Article 5 – 2024 (June)
Australian Shooter Magazine
Question and Answers
Article 5 – 2024 (June)
Question: I am an absolute novice at shotgun shooting and are getting inundated with people offering me advice to get me started which I truly appreciate, but are totally confused about. I have, however, been a keen rifle shooter for the past ten years. I really enjoy your column in the ASJ and I was wondering if there are a few basic bad habits I should try to avoid?
Jay Irwin, Stawell VIC
Answer: It is a pretty broad question Jay, but to get you started I will give you five pointers that you should concentrate on.
First of all, determine your dominant eye. If you are new to shotgun shooting and your left eye happens to be your dominant one then try to learn to shoot from your left shoulder. Obviously do the same if your right eye is the master by shooting from your right side. This will allow you to keep both eyes open and will be a huge benefit to you in all forms of shotgun shooting. There is simply no advantage to having to close or patch up one of your two eyes. This is not a complete barrier to entry to our sport by any means, but if you can get on top of this as a beginner then you will reap the benefits later. Twenty-eight percent of right handed people are left eye dominant. If you have to change shoulders because of your eye dominance you will not be on your own.
Learn how to stand and balance yourself correctly before you mount your shotgun to your shoulder. The centre of your body (the zipper on your jeans) should be roughly pointing forty-five degrees to the right or left (depending on which shoulder you mount your shotgun to) of your aiming point. You DO NOT need to put ninety percent of your weight on your leading leg with a bent knee to combat recoil. This is a habit you want to avoid at an early stage.
If you have been a keen rifle shooter in the past you should know how to sight your rifle in so you know exactly where the firearm impacts. A shotgun is no different. Find a pattern board at a shooting range or construct your own on a rural property with the aid of some cardboard and a tree or post. Safely stand back twenty metres, mark the cardboard and find out if your shotgun is shooting straight and ideally slightly above your aiming point. I have written many articles here in the ASJ on how to do this in the past. Go back and have a read. It is well worth the time and effort, but I am constantly amazed at the amount of shotgunners that simply don’t bother.
The front sight on your shotguns barrel is not like the front sight of your rifle. Shotgun shooting is a pointing game not an aiming one. By that I mean that the front sight of your shotgun simply helps you identify where the end of your barrel is and aids you to point it in the right direction. If you ever see the front sight of your shotgun clearly whilst trying to shoot a shotgun then you are doing it wrong. The front sight is only ever to remain in for for-vision as a blur. Your eyes should only ever be clearly focused on the object you are aiming at.
One of the most common mistakes in shotgun shooting is caused from people who do not keep their head consistently in the same position on the firearm’s comb (the top of the stock) between the execution of the first and second shot, therefore making the second shot hopelessly inaccurate. “Lifting your head” can be caused from a variety of issues. From a poorly fitted stock that is simply too long or short for the user, to a fear of recoil that is often started from the use of high velocity and therefore high recoil ammunition and often used through an inappropriately light weight shotgun. This can lead to all sorts of bad habits down the road, the worst being the inability to pull the trigger or “freezing” as we know it in the sport. Get your shotgun fitted reasonably correctly and only use the ammunition that is made for the job at hand. There is a mistaken belief by many in the sport of clay target shooting that high velocity is always better. This is a myth. Any reasonable gun shop owner should be able to help you with both the appropriate ammunition choice and basic gun fit.
The list could go on and on, but if you get your head around these five things then you should be well on your way.