Page not found – Go Shooting https://goshooting.com.au Template Site Fri, 01 Mar 2024 02:50:32 +0000 en-US hourly 1 https://goshooting.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2020/06/admin_ajax_Vce_icon.ico Page not found – Go Shooting https://goshooting.com.au 32 32 Article 1 – 2024 (February) https://goshooting.com.au/article-1-2024-february/ Fri, 01 Mar 2024 02:50:32 +0000 https://goshooting.com.au/?p=2952 Australian Shooter Magazine

Question and Answers

Article 1 – 2024 (February)

Question:  I love all forms of shooting whether it be rifle, pistol or shotgun. I guess I would have what would be described as a reasonable level of ability at each, but I really am not a master of any. Shotgun intrigues me as I just seem to miss for no reason at all. I shoot either Sporting Clays or Trap and I can hit ten targets in a row and then miss the next ten. I have no clue why, but I am told my concentration level needs a lot of work. To be honest I have the same issues when I hunt. I have seen videos that you have made regarding a “pre-shot routine”. Is that something that can be applied at all levels of shotgun shooting?

Rohan Douglas, Eaglehawk VIC 

Answer:  In all forms of shooting and I would assume in all sporting events, what you think about in the few seconds before you perform the required task regardless if that involves pulling a trigger, kicking a ball, pushing an oar through the water or whatever, will largely determine the outcome of the action. Your brain needs to be set in motion prior to that required action so your eyes, muscles and reflexes can automatically carry out their designated function.

On a shotgun shooting range a pre-shot routine is a relatively simple task to perform and many of the great competitors perform this without even knowing they are doing it. In an event like sporting clays where each stand requires different physical movements of the shotgun to break the target the same pre-shot routine should be applied each time. Before your shotgun is closed you would want to have visualized the point in the sky where you will identify your target, how far you will track it with your barrel and finally the sight picture you wish to see as you pull the trigger. Hopefully the pre-shot routine will be the same every single time no matter the difficulty of the target or the stage of the competition you are in. Many competitors fail under pressure because they simply rush their pre-shot routine and the mechanics of their technique fall apart from that point onwards. How many times do you see a competitor miss their last target in a round because they are more focused on the score rather than going through the same process as the previous twenty-four shots to get their desired score out of twenty-five?

In a strictly regimented shooting event like Trap where six competitors are taking turns to shoot every thirty to forty seconds, a very strict and tightly controlled pre-shot routine is easy to develop. As a general rule your routine would start when the person on your left is getting ready to shoot. The difference in Trap is that you can’t actually visualize where you intend on breaking the target as you won’t know exactly what direction your target is going. This is where too much visualization can be dangerous as you never want to pre-empt the flight path of an unknown target, but the gun mount and time taken before calling for the target to be released should never change. Many great trap shooters call for their target to be released so consistently in time from when the previous competitor has shot at their target, you could set your stop watch by it. If you watch the best tennis players or golfers you will see them religiously bouncing the ball the same number of times before they serve or taking the same amount of practice swings before they hit their golf ball every single time. This is not a coincidence. This is their pre-shot routine.

Obviously if you are walking through a quail paddock or standing in the middle of a swamp covered in camouflage waiting for a duck to fly over your head you won’t have the opportunity to apply the same highly orchestrated pre-shot routine. The mechanics required to actually bring down your game won’t be any different than those required to shoot a clay target and this is where some dry firing training at home in your garage or living room will become tremendously beneficial. You can still visualize your duck or quail; you just won’t have the same time to prepare. In essence your dry firing at home is preparing you not to have any time to prepare!

I hope this helps. Good luck with it.

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Article 11 – 2023 (December) https://goshooting.com.au/article-11-2023-december/ Thu, 04 Jan 2024 07:50:41 +0000 https://goshooting.com.au/?p=2948 Australian Shooter Magazine

Question and Answers

Article 11 – 2023 (December)

Question:  I have never quite understood where I should be looking when I call for the target to be released. I shoot a variety of clay target events that include Sporting, Trap and even Skeet and seeing the target leave as it starts its flight path seems to be my weakness. Any advice would be appreciated.

