First time using shottie on woodies

[Martin g]

Had my first go on the woodies this week with the shottie on my dads friends farm, decoying on some recently drilled barley.. After 3 hrs and 50 carts only managed 4, all of which had to be followed up with a bang on the head.. Not a great number I know, but learnt that I need to give more lead to get some shot in the head and how tough these birds really are . As well as the 4 I got down onto the ground to be despatched I had another 6 where feathers came down and birds turned on a 6pence and carried on flying away with me missing with the second shot.. Still enjoyed myself, and will hopefully do better next time, also think I need to be quicker and smoother mounting the gun and put the bum, belly, beak, bang theory into practise which i have read on other posts before posting this..

[stevethevanman]

Dont lead to try and head shoot, it was probably just a coninsidence that they were winged unless you were using underpowerd carts with to smaller shot size.

 

Keep at it, its really hard, im not a great shotgunner myself much better with rifles, my son takes the mick out of my at clays.

 

Steve

[fern 57]

Hi mate, stick at it practice makes perfect at least you had plenty of shots which is a lot more than i have a lot of the time when i go out shooting.

[motty]

If i were you, i'd get practising on the skeet range.

[covlocks]

I think some ESP practice is required before you go out again. A whole host of pricked birds slowly dying due to you being a lousy shot is not funny

[Cranfield]

You don't mention details of the gun and cartridges you were using, which might make it easier to suggest things you can do to improve things.

 

Definitely a few rounds of Sporting Clays would help.

[Martin g]

Was using my lanber with 32g 6.. Usually hit mid 30's out of 50 on ESP, but will keep practising on them.. I also dont find it funny having pricked birds flying about.

[Mattw]

Was using my lanber with 32g 6.. Usually hit mid 30's out of 50 on ESP, but will keep practising on them.. I also dont find it funny having pricked birds flying about.

 

Martin, Sounds like your on the right track with the carts. I might also suggest it is worth seeing if anyone wants to go along with you for an afternoon. Maybe even swap an afternoon with someone?

 

It could be something silly like your shooting them too far out, or any one of a hundred other things. I seem to be able to hit them when they are 30 yards out taking no interest but 15 yards, and landing its almost certain I would miss keep going at it!

 

Someone who has been decoying for a while might just be able to point you in the right direction!

[Bluebarrels]

If your going to practice on clays mate,to suss out your lead etc,skeet is the way to go takes you through all the angles BB

[mattslaptop247]

When I first moved on to shooting pheasants from clays I was lousey! It takes a bit of getting used to how much lead to give. I found that pheasants seemed to require less lead than the clays, but I'm not a pigeon shooter, so can't really comment, but keep shooting at the live pigeons and it will all fall into place

[UKPoacher]

When I came back to shooting after a ten or twelve year lay off I initially borrowed a gun and shot under supervision, then got a SGC and bought my own. The first few times I went out I was only hitting about one in three and of those I dropped only a third were dead on the ground. I had a lot of walking wounded and a few dropping into the next field. After about six or seven sessions I began to get a better average and a higher ratio of outright kills. The last two sessions resulted in 9 out of 10 birds being killed outright and apart from silly shots at no hopers my shot to kill ratio is now well under 2:1.

 

Keep at it. It will all drop into place.

[covlocks]

but keep shooting at the live pigeons and it will all fall into place

 

:blink:

[Martin g]

Many thanks for the advice chaps.. Going to give skeet a go with some tuition.. :blink:

[pigeon chasser]

stick with it. it took me a while to get on with my new gun but it all seemed to click into place one afternoon. your gunna wing a few and have to stretch there necks but hay hoe

[Nial]

Many thanks for the advice chaps.. Going to give skeet a go with some tuition.. :thumbs:

 

 

The problem I find practising on clays is that there's no surprise when the

clay comes out and you can calmly judge distance/speed -> lead.

 

When a pigeon/pheasant is flying past/to your deeks there's a lot of flapping

and noise and adrenaline and I find it much harder not to be distracted by all the

movement which draws me to shoot _at_ it.

