Over/Under and Clays

[Danny45]

Hey guys, need some advise here! I have a Franchi Veloce 20 gauge O/U shotgun that I just bought and have started playing around with shooting some clays. Thinking about getting into it a little more, like at organized clubs and shoots.

I currently run I/C in the upper barrel (and shoot this one first) and Mod in the lower barrel. But I've been thinking about this a bit and wonder if I shouldn't switch this. Reason being, it seems that the top barrel would be more accurate on the longer clay since it's closer to your line of sight.

Any thoughts on this? What are your preferences for chokes and barrel sequence?

 

[Dave McC]

Using the lower bbl first means the recoil is closer to straight back, thus is handled a bit easier and faster. Most folks use the bottom bbl first because of this.

And, using the top bbl last has nothing to do with being closer to the line of sight. Since we look at the bird, not the bead, LOS means diddly.

Were I to use a stackbbl at the clay games, I'd shoot the lower bbl for singles, and have the more open choke there.

For trap, M/F should work, or a minor variation thereof.

For Skeet, Skeet in both.

For SC, I'd go with LM in both for practice, and use Cyl up to LM on particular shots.

HTH...

 

[K80Geoff]

I have always been told that the bottom barrel should be shot first, and I usually shoot this way.

However on occasion I may use a tighter choke in the top barrel and have shot the top barrel first if the target requires a tight choke. This is common in 5 stand and FITASC, where the targets are different for every presentation. Here the course setter tries to make the targets more difficult by throwing a close target followed by a long target and then reverses the sequence throwing the long target first. It helps to switch the barrel sequence in this type of presentation.

I have never noticed a difference in recoil or recovery time firing the top barrel first.

 

[PJR]

In a fixed choke gun, an o/u is most often set up with the bottom barrel being more open choked. The bottom barrel is perceived to kick less because the recoil is straighter.

This makes sense in trap doubles and in sporting situations where the target trajectories are known in advance. At the double stations in American Skeet, it makes more sense to shoot your tighter choke first as all the double stations require shooting at the outgoing bird first and the incoming second. I use skeet chokes of indentical constriction in both barrels. For sporting I shoot cylinder though to modified depending on the situation but lower barrel first. My trap gun has fixed chokes -- improved modified and full.

I shoot the lower barrel first with one exception -- station 8 in skeet. I went through a real slump on station 8 and one day simply switched to the top barrel to break the routine and crushed both targets. I know it doesn't actually matter because there is no difference where the gun shoots or the patterning between the two barrels. It's just a superstition but it seems to work for me.

 

[C.R.Sam]

Under first for reasons stated above. Depending on the gun, may use upper for shoot-offs from more distant handicap lines.

Sam

 

[pepemarine]

The o/u I shoot skeet with has cyl on the bottom and lm on the top. position 1 in skeet means that I move my selector and shoot the top barrel first on the going away shot and shoot the cyl on the incoming, which by the way is shot very close.

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