Article 8 – 2022 (September)
Australian Shooter Magazine
Question and Answers
Article 8 – 2022 (September)
Question: I was interested in your article earlier this year about how there has been a trend with many Sporting Clay competitors of recent times towards using stocks that were made for trap shooting on their sporting shotguns. You mentioned this is because many competitors are now understanding that there is an advantage to have a higher shooting shotgun so they can see their target above their barrels all the time. I understand the theory of this, but recently I tried a genuine Monte Carlo trap stock on my Beretta 682 Sporting shotgun and I really struggled. In all honesty I saw the targets worse, even blurred. My traditional sporting stock was twice as effective as I could see the targets better. Can you help me explain this?
Jonathon Brown, Gisborne VIC
Answer: It is certainly a rash generalization to suggest that all successful sporting shooters in recent years have swapped to trap stocks on their shotguns. This simply isn’t true. There are still plenty of successful Sporting Clay shooters around the world winning major trophies with shotguns whose point of impact is just marginally above, or even parallel to, their point of aim. By this I mean their shotguns are throwing their shot patterns fifty percent, or close to it, above and fifty per cent below their aiming point. In trap shooting that is considered very low as sixty to seventy percent all the way to one hundred percent high shot patterns is common place in this discipline. You have to find what is best for you and this can often depend on your age, technique and of course your experience.
The answer to your question as to why the targets appeared blurry when you used a genuine Trap Monte Carlo stock is far more technical and an issue that is often sadly overlooked by many shotgun shooters and more importantly, inexperienced stock-makers.
A traditional Monte Carlo Trap stock (as covered in my column in the August 2022 ASJ) has a comb that is parallel to the barrel. By this I am referring to the angle from the front to the back of the comb being the same angle as the barrel of the shotgun. Historically this angle is zero. However for many people, and I am willing to bet you are one of them, this angle causes the comb of the stock not to fit comfortably or correctly under the cheekbone thus letting your head fall down on the comb instead of being supported upright. If your face is pushed down on the comb this may cause the incorrect positioning of your eyes and leads to one of the biggest problems in shotgun shooting in my opinion. It causes you to look through the top portion of your eyes as your head has fallen forward on the comb and as a result what happens is exactly what you have claimed. Blurry vision that leads to poor target acquisition and the only way out of this is by bringing your head off the stock to try and see the target better. This of course leads to arguably the second worse habit in our sport. Lifting your head to try and see the target better whilst in the process of making your shot. That is a habit that can only lead to inconsistent and inaccurate shooting.
Your traditional sporting stock would have about twenty millimetres difference in height (when measured by running a ruler from the barrels over the top of your stock and measuring downwards to the top of the comb) from the front of the comb and measuring again at the heel. A common sporting stock dimension would be approximately forty millimetres at the front of the comb and around sixty millimetres at the back. The difference in the measurements is what is called “drop”. This twenty millimetres of drop produces quite an angle and, for lots of shotgunners, it will fit under your cheekbone much better and it will keep your head up and more erect therefore letting you acquire your target better. The trade-off is more drop generally produces more “cheek slap” and more perceived recoil to your face, but if it means seeing your target better then it may be a matter of a little pain for lots of gain. You certainly can’t shoot what you can’t see.
This measurement or angle of drop varies from person to person because everyone tends to have a slightly different cheekbone structure. It is a measurement worth experimenting with as you need to find what is right for you. As you evolve your technique you may find that you will add or subtract your drop dimensions. If you are lucky enough to have an adjustable comb on your shotgun that allows you to not only change the height and cast of your comb, but also the amount of drop then you should be able to find what is right for you very quickly. Certainly consider this feature if you are looking to add an after-market adjustable comb to your shotgun. Many of the cheap and nasty ones won’t be engineered in a way that will allow you to do this.