Best score!

[Lloyd90]

Shot my best score today! 

Had 41/50 - and we carried on to do the full 100 - of which I had 77 👍🏻 Had one crosser than I just could not hit on all 5 tries 😣. 

 

After all the fuss on chokes etc, my best ever score was using skeet and 1/4, with me swapping to the 1/4 first shot when I thought more choked was needed on the first  👍🏻

[Diver One]

👍

i have been missing clays on a regular basis for the past 2.5 years...exactly the same length of time I have been shooting, this is obviously a coincidence

bought a  725 sporter and gradually crept up to averaging about 40/100 sometimes rarely a 50. and got stuck in a rut. Was asked to 'mind' a 125 for a friends family as owner was ill, he passed away in January this year 😢. I shot it every week for 4 months. First time out I hit 50 and never dropped below, so it's obviously the gun and not me!!!     As a change I took the 725 out 3 weeks ago, averaging 63/65 everytime now. So,it's obviously ME and not the gun. I have only ever shot 1/4 & 1/2. Always sporting

i cannot decide whether to go skeet / 1/4.      Skeet.     1/2.  Or just leave it.  I just hope I don't see anything nice at Harrogate next weekend otherwise I will be back to square 1 again.  Whichever way I go it's got to be better than working, surely?

[oldypigeonpopper]

hello diver 1, are you saying you shot better with the B125 than the 725 ?

[Walker570]

1 hour ago, oldypigeonpopper said:

hello diver 1, are you saying you shot better with the B125 than the 725 ?

Over 60yrs of shooting clays I have learned to never blame the tools.

[Westley]

1 hour ago, Diver One said:

👍

i have been missing clays on a regular basis for the past 2.5 years...exactly the same length of time I have been shooting, this is obviously a coincidence

bought a  725 sporter and gradually crept up to averaging about 40/100 sometimes rarely a 50. and got stuck in a rut. Was asked to 'mind' a 125 for a friends family as owner was ill, he passed away in January this year 😢. I shot it every week for 4 months. First time out I hit 50 and never dropped below, so it's obviously the gun and not me!!!     As a change I took the 725 out 3 weeks ago, averaging 63/65 everytime now. So,it's obviously ME and not the gun. I have only ever shot 1/4 & 1/2. Always sporting

i cannot decide whether to go skeet / 1/4.      Skeet.     1/2.  Or just leave it.  I just hope I don't see anything nice at Harrogate next weekend otherwise I will be back to square 1 again.  Whichever way I go it's got to be better than working, surely?

My advice would be to buy another 1/4 choke and shoot 1/4 in both barrels. This takes away the need to keep fumbling with the safety,  to choose which barrel to shoot first. I shoot a 725 with 1/4 in both and 24 gram cartridge and never feel undergunned.

[Walker570]

5 minutes ago, Westley said:

My advice would be to buy another 1/4 choke and shoot 1/4 in both barrels. This takes away the need to keep fumbling with the safety,  to choose which barrel to shoot first. I shoot a 725 with 1/4 in both and 24 gram cartridge and never feel undergunned.

100%

[Diver One]

3 hours ago, oldypigeonpopper said:

hello diver 1, are you saying you shot better with the B125 than the 725 ?

I THOUGHT I was shooting better with the 125 as my scores went up by 10 instantly. So I stayed with it for a few months. Then I went back to then725 and my scores went up,again. So it has to be me and not the gun

 

I still struggle with L-R crossers but nowhere near as much as I used to...and rabbits!  I am useless at 🐰 total,and utter pants. I am lucky if I get 1/50. And if I do I have NO idea how I hit it so cannot repeat it

 

but it will come, oh yes, it will come!  And whilst I am waiting I am enjoying every minute of it, out in the fresh air with nice people ( and a couple of muppets!)

[MrPhantom]

38 minutes ago, Diver One said:

I still struggle with L-R crossers but nowhere near as much as I used to...and rabbits!  I am useless at 🐰 total,and utter pants. I am lucky if I get 1/50. And if I do I have NO idea how I hit it so cannot repeat it

Rabbits are travelling a lot slower than you think. I always used to have problems hitting these too until I was told this! Always missing in front, yet the dust kicked up made it look that I was behind. Try to ‘shoot their feet off’ with minimal lead helped me.

 

[Lloyd90]

14 minutes ago, MrPhantom said:

Rabbits are travelling a lot slower than you think. I always used to have problems hitting these too until I was told this! Always missing in front, yet the dust kicked up made it look that I was behind. Try to ‘shoot their feet off’ with minimal lead helped me.