Beau Hammil, Doncaster VIC

Answer:  Beau, I have to assume you have good vision and have healthy eyes with no major issues. I also will assume you have had your eye dominance tested and are using your shotgun from the correct shoulder or have made the appropriate modifications if your dominant eye does not match your left or right “handiness”. A correct set of shooting frames is also highly recommended if you are forced to shoot with a prescription, I would strongly recommend a set of appropriate shooting glasses and to be honest, even if you don’t need corrective lenses simply get some frames for safety reasons. On these assumptions we can proceed.

I rate target acquisition as one of the most important fundamentals to master in the shooting sports. You can have the greatest shotgun in the world, the best technique, the most popular ammunition, but if you are not seeing the target correctly everything else is useless to you.

It is irrelevant what discipline of shotgun shooting you are participating in, the sooner you can lock your eyes on the target the better. In events like Trap or Skeet this is critical, but even in many of the fast Sporting Clay shots, that require quicker reflexes and instinctual shots, then where you position your eyes before you call will often determine the final result.

As a general rule there are two schools of thought on how you should set your eyes just prior to calling for the target in any form of shotgun shooting that requires a fast response.

The traditional point of view is that you should “softly focus” your eyes into the target acquisition area, just out over or even under the end of your barrel, so that your for-vision can still reference a sight picture between your barrel and the target when it eventually appears. Once the target in in the air your peripheral vision will first of all identify the flash of the target leaving and then your vision will very quickly go from a soft to a hard focus thus locking your eyes onto the target until the desired point in the sky where you want to pull the trigger to break it.

Many shooters use this method and don’t even know they are doing it and in many circumstances the fact that they don’t even know they are doing it can be quite advantageous. The less things floating around in your head the better is my take on this however there are many competitors out there that just need to know how everything works to perform at their best so the following method may be better for them if it can be perfected.

The second and more recent tactic is to train to keep your eye perfectly still for a period of at least two seconds before calling for the target to be released. It goes against the traditional technique as it brings your vision somewhat closer to the end of the barrel and holds your eye perfectly still “looking” at a blade of grass, a rock, a part of a cloud or a particular part of a tree branch. It can be any material object that holds your concentration and eye perfectly still and stops your eye moving back and forward constantly in the hundredths of seconds before calling for the target. Once you have control of your eye and have been able to keep it totally still there is quite a bit of evidence to suggest that it will identify a moving object (the target) much faster and with a lot more accuracy. This modern day approach is often referred to as the “Quiet Eye” technique and has been used with great success in many other sports and is quickly working its way through the shotgun sports. Once again there a quite a few athletes that I know that use this technique with great success, but in actual fact they don’t really even know they are doing it. The internet has many articles on this technique and I highly recommend some further research into it.

Identifying your target is an area of coaching that is often overlooked. When people ask for a shooting lesson, coaches often concentrate on gun fit and technique because these two material things are easy to fix. To improve someone’s ability to see the target and then have them move the barrel quickly and above all smoothly from the acquisition to the breaking point is quite another skill that requires a level of knowledge and experience to explain. My experience as a coach tells me that most people perform this task adequately, but many, if not most, could improve on it.

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Article 10 – 2023 (November) https://goshooting.com.au/article-10-2023-november/ Tue, 05 Dec 2023 11:37:28 +0000 https://goshooting.com.au/?p=2944 Australian Shooter Magazine

Question and Answers

Article 10 – 2023 (November)

Question:  I often hear people say that shotgun shooting is ninety percent mental and only ten percent technical? How true is that statement in your opinion?

Lin Chu, Darwin NT 

Answer:  I have heard plenty of people over the years go as far as saying the sport is ninety-nine percent mental. In my opinion that is a little over the top for the average shotgun shooter, but it could be very realistic at the higher end of the sport.

Of all of the shooting disciplines shotgun shooting is certainly the most instinctual, but that doesn’t mean that just any shotgun and technique will get you to the top of the sport. If you don’t have a grasp of the basic fundamentals and have equipment that shoots straight then it won’t matter how tough you are mentally you just aren’t going to get there.

