Goodfish
Well-known member
One of my mentors used to yell at me to lead them a school bus because I was always too far behind!
Tips on shooting wild upland birds
- Thread starter NVDesertHunter
- Start date
CPAjeff
Well-known member
Some great insight has been given so far!
What choke are you running? How fast are your hunting loads flying? Are you pulling your head up at the shot to see if you hit the bird or not?
Over the years, I’ve tried to mirror the speed of my hunting shells with the speed of my trap shells - maybe its something to look at, or maybe it’s mental. But, it seems my hit percentage is much higher. I also have used a less and less restrictive choke, I rarely run anything more than an IC.
What choke are you running? How fast are your hunting loads flying? Are you pulling your head up at the shot to see if you hit the bird or not?
Over the years, I’ve tried to mirror the speed of my hunting shells with the speed of my trap shells - maybe its something to look at, or maybe it’s mental. But, it seems my hit percentage is much higher. I also have used a less and less restrictive choke, I rarely run anything more than an IC.
Salmonchaser
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Been hunting Chukar for over 50 years. I prefer butt, belly beak. Quail are slower than pheasants, count to three, let them pick their direction, mount the gun then shoot.
Chukar accelerate for about 40 yards then turn down hill, adding acceleration due to gravity. Add in the difficult terrain, they get tough to hit.
I guided bird hunts for ten years. It was easy to get guys hitting quail, slow down, roosters same thing, slow down. Chukar always had the lowest hit to shot ratio.
Keep your head down on the gun, keep the bill of your hat pushed back and don’t peak.
Chukar accelerate for about 40 yards then turn down hill, adding acceleration due to gravity. Add in the difficult terrain, they get tough to hit.
I guided bird hunts for ten years. It was easy to get guys hitting quail, slow down, roosters same thing, slow down. Chukar always had the lowest hit to shot ratio.
Keep your head down on the gun, keep the bill of your hat pushed back and don’t peak.
I've only hunted upland a handful of times but the two things I learned are to slow down initially and then lead by more than you think on a full crossing bird. What I mean by slow down initially is make a conscious effort to get the gun settled into your shoulder pocket so you have proper line of sight down the barrel. I used to raise the gun too quickly and it wasn't in my shoulder pocket properly and I'd shoot high b/c my eye wasn't aligned with the barrel.
Lead is a tough one. It is more about feel than anything I suppose but I have found that having more lead than you'd think works well. I initially would never hold farther than the nose of the bird and missed a bunch. Once I started aiming in front of the bird my hits went up.
Lead is a tough one. It is more about feel than anything I suppose but I have found that having more lead than you'd think works well. I initially would never hold farther than the nose of the bird and missed a bunch. Once I started aiming in front of the bird my hits went up.
I had a GSP that, when I missed a shot, would turn around and give me a look that said "You stupid SOB. You got one job and one job only, you would think you could get it right! All that pressure made me try a lot harder not to miss.
MTLabrador
Well-known member
My dogs do that…
Practice.
Plain and simple. If you want your shot to be as instinctive as possible, you have to have a body of work to go off of. To be honest, I wouldn't invest so much effort into x ft of lead on a bird at x yards. That seems silly to me. When you have a solid body of shooting experience, your mind will make those calculations in 1/1000th of a second without thinking.
Use clay pigeons. Have a buddy throw them. All angles and all speeds. Up, down, and all around. Away from you and even towards you (safely). Left to right and right to left. Quartering to and quartering away. You get the point.
Make sure you're shooting a gun that fits you correctly. Also, check your form and make sure you don't have any major flaws. Plenty of sources online for this.
As you practice, you'll gain confidence. We all have days that we either make or miss a shot to start off and that can either get you on a roll or sent you spiraling. Staying confident can make a big difference.
A comp for this would be just like hitting a baseball. Great hitters spend exponentially more time practicing their craft in the cage than they did on the field. They rely on fundamentals and muscle memory. Same for shooting.
Finally, when you're confident in yourself, you're hitting your target more and more, and you feel good, practice some more.
Plain and simple. If you want your shot to be as instinctive as possible, you have to have a body of work to go off of. To be honest, I wouldn't invest so much effort into x ft of lead on a bird at x yards. That seems silly to me. When you have a solid body of shooting experience, your mind will make those calculations in 1/1000th of a second without thinking.
