Shotgun "Fit" as a concept / what do you guys think about Fit - is it a waste ?

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BigJimP

New member
I'm stealing a response from Johnny Cantu - Editor in Shotgun Sports ...

but to paraphrase...a reader asked about "Fit" - and why should he spend the money ...?

Johnnys response was concise / and to the point - as I see it. He made the analogy to a suit. We pick one off the rack / try it on / let the tailor make some alterations - so it fits the way it should ( so we get our money's worth). But off the rack - it might not fit too well...or it might not look too good...but we don't just make do with it ...we have it altered so it "Fits".

Gun mfg's -make guns with stock dimensions to fit what they think is the "aveage shooter" or "average buyer" ....but with all the possible differences in our arm lengths, neck lengths, size of our hands...etc ...what percentage of people are really "Fit" with an "off the rack shotgun" .../ personally, I contend its not many !

I'm going to guess that 60% - 80% of stores selling guns / and shooters - have no idea what "Fit" means. They shoulder a gun in a store...yup, its ok. How much is it ...ok...

"Fit" doesn't have to be real expensive ...a change in recoil pad, a comb pad, or picking a gun with a lot of adjustments built into it ( like an adj comb), or a Jones pad, or a Gra Coil unit ...lets a shooter fix the "Fit" issues....or is it just for competition shooters and a waste of your time and money ? Tell me what you think ??

Personally, Fit -is a big deal to me ...for a hunting gun, a coach gun ...a clays guns ...or whatever ....so it hits where I look / with my eye being the rear sight. Just like having a suit tailored to me...
 
I've never been a skeet or trap shooter. My shotgunning has all been hunting, or training for defensive use of a shotgun.

As a younger man I hunted a lot with a shotgun. Dove, quail, small game (rabbits and squirrels) and deer. I shot off-the-rack shotguns, and not expensive ones either. I had no idea a shotgun needed 'fitting.' I pretty much wore out a Stevens 311 that I got new in the box, and shot a variety of other shotguns along the way as well. I borrowed my dad's 870 every time I got a chance, too. I was shooting a good bit back then, and I reloaded shotgun shells too. I had to, I couldn't afford to buy that many :D.

One day I was at a cornfield near the house where a bunch of friends and neighbors were having a dove shoot. The property owner was near the gate, and called me over. He wanted me to shoot some doves for him so he'd have some to eat, he said he'd been shooting for a while and just couldn't hit 'em. He had just over half a box of shells left for his Remington 58. So I took his gun, backed up to the fence row and waited. The doves were flying pretty well, and lucky for me a lot of them were flying parallel to the edge of the field. I always had an easier time hitting doves coming straight at me, all I had to do was swing up from behind and press off the shot when the muzzle blotted out the bird. Some of them fell close enough to catch. As I recall decades later I only missed a couple of birds that afternoon on the way to getting Mr. R a limit of doves. We went over to the ditch bank and cleaned his birds and he went home happy. I'd never even handled that shotgun before.

It's never seemed to matter too much to me about shotgun fit. I've only run across one shotgun that gave me problems hitting with it, and that one had an oddly shortened stock that wasn't cut square. It shot low for me.

Nowadays the shotguns I shoot most are actually fitted to my wife. They have 12.5" LOPs, because she's 5'4". I'm 6'3". But since these are defensive shotguns, they get shot from a more squared up stance and the stock length seems to matter less. All I have to do to adjust is to put my shooting hand thumb over on the knuckle of my trigger finger so I don't bash myself in the nose with it under recoil.

I've never shot at doves with one of the house guns. But I bet they'd do OK on quail :D.

lpl
 
I'm not a big shotgunner, but the concept of having a stock fit the shooter in either a shotgun or a rifle seems pretty fundamental to me. As much as I hate the idea of a "tactical" looking stock on my home defense Mossy, I've been thinking of getting one just to get a stock a bit shorter. My arms are on the short side.
 
I didn't realize how important fit was until I went through a proper fitting.

Everything felt better. My scores and hit percentage went up. My mount was better and resulted in a lot less soreness from poor fit.

Shooting gun up, you can scrunch in and get away with a poor fitting gun. I see all the time at the range. Low gun really makes poor fit and technique obvious.
 
Without a proper fit, you might as well throw rocks - too many try to fit themselves to the gun instead of the other way around
 
Shotguns meant for an average sized shooter come up a little short for me, pun intended.

Like many seasoned shotgunners, I can "Make a hand" with just about any shotgun. I do better with one tailored to my oversized physique.