I would suggest when you are starting out in the sport then the ratio for hitting targets even semi-consistently could be ten percent mental and ninety percent technical. It is the same as the sport of golf in my opinion. Anybody can randomly putt a ball in the hole every now and then from five metres away, but to do it ninety per cent of the time under pressure becomes practically impossible for a rank amateur more than fifty percent of the time. Just like shooting a perfect dead centre bullseye on the Pistol or Rifle Range. You will hit absolute perfection once in a while, but just because you did it once don’t expect to do it all the time.

I find that many of the great shotgun shooters are just like this. They go through the right technical procedures like clockwork. The same stance, same mount, placing their head on the stock in exactly the same position, they wait for the same amount of time before calling for the target to be released and eventually once they have seen the clay in the air they do exactly the same movement to the target time and time again. But here’s the thing! There isn’t one correct stance for everyone, there is not one particular way to mount the shotgun to your shoulder, no two people place their head on the stock in exactly the same manner and certainly there in not one identical place in the sky where you have to break the target no matter what discipline you are shooting. The single most important factor that you must accomplish is that you must do it your way identically every single time.

If you develop a routine mastering your technique and have the ultimate amount of faith and belief that you can break the target then more than likely you probably will. If you have any doubt that what you are about to do may not result in a hit then you are a big chance of missing. There is an age old saying in sport;

“Whether you think you can or think you can’t, you are correct”.

What this simple phrase is telling us is in the sport of shotgun shooting is that if you have the belief in yourself that you are about to break the next target thrown into the sky then as long as you have a reasonable grasp of the fundamentals and your shotgun is actually shooting straight then you are a huge chance to succeed.

Getting back to your original question about what percentage in the sport is mental it clearly depends what level you are talking about.

The six finalists at any Olympic Games in either discipline are all accomplished shooters with techniques and equipment that has been tried and tested for years. So, what separates them all? One word. Belief. This one word accounts for most of the success at this level. There is really no difference between any of the shotguns, ammunition and even though all the athletes may technically look like they are doing things differently pretty much all the basic technical fundamentals are being covered. It comes down to the person that really believes that during the next fifty minutes of an ultra-high pressure Olympic “Final” that they are going to hit everything that is going to be thrown into the sky and if they honestly believe that if for some reason a miss occurs, it was merely an “act of god” and that unfortunate incident won’t happen again any time soon, then generally, they are right. In this set of circumstances, the mental component of the game becomes way closer to one hundred percent than ninety.

A famous footwear company years ago coined the logo “Just do it”. I believe the marketing company executive that thought of this simple philosophy would have made a great clay target shooter.

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Article 9 – 2023 (October) https://goshooting.com.au/article-9-2023-october/ Sat, 04 Nov 2023 03:20:48 +0000 https://goshooting.com.au/?p=2933 Australian Shooter Magazine

Question and Answers

Article 9 – 2023 (October)

Question:  I was looking for some advice before I purchase a shotgun for my fourteen year old son. I was told recently that after 2024 all international trap and skeet shooting will be with steel shot only. If this is the case, I am very concerned about what firearm I should purchase for him? At present he just shoots sporting clays and the odd round of trap for fun, but like every father I guess ultimately, I would like to see him wearing the green and gold and competing in the Olympics. Is there any truth in these rumors and if so, why? If steel shot becomes mandatory, I would assume I may need to buy a shotgun that has barrels especially designed for this type of shot?

Manny Garfield, Indooroopilly QLD

Answer:  There are certainly many rumors flying around the International Shooting Sports Federation (ISSF) at the moment about the introduction of the compulsory use of steel shot after the Paris Olympics in 2024. At this stage that is all these are. Rumors. I guess where there is smoke you could also suggest there may be fire forthcoming. The ISSF is certainly under strong pressure to save itself as a sport at Olympic level. The television ratings from the Tokyo games suggest that the Shooting sports were one of the worst rating events. It is a sign of the times when both Skate-boarding and Rock-climbing made the top ten.

