Shooting over their head

J

Jon Zuccolo

Active member
Howdy duck hunters, I had a series of pathetic misses for yesterday evenings hunt (I should have had 2 pintails and one canada goose, guess how many I got :P ).

I am pretty sure I am shooting over the birds pretty consistently, which in my mind might mean my neck it too long. Aside from getting my neck shortened, has anyone got a trick to help me shoot lower? I was going to try purposely shouldering a bit high but I don't want to develop bad habits. Maybe its time to go see a good gun smith and get fit.

I am a bit of a book worm, so if anyone has some literature suggestions, I would appreciate that as well!

Cheers,

Jon
 
Jon,
If they are dropping birds as in dropping into the decoys coming straight on then remember "shoot them in the feet".

We had a hard time on decoying pins and mallards in the fields a few years back. The heads are right there so we kept shooting at them. Then one finally stuck its big old feet out and my partner remembered "shoot them in the feet". You will hit them in the head.
 
And here I thought this was going to be a tutorial on how to keep other parties from hunting near you.

T
 
Hi Jon. If this is something that just started you may well be raising your head off the stock at the moment of firing. I see it on the skeet fields all the time. Once a guy aquires the habit of doing so, it stakes quite a bit of concentration to break that bad new habit. If that is whats going on, a skeet field is your new best friend. You can get more practice in on a skeet field in a couple of weekends than you can in your average season of duck shooting. That way at least you can explore the possibility for relatively little money compared to going to the stock fit guy.

John
 
Hi Jon. If this is something that just started you may well be raising your head off the stock at the moment of firing. I see it on the skeet fields all the time. Once a guy aquires the habit of doing so, it stakes quite a bit of concentration to break that bad new habit. If that is whats going on, a skeet field is your new best friend. You can get more practice in on a skeet field in a couple of weekends than you can in your average season of duck shooting. That way at least you can explore the possibility for relatively little money compared to going to the stock fit guy.

John
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I agree. Most common porblem that leads to shooting high is raising of the head off the gun stock when shooting. Youwouldn't think itis this way but what happens is that when you raise your head, most people inadvertantly push down slightly on the gun stock.

Other problem could be improper drop on the gun stock. Fitting a shotgun is always a good thing IOM.

Mark W
 
In my experience misses occur for one of two reasons or sometimes both. The first and probably the most common is lifting your head off the stock or not putting it on in the first place. Usually caused by the excitement of the shot or peeking to see the bird fall. I have done just that many times and have found that if my stock is a bit longer my head naturally comes down to the stock. Concentrate on keeping your head down on the stock until AFTER the shot and you might be amazed at how well you can shoot.

The other common reason for misses is stopping your swing. It's very easy to think you can spot shoot birds that are close or coming into the decoys - you can't. I see this a lot on the sporting clays field as well - the birds are just hanging out there waiting to be shot so you don't think you need to swing.

Keep swinging and keep your head down and I'll bet you won't be missing as many.
 
I agree with John, having spent a considerable time in my life instructing that is def your best bet otherwise you will pick up bad habits from friendly advice. Go see an expert he may advice a comb raiser but it could be something as simple as your not looking down the rib or following through, shoot them were their going and not were they have been. Dig deep and cough up as an hours lesson with an expert will save you hours of frustration in the field.

Let us know how you get on.
 
Thanks for the advice everyone. I will consider these tips and practice to try and root this problem out... the most frustrating part is that I was hitting em pretty good early in the season. Also I suspect I am shouldering low because when I purposely shoulder it an inch higher the barrel lines up on target very nicely.

The mechanics of wingshooting are pretty unforgiving as there is very little feedback (if I miss) without an instructor or highspeed camera etc. :)

Cheers,

Jon
 
If you are liftin your head, get a fiber optic sight with the tube on it,
if you dont see the light at the end then your head is up.
It broke me of the habit, just dont get too concentrated on the sight,
that will open up other bad habits, like measuring lead etc
 
Since you hit better earlier this season could it be you are wearing a heavier coat now? That can keep you from getting the gun all the way up.

Tim
 
HI Jon - I second or third the idea of head up off stock.........from personal experience I refer to it as "watching ducks, pulling the trigger"........also I found late this season that I had a much better chance of staying down on a shot with a round knit cap as opposed to a baseball style with bill. May be easier to still see the moving target while swinging. Most of my shots are sitting up as opposed to being able to stand.
The other idea, that I would mention is range. One day I missed a bunch of shots and then finally connected. When I went to get the duck, I was shocked at the range, maybe 45-50 yds where I thought it was 30.
sarge
 
Seems I may be onto something with shouldering higher up. Connected with birds today using my 20 gauge and #4 shot... They were paddling the sky when they hit the water, so I guess I was hitting em more gooder than before :)

Now I gotta process the info I have been given here and really get some good habits. This could all be due to a change in waders mid season, where I went from those nifty waist high ones to big ol' chest waders with big straps. Come to think of it, my new waders have a buckle right on my shoulder...
 
Dick, I've found the distance miscalculation can happen on both ends of the scale. I've had the experience you described of taking what you thought was maybe a 30 yard shot, only to pace it off and find it was maybe 45 or 50.

Then yesterday I shot a wigeon at what i thought was 40 yards only to have it land just inside my 25 yard decoy. Maybe this was because all season (up to yesterday) I've been seeing almost exclusively black ducks. They are much bigger than wigeon. These were the first wigeon I've seen all season, so my mind probably interpreted the small bird as being distant.

Jon, don't mean this as a post hijack, and hope it helps.
 
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Jon, That buckle could be a big part of the problem. My wool bibs that I wear deer hunting had one right under the gun butt, I replaced the buckles with velco and it is a whole lot more comfortable to shoot. Those waist high waders are the best aren't they?
Oh, yeah"Keep your head down"
 
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Seems I may be onto something with shouldering higher up. Connected with birds today using my 20 gauge and #4 shot... They were paddling the sky when they hit the water, so I guess I was hitting em more gooder than before :)

Now I gotta process the info I have been given here and really get some good habits. This could all be due to a change in waders mid season, where I went from those nifty waist high ones to big ol' chest waders with big straps. Come to think of it, my new waders have a buckle right on my shoulder...
Click to expand...

I also switched from waist waders to chest and had a problem with the buckle aswell. Now when I am set up and ready to hunt I just undo the buckle on my right shoulder and tuck it in my waders the one strap on the left holds the waders up just fine. This way there is no buckle in the way when shouldering my gun and shooting. It worked great for me.
 
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