I like a 15" LOP, a little more drop that usual, say 2 5/8" at face, about 1/4" of cast off with a little more at toe.

It took quite a while to get those numbers, but it was worth it.

Totally....
 
I have a book about pheasant hunting in which the author states that many hunters start out not paying enough attention to fit, and later many focus TOO much on gun fit (to the point that they blame all their missed shots on their guns). I tend to agree with that notion, and I'm of the mind that a good shooter with an average gun is better off than an average shooter with a good gun.

Of course, this book addressed hunting guns. Sporting/competition guns may be another matter. If better gun fit increased my shooting percentage on upland birds increases from 62% to 67% (I don't really know what my % is), that would be nice, but not a huge deal. On the other hand, if a trap or skeet shooter goes from 92% to 97%, that's pretty significant.

Personally, I've tried to be more conscious of it than I used to be, but mostly in regard to which off-the-shelf guns fit best. I haven't gone so far as to have had any custom fitting done. I know I like a longer than average stock with more than average drop at the heal and less than average drop at the comb. As a lefty, I have make sure I don't get a cast off stock. I'd maybe like some cast on, but I've never tried it.

I figure the closer I can get to an ideal fit the better (regardless of what the gun is used for), but I feel that most of my missed shots are my fault and not the gun's. Until I'm good enough that my gun becomes the limiting factor (which may never happen), I don't see myself getting fitted professionally.

I have an old Pardner single shot (which are notorious for fitting poorly), and I tinkered around with slip-on recoil pads, comb-raising kits, and some makeshift shims to see if I could improve the fit. The gun actually felt noticeably better afterward, and it was good way to learn what kind of dimensions to look for in other guns in the future.
 
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Its important, and prevents alot of frustation. We try to get our new shooters a good basic gun fit, LOP is close, and theyre not looking at the back of the reciever or way over the rib. That will get them on the path to breaking clays. Once they have some experience you can fine tune.
 
No, you don't need to fit a shotgun, buy all you clothes uni-sex, one-size-fits-all, and never adjust the seat or mirrors when you drive.

Seriously, have your stocks fit to you by pro. None of my comp guns have factory wood. With factory dimensions, I would have given up a long time ago -- getting beat-up by a shotgun is no fun. If you don't want to get your wood fitted, get guns with factory adjustability. Of course, you may be that average shooter who the gun manufacturer size their guns to, most of us aren't.
 
I'm a pretty lucky cuss, I guess. My 5'8" frame makes most off the rack shotguns a pretty darned close fit for me. Certainly close enough that the factory adjustments are adequate to get them right on. I am also fortunate enough to have the skills and equipment to cut down a stock and fit a new pad if needed. The Cynergy I bought awhile back was darned near a perfect fit. Moving the adjustable cheek piece over about 3/16 of an inch put it dead on.

With all that said, it is important. That 3/16" has made a lot of difference on my sporting clays scores. Can I pick up most guns and manage to hit more than I miss? Yes, I can. Can I hit several more with a gun that fits properly? Yes, I can.
 
Good fit aids comfort. That matters greatly for all of us, and especially for new shooters who haven't learned good form yet.

And fit can vary by mission. Trap guns have stocks longer and higher than other clays guns.

"Serious" shotguns used for offense and defense are often best stocked like rifles with a short LOP.

Waterfowlers need less LOP,all else equal, when wearing 6 layers of wool,fleece and Goretex(and wishing for more) than they do on opening day of dove season in South Texas.

A good idea is to mess with the fit until you find out what works for you at a given mission, measure everything and write it down.
 
I like the suit analogy. I have lots of suits and all fit fairly well of the rack with tayloring - for a while. The problem is that they can only be let out so much as I gained weight, which with a suit is not always much of a problem as sytles change and seats can even get worn. A gun hopefully lasts for decades as opposed to years, which I suppose makes the ability to readily adjust it all the more important.
 
Yes,

and I have shotguns I bought in the 70's ( when I was 6'5" and 230 lbs - and svelte ) .....and shotguns I bought a couple of yrs ago ...when now I'm 6'4" and 275 lbs ....( so I shrunk and got heavier ...) what a deal ...
 
I guess I'm lucky to be average 5'10" around 170 to 180 lbs so most any gun "fits" but someday would like to get a "fitting" from a reputable fitter just to see what comes out of that.

But I do understand and see the value of having a gun that "fits" it makes the whole hitting what you're aiming at much easier and more comfortable to accomplish.
 
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