Anything that the ISSF can do to save their sport at this level is paramount. If they lose Olympic representation then the flow on to everyone involved in the firearms fraternity will be huge. In many countries around the world it is only the fact that Shooting is on the Olympic program that even allows their citizens to touch a firearm. Using steel won’t make it a better television event by a long way. If the current rules were applied and only 24 grams of shot size number 7’s were able to be legally used then the scores in the Trap event in particular would surely decrease. In Skeet I am not sure anything would change. The close distances that Skeet targets are shot at won’t have quite the same detrimental effect in my opinion.

In the small amount of testing that I have conducted with steel shot it was my conclusion that the penetration power of steel shot at greater distances clearly diminished therefore anyone that is relying on their second shot at forty metres or more to break a clay target that is driving away from you and is pretty much facing “edge on” will be in some trouble.

Most serious duck shooters would probably tell you that the killing power with steel shot compared to lead is certainly less and it can only be overcome with larger pellets. Here lies the problem for Trap shooters using steel. For many trap shooters their barrels are of a fixed choke and are usually configured with an improved modified (three-quarter) choke in the bottom barrel and a full choke in the top barrel for the second shot. There are some major manufacturers that strictly forbid any steel shot to be used through barrels with this amount of constriction in fact many only recommend the use of no more than half or modified choke when using steel shot. This will be the ISSF’s biggest issue. Using steel shot may make themselves look wonderful in the eyes of the green movement, but they may very well be creating a huge “barrier to entry” for their own sport.

Plenty of existing competitors simply will not be able to afford a new firearm or at the very least purchase a new set of barrels and have them fitted to their existing firearm. It would be a brave person to start using steel shot through a fifteen thousand dollar custom made shotgun with barrels that will have its warranty void when they do so. I am not sure the ISSF will want to take that risk.

If you are still un-sure I would strongly suggest you buy a shotgun with ”screw in” or variable chokes in its barrels. Whilst many Olympic Trap shooters might be able to get by with a modified choke for the first barrel, I doubt anyone of note would use this same choke for their second shot.

Stay tuned. I am sure there will be much more on this topic in the coming year. What everyone is wondering is of course what will happen to the domestic disciplines world-wide in regards to this issue if the international governing body gives way? This has the potential to get really ugly very quickly.

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Article 8 – 2023 (September) https://goshooting.com.au/article-8-2023-september/ Mon, 02 Oct 2023 01:36:52 +0000 https://goshooting.com.au/?p=2929 Australian Shooter Magazine

Question and Answers

Article 8 – 2023 (September)

Question:  I need some guidance for my youngest son who has been bitten by the clay target shooting bug. He loves Sporting Clays and also Skeet. I have always been a field shooter, but have recently taken the kids on a holiday to Melbourne where he had a shot at a registered range in both disciplines and now, he wants to continue this back home. I am willing to join him up at a serious club where he can compete regularly. Is there an ideal way to practice any of the clay disciplines as they all seem so different?

Alan Kohler, Brisbane QLD

Answer:  Alan the short answer is no. There isn’t a “one size fits all” way to set up a training schedule for everybody. I am assuming from the above that your boy is fairly new at this. The one thing that I would ask you to do is that he gets the basic fundamentals right. I am talking about stance, head positioning on the stock and shoulder, keeping his eyes parallel when his head is on the comb of the shotgun and of course please make sure his shotgun fits him, particularly in its stock length and height. Go and use a pattern board and make sure it shoots straight. The number of guys that have no real idea where their shotgun actually shoots amazes me.

Once you have all of these fundamentals under control then you can start to tailor a training plan. Regardless of whether it is sporting clays or skeet, start recording his practice rounds and take note of any targets that he seems to have a weakness in. If he continues to miss a “springing teal” or “high four” then try and get access to a range where he can practice these targets specifically until he can build some confidence. Once he feels he can competently hit most targets then sets some practice goals for him. Set a score in each round that he will have to work hard to achieve. It is pointless saying he needs to hit 24 or 25 when the best he has ever done is 18. Set realistic benchmarks and when he conquers them raise the bar slightly.