 

I've found concentrating on the head, and giving this lead helps.

 

 

Nial.

[Martin g]

Thanks Nial..

[markyboy]

about 6 year ago i got back into shooting and having shot,geese,pigeon,pheasant and clays as a youngster you would have thought it would all come back in an instant. but i have spent countless hours swinging my gun in the house,out on clay ground,back on the field. its all experiance you need to be a better shot. imho,forget about lead until you can swing,keep gun moving,pull trigger and always follow through.but you will already know this as you have shot before. lead will come with experiance,at the min concentrate on the birds that are within a decent range and try to kill them stone dead,alot of the birds brought back will never be stone dead. dont take pop shots at birds that are at silly ranges until you have got more experiance.

[Martin g]

about 6 year ago i got back into shooting and having shot,geese,pigeon,pheasant and clays as a youngster you would have thought it would all come back in an instant. but i have spent countless hours swinging my gun in the house,out on clay ground,back on the field. its all experiance you need to be a better shot. imho,forget about lead until you can swing,keep gun moving,pull trigger and always follow through.but you will already know this as you have shot before. lead will come with experiance,at the min concentrate on the birds that are within a decent range and try to kill them stone dead,alot of the birds brought back will never be stone dead. dont take pop shots at birds that are at silly ranges until you have got more experiance.

[jasper3]

Covlocks.... Wow !!!! you must be a fantastic shot :look: I do hope when im out in the field all my pigeons will fly by in a straight line when i shout "Pull"

 

give the lad a break.... I have spents some time on the clay grounds..and the pigoens on the field do NOT fly in straightlines 100%

 

no one like to see an injured bird, rabbit, or what ever..... but please ...

[berettaman]

Been shooting for quite some time now and i still wound the odd tree rat so it gets a bang on the head no suffering not left to run in circles round the field then its another piece of crop eating machinery dead ,i wonder if i will ever meet someone who kills outright every single time,i doubt it

[covlocks]

Covlocks.... Wow !!!! you must be a fantastic shot I do hope when im out in the field all my pigeons will fly by in a straight line when i shout "Pull"

 

give the lad a break.... I have spents some time on the clay grounds..and the pigoens on the field do NOT fly in straightlines 100%

 

no one like to see an injured bird, rabbit, or what ever..... but please ...

 

Nope I'm not an ace shot - but 4 out of 50? thats an unacceptable number of potentially injured birds - and 30 out of 50 on the ESP?? sorry guys, if you cant do better than that, stay on the range and stop using live birds to practice on.

 

Shooting woodies is done for a reason, not so you can have a bit a target practice.

 

Shame on you and your irresponsible comments

[Martin g]

Many thanks for the posts chaps.. Got myself sorted with a lesson tomorrow and see if I can blast them clays better before I go out in the fields again.. Dont want to give our sport a bad name, or myself for that matter..

[mosa]

Keep at it mate and take no notice of some comments you get !! there are to many people about dying to give you a hard time when your just either asking for advice or telling others how you got on. They had to start somewhere but now all too many are on their high horse

[Martin g]

Keep at it mate and take no notice of some comments you get !! there are to many people about dying to give you a hard time when your just either asking for advice or telling others how you got on. They had to start somewhere but now all too many are on their high horse

Cheers Mosa, will let you all know how I get on tomorrow..

Thankfully I have taken no offence to negative comments, read a lot worse on other topics..

[covlocks]

Keep at it mate and take no notice of some comments you get !! there are to many people about dying to give you a hard time when your just either asking for advice or telling others how you got on. They had to start somewhere but now all too many are on their high horse

 

Not high horse - just not a fan of shooting at live birds just for a bit of practice. Thats why we use ESP - its good solid practice - to advocate using live birds just for practice is just a blood sport(?) - not crop protection - irresponsible - illegal, as that is not within the general license terms, and fuel for the anti-brigade.