Since circumstances caused me to unretire and return to the fold of the gainfully employed (Ptui!), I've been doing most of my shooting on weekend mornings, for the usual reasons.
I struck up an acquaintance with a local legend, one of the folks who stand there on the 27 yard line and mske straight after straight.
His SUV is set up for trap, with builtin cabinets for tools, ammo, guns and paraphanalia.
Anyway, having two days off in the same weekend left me a little giddy with all that time off, so I went trapshooting.
The L/L and I had been on a squad before, but we struck it off this last weekend and shot about 6 rounds together. L/L missed about 3 birds out of that.I was down a few more. Like maybe 11.
Anyways, he and I were waiting for the trap to be replenished on Saturday. I threw caution to the wind and asked him what advice he could give me, since I was fairly new at trap and have plateaued at 23 or 24 out of 25 most rounds.
Well, I must have great Karma, or been a very good boy, because the L/L took me under his wing and I received some coaching. It took place over 2 days and a few rounds of trap, and I saw some improvement already.
Here's a few things the L/L preached. Some are paraphrased and edited for content as they say.
Some may sound familiar, the L/L and I think alike on some things...
It's not the gun. Stick with the same gun and stop trying to buy birds. Spend 3X times as much on ammo than on gimmicks and you'll do better.
When I miss a bird, I know exactly where the bbl was when I shot. Same when I hit a bird. So, learn to repeat the hits, not the misses. The difference is mental.
If you don't know why you missed, first it wasn't the gun or ammo or trap boy or the wind. YOU missed, and it's up to YOU to find out why.
And if you don't know why you missed, it's either headlifting or loss of concentration. (In my case,both at once).
The big difference between the winner and the lowest score is usually committment. Either committment to practice and improvement, or committment to making the shot.
Try to be on squads where everybody else shoots better than you. You'll shoot better.
If you want to know what stress is, shoot on a squad going for a perfect 500X500. You DON'T want to miss that first bird.
If you're like some trapshooters, and little things on the line ruin your focus, spend less time b!tching about that and more time on fine tuning that focus until the whole squad could be pelting you with empties and you still make the shot. Distractions do not cost you birds, letting yourself be distracted does.
Never turn shooting into a job. Have fun, relax and talk in between rounds, but be nothing but business when you call for each and every bird.
The difference between a top shooter and a moderately good one often can be the top shooter has figured out the best training schedule and shooting rythym for himself and gone after it.
Hope this helps, and L/L,if your reading this, thanks...
I struck up an acquaintance with a local legend, one of the folks who stand there on the 27 yard line and mske straight after straight.
His SUV is set up for trap, with builtin cabinets for tools, ammo, guns and paraphanalia.
Anyway, having two days off in the same weekend left me a little giddy with all that time off, so I went trapshooting.
The L/L and I had been on a squad before, but we struck it off this last weekend and shot about 6 rounds together. L/L missed about 3 birds out of that.I was down a few more. Like maybe 11.
Anyways, he and I were waiting for the trap to be replenished on Saturday. I threw caution to the wind and asked him what advice he could give me, since I was fairly new at trap and have plateaued at 23 or 24 out of 25 most rounds.
Well, I must have great Karma, or been a very good boy, because the L/L took me under his wing and I received some coaching. It took place over 2 days and a few rounds of trap, and I saw some improvement already.
Here's a few things the L/L preached. Some are paraphrased and edited for content as they say.
Some may sound familiar, the L/L and I think alike on some things...
It's not the gun. Stick with the same gun and stop trying to buy birds. Spend 3X times as much on ammo than on gimmicks and you'll do better.
When I miss a bird, I know exactly where the bbl was when I shot. Same when I hit a bird. So, learn to repeat the hits, not the misses. The difference is mental.
If you don't know why you missed, first it wasn't the gun or ammo or trap boy or the wind. YOU missed, and it's up to YOU to find out why.
And if you don't know why you missed, it's either headlifting or loss of concentration. (In my case,both at once).
The big difference between the winner and the lowest score is usually committment. Either committment to practice and improvement, or committment to making the shot.
Try to be on squads where everybody else shoots better than you. You'll shoot better.
If you want to know what stress is, shoot on a squad going for a perfect 500X500. You DON'T want to miss that first bird.
If you're like some trapshooters, and little things on the line ruin your focus, spend less time b!tching about that and more time on fine tuning that focus until the whole squad could be pelting you with empties and you still make the shot. Distractions do not cost you birds, letting yourself be distracted does.
Never turn shooting into a job. Have fun, relax and talk in between rounds, but be nothing but business when you call for each and every bird.
The difference between a top shooter and a moderately good one often can be the top shooter has figured out the best training schedule and shooting rythym for himself and gone after it.
Hope this helps, and L/L,if your reading this, thanks...
Last edited:
Yo, bro!