If you can, a great training drill is making him repeat any missed target three times in succession until he is allowed to continue the round. Drills like this can be hard to implement if you just practice shooting round after round with a squad of guys that simply want to have fun and get to the bar as soon as possible so you may have to call upon some favours from the club’s management.

Too many times I see young shooters blowing away round after round just for the sake of shooting clays. It is an expensive enough sport as it is without just going to the range to continually practice your mistakes.

You have to be a little careful setting drills and goals on every round as it is very important that your boy enjoys the sport also. I like to vary all my drills up so that they provide some pressure mixed in with fun. Shoot some stressful “miss and out” simulations with him. Sooner or later, he will be faced with this scenario in a competition to take home the prizes so it makes sense to prepare him for this reality. Give him a chance to have a round without any “hands on” coaching also as it is just as important that he learns to try new things out for himself as he won’t always have you there to fall back on.

Teaching your kids to shoot correctly is one of the great pleasures in life. I can honestly say I have had more fun watching my children battle against each other when they go to the range or on my property up on the banks of the Darling River. Neither have aspirations to compete at the Olympics, but they both have a huge competitive streak in them and I admit one of the best experiences I have had is when they both actually beat me one day. I learnt then they did not inherit my humility.

Good luck with it.

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Article 7 – 2023 (August) https://goshooting.com.au/article-7-2023-august/ Fri, 01 Sep 2023 00:34:51 +0000 https://goshooting.com.au/?p=2923 Australian Shooter Magazine

Question and Answers

Article 7 – 2023 (August)

Question:  Recently I purchased a second hand shotgun, it is an Akkar Churchill Sporter, and for some reason I have developed a habit where I just can’t pull the trigger when taking a shot. I shoot a bit of everything with this shotgun and I really like it. I had a Miroku MK 70 prior to this and I never had this happen. Any advice would be appreciated.

Kevin Muscatt, Point Cook VIC

Answer:  Without actually seeing you shoot the firearm it is hard to be definitive in my answer, but I will try. I will make the assumption that the firearm is mechanically OK. By that I am assuming that for some reason the trigger pull isn’t ridiculously heavy. You can get a cheap set of fish scales and check this for yourself. Typically, the first barrel of an under and over shotgun will fire when 1.5 to 2 kilograms of weight is applied to pulling the trigger. The second shot should be slightly heavier. If this measurement is fine then you may have a more sinister problem.

What you are describing is what is called a “flinch”. In golf bad putters of the ball call it the “yips”. I am sure I have discussed this phenomenon in this forum several times over the past twenty years, but it is worth discussing again. As to what causes a flinch to develop is still largely speculation, but I have found that a fear of recoil or even a fear of missing are to two most common causes.

Here is the bad news. There is no definitive fix, but there are some things to try. First of all, make sure you are pulling the trigger with the correct part of your trigger finger. It should be in the middle of the fleshy part of your fingers pad between the last joint and the end. By pulling the trigger here you will need less movement to fire the shotgun than any other part of your finger. If you have an adjustable trigger, you will probably need to move the trigger further forward to help you pull the trigger in this manner.

If this doesn’t cure the issue you can try adding a trigger “shoe” over the top of the existing trigger. This will change how the trigger feels on your finger and I have seen this work. Practicing at home “dry firing” the shotgun will help with the aid of some snap caps.

If these two things don’t help then I would suggest you really down grade your ammunition velocity to see if recoil is the issue. Try something with a muzzle velocity up to 50 metres a second (150 feet) slower. You may want to also lighten the amount of shot you are using. Try some 24 gram shells instead of 28 grams for example. Anything that will lighten the recoil and make it more pleasurable to shoot is worth trying to see if this is the issue.

You mention you never have had this problem with your previous shotgun. What was the overall weight of the Miroku compared to the Churchill? Lighter shotguns recoil more and therefore the pain factor is higher. This may be very well be the cause of the problem.

The last piece of advice before I suggest the most serious course of action is simply to have a rest for a few weeks and come back fresh and try it once again.