 

How does that work then? 🤔 

 

I’m normally rubbish on rabbit but nailed pretty much all of them on today’s stands  

[bumpy22]

Well done. Forget all the fuss about chokes and cartridges and get out and smash them. When you get really consistent scores then maybe look to change. Half the lads I coached yesterday nearly beat me lol

[Scully]

10 hours ago, MrPhantom said:

Rabbits are travelling a lot slower than you think. I always used to have problems hitting these too until I was told this! Always missing in front, yet the dust kicked up made it look that I was behind. Try to ‘shoot their feet off’ with minimal lead helped me.

 

This. Rabbits require very little lead , if any, in my experience. 

[Uilleachan]

Shot my worst score on Saturday, DTL rather than sporting. Had the comb up on the mk38, patterned it, shot a 75 bird practice last week, missed a few that I put down to distractions.

Went to a local-ish shoot on Saturday thinking I knew where my gun was shooting, and missed loads on the 1st stand, put the comb back down for the next and then recovered as much of my composure as I could. The scores are up on face book today, oh the shame 

 

[Scully]

Had a trip up to Westlands this morning, and did very well on both tower stands, only to be told 'the boss' is thinking of raising it! Just as I'd got used to it!

Anyhow, mate and me had a couple of goes on the Skeet layout and shot it properly; really good fun. He beat me but not by many.

He was using quarter and half and I 3/8th and half on our second 100 ( we usually do the first 100 with autos and the second with OU's ) These chokes were more than capable of good breaks on both tower stands incidentally, and great fun on the rabbits.

Have grown to really enjoy the Benelli Super 90, and even with full choke ( pigeon set up ) it's swingability is rapid enough to keep up with bolting rabbits. The Winchester 1500 XTR I have seems a little clunky and clumsy in comparison on clays as I'm always aware of the mechanism functioning, but not so in a hide strangely enough. Used 29grm 6's throughout. 

[islandgun]

On 05/05/2019 at 18:09, Diver One said:

👍

i have been missing clays on a regular basis for the past 2.5 years...exactly the same length of time I have been shooting, this is obviously a coincidence

bought a  725 sporter and gradually crept up to averaging about 40/100 sometimes rarely a 50. and got stuck in a rut. Was asked to 'mind' a 125 for a friends family as owner was ill, he passed away in January this year 😢. I shot it every week for 4 months. First time out I hit 50 and never dropped below, so it's obviously the gun and not me!!!     As a change I took the 725 out 3 weeks ago, averaging 63/65 everytime now. So,it's obviously ME and not the gun. I have only ever shot 1/4 & 1/2. Always sporting

i cannot decide whether to go skeet / 1/4.      Skeet.     1/2.  Or just leave it.  I just hope I don't see anything nice at Harrogate next weekend otherwise I will be back to square 1 again.  Whichever way I go it's got to be better than working, surely?

Class..

[stu64]

I've been shooting clays only for 5 years but I've put in an awful lot of range time, shooting at least once a week, quite often 6 times a month. I've taken advice of guys much better shots than me and I'm fairly confident now to offer advice. I only ever use 1/4 choke in my o/u and semi auto-if the gun is in the right place the clay will break. I've had good kills at 40 yards and beyond. My scores are 80-85 (best score 92). The most common "mistake" I see is people shooting below the clay. This stems from the desire to put the front bead right down so you don't see any rib. I know a lot will now be screaming "gun fit!!" but if you own a gun already it can be a case of just altering your gun mount so the shot lands where you want it to. Shoot a pattern plate and see where the shot lands. I proved this to a shooting buddy who couldn't hit a mole hill at a straw bale shoot. His scores went from 19/20 to 32 instantly. My own shooting improved in the same way. It's a bit alien to change your mount/sight picture, but the pattern plate says it all. Its all very well to say get the gun altered to fit you, but it costs and personally I found changing my mount to suit worked extremely well. No one actually tells you what you should expect to see when you look down the barrel, and some people think you should see no rib. Sorry to ramble on, but give it a go- you might be surprised. 

[Lloyd90]

On 08/05/2019 at 19:22, stu64 said:

I've been shooting clays only for 5 years but I've put in an awful lot of range time, shooting at least once a week, quite often 6 times a month. I've taken advice of guys much better shots than me and I'm fairly confident now to offer advice. I only ever use 1/4 choke in my o/u and semi auto-if the gun is in the right place the clay will break. I've had good kills at 40 yards and beyond. My scores are 80-85 (best score 92). The most common "mistake" I see is people shooting below the clay. This stems from the desire to put the front bead right down so you don't see any rib. I know a lot will now be screaming "gun fit!!" but if you own a gun already it can be a case of just altering your gun mount so the shot lands where you want it to. Shoot a pattern plate and see where the shot lands. I proved this to a shooting buddy who couldn't hit a mole hill at a straw bale shoot. His scores went from 19/20 to 32 instantly. My own shooting improved in the same way. It's a bit alien to change your mount/sight picture, but the pattern plate says it all. Its all very well to say get the gun altered to fit you, but it costs and personally I found changing my mount to suit worked extremely well. No one actually tells you what you should expect to see when you look down the barrel, and some people think you should see no rib. Sorry to ramble on, but give it a go- you might be surprised. 

