Five Shotgun Mistakes

I’ll never forget the hunting season when I missed so much for so long that I thought about wrapping my shotgun around a tree. A poor workman blames his tools, right? Well, the way I figured it my stock must have had too much drop, the fixed chokes should have been opened and my loads had to have been off.

I eventually realized I needed to focus on my shooting mistakes. You know the kind — cheek not on the stock, too much muzzle rock — and all the rest. My technique contributed to the mess of being above, below, behind, and never quite in front of the bird. Fortunately, the season ended without fanfare. I still have that shotgun and I shoot it quite well.

After some soul-searching, I eventually realized five common shotgunning mistakes handicapped my shooting. The great thing was that they were easily resolved.

Poor footwork

Brush, vines, and plants that tangle feet make for terrible stances. Most of the time my feet were too close to each other and my lower body didn’t support the movement of my upper body. Other times I had too wide of a stance which caused my back to tighten. It’s why I typically shot behind the bird.

The solution was to read the woods and fields and pick an easier-to-navigate path. Yeah, I got brownie points for plowing through the jungle, but each point was lost with a missed bird. Stance is the foundation of a shot and getting a good one creates a smooth, even swing and puts more birds in the bag.

Proper positioning

Being in the right place at the right time is important for hitting birds. If you’re putting on a pheasant drive in a field and you’re lagging behind, then you won’t get a shot. The solution is to stay in line. Not only will you get a better shot, but your hunting buddies will appreciate you being safe. And get up on birdy dogs, too. Folks drag behind usually because they’re out of shape or because they stayed up too late the night before. You’ll kill more birds if you shed a few pounds and get up on those dogs.

Checked Swing

The concept of standing in thick cover and shooting into the open can get stuck in our heads. Why? We reason more shot will hit our birds.

Because of their thin skin, we only need a few well-placed BBs to drop a bird. And it’s much easier to deliver them if we’re standing in a more open area and shooting into the thickness. Sure, some pellets will be deflected, but only a handful need to make contact. Let your dog scour the thick stuff while you look for open areas adjacent to the cover. Birds like edges and those can be found along a clear cut, a skidder trail, hedgerow or two-track. You’ll be glad you did.

Haste makes waste

Watching a bird fly away can make us speed up our shot. We panic, “he’s getting away,” we think so we hurry. But how fast do you really have to be when your load is speeding out beyond your muzzle at a pace faster than 1,200 feet per second?

Rushed shots are loaded with mistakes. We don’t take the time to establish a proper stance, acquire the target sharply, mount our shotgun, swing, and follow through. There is also the opposite — if we set up our chokes and loads to be deadly at 40 yards but hit a bird flushed at 20 yards, then we won’t have much left for supper. Or, in most cases, our pattern will be so tight that we’ll miss.

For the most part we always have more time than we think so the solution is to find the middle ground. Be quick but smooth, be deliberate and not random. Get on the bird as quickly as you can without sacrificing mechanics.

Wrong Clothing

Outerwear frequently causes lousy gun mounts. It’s common to layer up on a cold day but if your layers are bunched they’ll grab your shotgun butt. Wear so many bulky layers you resemble the Stay Puff Marshmallow Man and your length of pull gets altered. Tight clothing isn’t any better because it restricts movement and encumbers a swing. Rough cotton jackets grab shotgun butts, especially if they have rubber recoil pads.

Wingshooting is an athletic sport. Fleece vests provide warmth and comfort while allowing for good shoulder movement. If it’s cold or if you need more pockets to hold your shells, GPS or compass, e-collar transmitters and birds, then wear them under a vest or a strap vest. The layered approach works well to dissipate moisture and a base layer to wick away perspiration helps us stay warm and dry while delivering lethal technique.

If your shotgun has a rubber recoil pad, wrap it with electrician’s tape. Two or three strips placed where the butt meets your shoulder are enough. Then wrap the edge with one long strip. The pad will slide up your clothing as easily as if it were made from leather. It’s tough to get on a bird when your clothes mess up your mount, so leave your work clothing at home and wear hunting-specific gear. It’s designed a certain way for a reason.

Michael Jordan said, “you miss” 100% of the shots you never take.” But when we get close to missing 100% of the shots we take, we get frustrated. Improvise, adapt and overcome with a few tweaks. It’s how you can make this season one for the books.

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