If all that fails then “Houston we have a problem” and the only way around it may be to try a release trigger shotgun. This is really the last course of action. With a release trigger you have to pull the trigger first to engage the mechanism which means the next movement you make is to let the trigger go to fire it. Absolutely this will cure a flinch in most cases, but it will take a little bit of discipline and some steady nerves to get used to it. In the USA a great many trap shooters have had huge success once they have changed to this trigger mechanism. You mention you shoot all types of clay target events so be aware that for any of the Olympic clay target disciplines there is a total ban on release trigger shotguns so put on hold your plans to go to Paris next year if you are indeed forced to go down this road. The other issue you will face is that not all shotguns are capable of accommodating a release trigger mechanism. I have no clue if a Churchill will handle this I am afraid.

I am sorry I can’t be more precise in my answer, but this technical/mental problem remains one of the real mysteries in our sport.

Good luck with it.

Questions to:      Russell@GoShooting.com.au

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Article 6 – 2023 (July) https://goshooting.com.au/article-6-2023-july/ Sun, 30 Jul 2023 06:20:43 +0000 https://goshooting.com.au/?p=2920 Australian Shooter Magazine

Question and Answers

Article 6 – 2023 (July)

Question:  This is a serious question so please treat it as such. I would also ask that you keep my name anonymous. I am after your opinion on whether you believe transgender athletes should be allowed to compete in shooting competitions such as those conducted at the Olympics Games? I have a close relative that is quite interested in pursuing clay shooting, but is facing some personal issues. Personally, I don’t believe there is advantage in  either gender for any of the shooting events, but some may say in events such as shotgun, strength is a big factor. I am curious on your thoughts about this and do you believe there will be any backlash and discrimination towards anyone that tries this.

Name and address withheld

Answer: I have not to printed your name and address as requested because of the sensitivity of the topic. I am not wanting to start a verbal war within our readership. I do respect your question and I pre-empt my reply by stating these are my views and not necessarily those of the Sporting Shooters Association of Australia, Australian Olympic Committee or anyone else that I represent. These are just my opinions in response to your question.

Firstly, let me state what some of the requirements are currently for any person born a male planning to cross over and compete in female competitions. Amongst other things that are way too involved and complicated to mention here, an athlete must adhere to the following conditions to be considered to compete in the Olympics as decided by the International Olympic Committee in 2015;

1.The athlete has declared that her gender identity is female. The declaration cannot be changed, for sporting purposes, for a minimum of four years.

  1. The athlete must demonstrate that her total testosterone level in serum has been below 10 nmol/L for at least 12 months prior to her first competition (with the requirement for any longer period to be based on a confidential case-by-case evaluation, considering whether or not 12 months is a sufficient length of time to minimize any advantage in women’s competition).
  2. The athlete’s total testosterone level in serum must remain below 10nmol/L throughout the period of desired eligibility to compete in the female category.

  3. Compliance with these conditions may be monitored by testing. In the event of non-compliance, the athlete’s eligibility for female competition will be suspended for 12 months.

It may surprise you that four athletes competed at the 2021 Tokyo Olympics as transgender or nonbinary competitors in the sports of Weightlifting, BMX, Football and Skateboarding.

The argument of male strength is the most common criticism thrown up, but it may also surprise you to know at the 1992 Olympic Games at Barcelona in the Shotgun event of Skeet, which at that time was solely an open competition with no separate category for men and women, a small petite Chinese lady by the name of Shan Zhang won the Gold Medal after shooting a perfect 200/200 over the three days of qualification. I know Shan well and she has not got a masculine muscle in her body. She is as feminine as they come so that sort of destroys the strength argument some-what. One must therefore the question is strength a huge factor in the Air Pistol events or even non-Olympic competitions like Prone or Benchrest Rifle for that matter?

Interestingly in 2017 in the United States the eleventh ranked women’s air pistol shooter was an athlete that qualified under the above criteria and “they” declared their intention to try and compete at future Olympic Games.