 

 

What SHOULD you expect to see what looking down the barrel? 

As you say, no ones every told me 😣

[Scully]

13 minutes ago, Lloyd90 said:

 

 

What SHOULD you expect to see what looking down the barrel? 

As you say, no ones every told me 😣

If we're talking about the correct mount, and you have a mid bead aswell as a muzzle bead, I believe you are supposed to see one on top of the other as in a figure of 8. Some suggest taping a pound coin as far towards the breech end of the barrels as possible, and just being able to see the muzzle bead above it means you have the gun mounted correctly. I have no idea if either is correct, but the former makes sense. 

[Lloyd90]

54 minutes ago, Scully said:

If we're talking about the correct mount, and you have a mid bead aswell as a muzzle bead, I believe you are supposed to see one on top of the other as in a figure of 8. Some suggest taping a pound coin as far towards the breech end of the barrels as possible, and just being able to see the muzzle bead above it means you have the gun mounted correctly. I have no idea if either is correct, but the former makes sense. 

I used to have a gun with two beads and would like them up like a figure of 8 and was a rubbish shot with it. 

When I enquired about selling it the dealer told me it was left handed 😂. 

My shooting and score much improved when I bought a right handed silver pigeon. 

 

I sold the gun to a young lad starting out for less than it was worth but hearing how well he is shooting with it I don’t mind 👍🏻. 

 

Re my score of 41/50 ... not to worry as I’m back on track as I shot 21/50 at a different ground in Bridgend on the weekend 😂. 

[gibby]

Lloyd, not sure if you’ve shot there before, but Littleton shoot, just down the road from you by the motorway bridge in Hallen, well worth a visit. They do a Sunday shoot twice a month.

 

[stu64]

To make sure shot is landing where you expect it to start by shooting at a board with a mark on it to "aim" at. Take note of what you see in regards of rib. If the main body of shot lands low move your head forward on the stock or raise your head slightly.(I used to have my face way down hard on the comb and didn't see any rib at all) Shoot again and note shot fall. When the shot lands where you want it you now know how much rib to expect to see when the gun is correctly mounted. Now mount the gun repeatedly so you see the same amount of rib taking note of how the gun feels against your cheek. Then mount the gun with your eyes closed, and open your eyes to Check if you are seeing the correct height of rib And looking straight down the barrel. All this takes practice but it costs nothing. When I shoot I have the bead just below or on the bottom of the clay so I can see it all the time. With practice it becomes instinctive and you won't think about it. After a while you don't even notice the front bead because you're looking at the clay or bird. A few shots at a board and some gun mounting practice goes a very long way. 

[Lloyd90]

52 minutes ago, gibby said:

Lloyd, not sure if you’ve shot there before, but Littleton shoot, just down the road from you by the motorway bridge in Hallen, well worth a visit. They do a Sunday shoot twice a month.

 

There is a website with info? Sounds ideal that  

[gibby]

Here you go.

https://m.facebook.com/littlletonclays/?locale2=en_GB

[Lloyd90]

13 hours ago, gibby said:

Here you go.

https://m.facebook.com/littlletonclays/?locale2=en_GB

Thanks mate, 

have sent them a FB message 

[Squinting shot]

Gun won't rea3make a difference you probably just having a right good shoot well done on the score. My best is a 48/50 last summer. Missed 2 on my 1st stand about 4 clays in. Then never missed another clay why I can't do it again I don't know usually my scores are 36 to 40 I shoot at small clubs that are on farms so the setup is always different and muddy. Keep hitting the clays good luck

[Lloyd90]

2 hours ago, Squinting shot said:

Gun won't rea3make a difference you probably just having a right good shoot well done on the score. My best is a 48/50 last summer. Missed 2 on my 1st stand about 4 clays in. Then never missed another clay why I can't do it again I don't know usually my scores are 36 to 40 I shoot at small clubs that are on farms so the setup is always different and muddy. Keep hitting the clays good luck

A score of legend 👍🏻 

Have found a new shoot thanks to this thread that’s only 10 minutes from my house  

heading down Sunday, £15 for 60 clays and shoots every other Sunday!