.

 

A bird that's taken off and coming towards you; again, start behind/under it but not much faster, just as the bird disappears behind the barrels, pull the trigger. Never slow or stop.

 

A bird just taken off but going away; as above but feels quite different.

 

I find concentrating on the bird and ignoring the barrels works well, the subconscious is a powerful thing.

 

If you're just starting out, some lessons should be a priority before you get into any bad habits.

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It's far easier to just sweep them out of the sky like you're painting a ceiling. :)

I like this imagery too...nice brushstrokes...in wider context I now think I have a 'library' of pictures for most pigeons,some are shot maintained lead,some pull away and some bum belly beak.....certainly at a start of a session for a crosser not far out will start off bum belly beak(I think)..although I am not too conscious of actual method used...my brain says thats about 3 foot needed etc..or wow thats moving and its downwind give it eight foot......I am more conscious of timing ie when optimum to take the shot than the actual method of getting the lead my brain tells me is needed...hope this waffle makes sense!

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I guess its whatever suits your style, I was taught the american way, called sustained lead, get in front stay in front and maintain a gap between the target and the firing point, keep the gun moving after you pull the trigger, which is important in two ways, first it 'throws' the shot forward so that the target flies into the shot string at some point, if you stop the swing at the point of firing the bird will be past the barrels by the time the shot arrives, and secondly, if you do miss then you are still moving with the target to get off a second shot before it gets away,I shoot clays as well as live quarry and use the same method on both, Im no crack shot and at 67 my reactions have slowed a little, but if I didnt get 60% to 70% hit rate I would be disappointed, I started when I was 15 and have been shooting on and off ever since, My point is shooting becomes instinctive, the more you do the better you get, its difficult to improve if you sit in a hide for hours and only get off a few shots. so when birds are scarce , get down the clay range and get 50 or 100 off at some clays, if you go on a regular basis you will be amazed how quickly you improve. :good::good:

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Maintained lead is what I've always used to pretty good effect, the swing through method never seemed precise/consistent enough for me with longer range shots especially. You build up sight pictures of all the different shots/angles you shoot and just adjust to suit but it does take a lot of time/practise!! Pigeons on a windy day for example jinking and flaring away take really instinctive shooting but you should be able to get to grips with birds floating into decoys fairly quickly whatever technique you employ.

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The best lesson I ever had about lead was I was on the marshes duck shooting ,when two ducks came by me one behind the other . I mounted and shot at the one in front and killed the one behind clean . My mate shouted good shot . I didn't have the heart to tell him that I was aiming at the other one . Believe me I did learn from this lesson .

Harnser

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