So, to my view on this issue and again, this is just my opinion. Personally I initially struggled with it a little. I have a daughter that shoots every now and then in small competitions and I feel she would be at a physical disadvantage against the men. But here’s the thing. She doesn’t feel that way at all. She has an attitude like Shan Zhang that when she competes, she enters the competition to shoot the highest score irrespective of what gender has entered the event. Her opinion now puts me curiously “on the fence” with the whole topic.

I admit I do not know any male athlete in our sport that wants to make the change so I can’t comment personally with any experience on the issue, but I guess if someone is born a male and feel they should have been a female and meet the above four criteria and desperately want to compete in our sport at the highest level then the door is open. I don’t accept discrimination against any human based on their race, religion or sexuality and although this is a different topic, I feel my views will be seen as somewhat hypocritical. For that I apologise if in fact this does offend you or any of our readers that are contemplating this change. I am sure it is a long road and a terribly difficult decision.

 

Finally will there be any discrimination or backlash? If it’s permissible under the rules then there shouldn’t be any discrimination. Will there be any backlash? Sadly, I need to be honest here, I would certainly not condone it, but I am not sure everyone in the shooting sports is ready for transgender athletes just yet, but again this is just my opinion.

It is only a matter of time before the National organisations governing the shooting sports in Australia are faced with this complex issue at a domestic competition level so I would suggest they get on the front-foot and formulate and openly publish their policy on the matter before it becomes a problem.

It’s a topic we can all have a view point on and one, I am sure, that we all won’t agree.

Welcome to 2023!

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Article 5 – 2023 (June) https://goshooting.com.au/article-5-2023-june/ Sun, 02 Jul 2023 03:19:38 +0000 https://goshooting.com.au/?p=2915 Australian Shooter Magazine

Question and Answers

Article 5 – 2023 (June)

Question: What are your views on the new type of “ergonomic” shotgun stocks that I see appearing more and more around the shooting ranges? I looked at the price of one and I was amazed they are around three thousand dollars. What am I missing here? I think you would agree that they look ugly, but my question is do you think they are worth trying?

Peter French, Mornington VIC

Answer: If you are a “purist” then I agree these stocks are not for you. I was given one to try when they first appeared on the market around fifteen years ago. I was in Europe at the time and had only been using the new ergo stock for a few months when I turned up at the Beretta factory in Italy to have my gun serviced. It was actually Beretta’s gun not mine; I was using it on their behalf. They took one look at the stock, duplicated it in walnut and handed the gun back to me minus the “ugly” skeleton that was attached to the mechanism. They certainly were not keen to see one of their beautiful firearms “defaced” in this way. I never saw that ergo stock again, but they assured me that if I put it back on their shotgun, I would be waking up with a horse head in my bed remanence of a scene from “The Godfather”!

Times have changed and the ergonomic stock has certainly made an impact on the market with multiple Olympic and World Champions adopting the new technology.

In essence, the ergonomic stock is just a glorified “try gun” stock that has been used by the worlds leading firearm companies for a very long time. Today many of them come with the option of a custom made grip or a variety of “glove grip” sizes to choose from. Virtually every dimension of the stock can be adjusted and even the balance can be personalized.

It is fairly easy to adjust the stock to gain a perfect stock fit. Of course, the challenge then becomes a battle of resistance to avoid making tiny changes to the shotguns setup every time you miss a target. My experience tells me that many people are losing this challenge. The ease the pitch, cast, drop, length and balance can be changed is just too much for many to resist and instead of correcting the mental and technical problem that caused the poor shot they see the solution in their set of “allen” keys. Ninety nine times out of one hundred, providing the stock was set correctly to begin with, changing it is not the answer. This is of course why Beretta fifteen years ago duplicated the ergo stock I brought into the factory so this temptation to adjust it every time I missed was taken away.

Three thousand dollars seems a lot of money, but if you get two quality walnut stocks made it won’t be far short of this price. Not too many competition shooters that have been in the sport for a few years have only had two stocks made so I guess this is the argument about the price.

