What a difference a bit of confidence makes!

[kitchrat]

Roosting last night was "a game of 2 halves!"

The wood has very tall trees and the birds (lots more than last week) were very cautious, high over the trees looking for a safe place, even spooked by shoots from other woods over 1/2 a mile away.

I started badly and had had at least a dozen shots without nailing a pigeon. I had clean missed some, scared some, knocked a few feathers out of some and hit one or two that might have come down further away.

Then, suddenly, one bird just folded up, stone dead, not a lucky stray pellet but full of holes, "centre of the pattern job"!!

Thereafter I was about "Mr 50%" man and picked up 12 (there must have been some lost in the dusk with no dog), including a Right &Left, (remarkable!) for about 40 shots total. What a difference!!

I know that the wind had got up a bit and the gathering dusk helped but I put most of it down to confidence. When I've put myself under pressure I think too much, I start trying to measure the lead in feet. This leads to me watching the bird too much and I think that tends to make me track under the bird rather than through it (so I can measure the lead better) - anyway, it doesn't work!

When things are working well it's just a question of muzzle swing speed vs bird speed, swing through the target and pull the trigger x milliseconds after getting through the bird.

Anyway, it worked for me and it was another evening of great sport (eventually!)

[Jim Neal]

I went back to my Yoda at the clay ground last year because I was starting to shoot worse the harder I tried. Turned out I couldn't see the blindingly obvious: aware that it's usually said you miss behind a bird I'd been pushing further and further in front, swinging through more and more vigorously.. and ended up shooting in front by a good margin. This bad habit had crept in to my shooting over a fair few years, so once I'd re-adjusted it was once again a pleasure to pull the trigger rather than an impending sense of disappointment!

 

The same as everything in life, if you keep doing the same thing you'll keep getting the same result so hitting the reset button and going back to basics sometimes works wonders I suppose.