Use clay pigeons. Have a buddy throw them. All angles and all speeds. Up, down, and all around. Away from you and even towards you (safely). Left to right and right to left. Quartering to and quartering away. You get the point.
Make sure you're shooting a gun that fits you correctly. Also, check your form and make sure you don't have any major flaws. Plenty of sources online for this.
As you practice, you'll gain confidence. We all have days that we either make or miss a shot to start off and that can either get you on a roll or sent you spiraling. Staying confident can make a big difference.
A comp for this would be just like hitting a baseball. Great hitters spend exponentially more time practicing their craft in the cage than they did on the field. They rely on fundamentals and muscle memory. Same for shooting.
Finally, when you're confident in yourself, you're hitting your target more and more, and you feel good, practice some more.
2rocky
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- Jul 23, 2010
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- 4,968
Pay for a shooting lesson or three and have your gun fitted at a skeet range. Think of it as the equivalent to having the right Bow Draw length.
I personally have the best luck with a swing-through lead.
I personally have the best luck with a swing-through lead.
bullbugle307
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- Jul 19, 2018
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I'm no expert, but the single biggest problem I see is people shooting right behind the bird because they stopped swinging when they pulled the trigger. I'm horrible at this.
Going with a longer than needed lead could lead to hits if you're stopping, but your much better off going with the proper lead and swinging through the shot.
If you can, go to a skeet range and have an experienced shooter stand behind you. They can tell you the proper lead for each bird. I got taught with fingers as a unit of measurement. As in, this is a hard crosser, go with 4 fingers of lead. If your lead was right and your mount was good and you missed, it's cause you stopped swinging. And they can see that.
Granted, that just identified the problem. Getting your brain and muscles to override muscle memory from rifle shooting is another thing entirely.
Going with a longer than needed lead could lead to hits if you're stopping, but your much better off going with the proper lead and swinging through the shot.
If you can, go to a skeet range and have an experienced shooter stand behind you. They can tell you the proper lead for each bird. I got taught with fingers as a unit of measurement. As in, this is a hard crosser, go with 4 fingers of lead. If your lead was right and your mount was good and you missed, it's cause you stopped swinging. And they can see that.
Granted, that just identified the problem. Getting your brain and muscles to override muscle memory from rifle shooting is another thing entirely.
OntarioHunter
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- Sep 11, 2020
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I have to disagree. Follow through takes more time which allows for more potential to overthink the shot. Get the gun in front of the bird and fire as it closes the distance. I find skeet is best practice for uplands. Too many presentations in clays that don't apply. Learn to shoot skeet low gun.I'm not a pro upland bird shooter. But I hunt birds a lot. I think your 4 ft sustained lead is too much. On a skeet crosser, maybe so, But they are WAY faster than any quail or chukar ever was. Real birds are real slow - compared to clays. It just seems like they are fast.
Slow down and make the first shot count. Don't plan on shooting a second. Get the first one to land first.
I shoot more or less "pull through" because many species are not in view long enough for the sustained lead thing. Don't much care for either term, but I think of it as sweeping the birds out of the sky with a broom. I break the trigger as I pull past the bill with the broom. Try to shoot the bird's bill. Yeah, I know it is small and hard to see, but focus. Most of bird shooting is in your head, starting with mental focus.
Where is your head on the stock when you shoot birds. Probably not where it is when you shoot clays. Most of us have our heads up too high to see the bird better and we end up shooting over (in addition to too far ahead or behind).
See the bill (or where it should be), shoulder the gun PROPERLY, sweep it from the sky, mark, and retrieve.
Don't forget to pat your pup on the head.
I agree with others that you need to check fit at a patterning board. For field shooting you probably want the pattern essentially surrounding the bull. Mount the gun quickly and fire all in one motion. I have a feeling you may be aiming the gun, i.e. trying to put the bead on the bird. Shooting at the range should help. Watch for the target with both eyes and never lose sight of it. Your hands put the gun on the bird, not your eyes. Practice mounting and firing at home. I use the top of the wall where it meets the ceiling as an imaginary flight pattern. Bring the gun up and swing through all in one motion, making sure your eyes stay on that line. After you finish, then look at where your eyes are relative to the gun barrel. Are you looking up the rib? That means you'll be shooting high. Lengthen the stock. Are you looking up one side of the barrel? You need to shim it so it cants for correction. Warning: Don't dry fire a shotgun. Commonly breaks firing pins. Always use a snap cap.