In saying all of that I am still in favour of the ergonomic design stock for many people as it can be adjusted so much that it can turn almost any shotgun into an “all round” firearm capable of being used from the competition arena all the way down to recreational hunting. Once you know the stock set up required for each discipline of shotgun shooting you are using it for then in no time you have a perfect set up. I admit I do cringe a little when I see these stocks on some of the higher grade shotguns as they certainly look ugly although I do see many of these ergo stocks on the competition circuit painted with national colours and flags, but for my eye they will never replace the beauty of a dark piece of walnut with a lengthy grain running through it.

Sadly, they do not give points at the Olympic Games based on how beautiful your shotgun looks as they only pay how accurately you can point it. For that reason alone the ergo stock is here to stay.

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Article 4 – 2023 (May) https://goshooting.com.au/article-4-2023-april/ Fri, 02 Jun 2023 07:00:50 +0000 https://goshooting.com.au/?p=2897 Australian Shooter Magazine

Question and Answers

Article 4 – 2023 (May)

Question: I need some serious help on an issue I seemed to have developed with my vision when I shoot clays. I like to shoot all the target disciplines if I can get the chance and I guess I have had varying degrees of success at achieving reasonable scores over the years. I am now sixty-five years old and the problem I am having is that I seem to have lost the ability to smoothly mount the shotgun to my shoulder and wait a few seconds for my eyes to settle before calling “pull”. The only way I can shoot a decent score in any event these days is to just throw the shotgun to the shoulder and call the moment the stock hits my face. Is this normal? I am at the point of giving up.

Pete Davis, Virginia SA 

Answer: It’s a great question that sadly has no definitive answer in my opinion, but as a coach I have had a fair bit of exposure to competitors that have gone down the same path as yourself.

I will start by saying this. There are very few things that should be considered “normal” amongst the world’s elite shooters when it comes to vision. Everyone seems to do things slightly different.

For many people, regardless of what discipline of clay target shooting they compete in, once their shotgun is closed and it is placed in the “ready” position, which can be either on or off the shoulder depending on the event that you are shooting in, the tendency is to wait a few seconds for your eyes to settle before asking for the target to be released. Just how long you wait can vary on many variables from how much time you legally can pause for such as the time restrictions you may be faced with if  you are competing under the Olympic rules or simply how much strength is required to hold a four kilogram steady before fatigue starts to become a factor. I would suggest most competitors wait between two to four seconds from this “ready” position, but the real reason to keep steady is to ensure your eyes are positioned in the correct position to clearly identify the target when it is released from the clay target thrower. This ideal position will vary from discipline to discipline and of course from individual to individual.

What you are doing now is not uncommon. Many people find that as they get older it becomes harder to maintain this “soft” focus position for too long because the longer they wait they are finding that their eyes are being drawn back to the end of the barrel and within no time you are looking at a big red front sight instead of looking out in the area beyond where the target is going to be released from.

Focusing clearly on the end of the barrel is a real issue for beginners or anyone that has been brought up shooting an open sight rifle or pistol. All shotgun shooters need to know where the end of their barrel is, but they don’t need to see it clearly as their vision should be locked onto the object they are trying to hit as it is being propelled through the sky.

There are certainly eye exercises you can try to help train your failing peripheral vision and I would recommend you speak to a decent optician for help if you are deadly serious on improving your shotgun shooting, but I am wondering if it is as simple as your eye sight starting to fail as opposed to you simply getting a little older and not being able to have the fast reflexes to react to the speed of the target as you once did?

The method you are describing to shoot your targets these days is nearly a technique where your weight is propelled forward as you mount the shotgun and I would like to bet your barrel is still in motion as you call for the target. A moving barrel technique is certainly a bona fide way that many great competitors have used over the years and if you are not seeing the targets clearly then this technique promotes very fast barrel movements which can help overcome some of these problems. Personally, I only get people to try this technique as a last resort, but I have seen some great results from people that can master this method of shooting. My main concern for anyone trying this is that under pressure there is a tendency to start swinging the barrels faster as your heart rate rises.

Before you sell your shotguns speak to your optician and I am sure he will point you in the right direction.

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