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I like you returned to the Remington 1100 left hand after so many years of shooting everything else. I have a trap full and a trap barrel with choke tubes and use a Rem 11/87 barrel "light Contour" 28 inch barrel for skeet and 5 stand. The Remington light contour barrels swing like a feather for shooting 5-stand.

Doc

The is so true, every hard core skeet shooter I saw shoot 5-stand or
was shocked at their low scores with many not shooting 5-stand again.

Doc

so many skeet guys are use to shooting 60/40 figure 8 patterns, they forget clays is 50/50 and most shoot high.

I started out as a skeet shooter in the early 70s and competed at registered events when in my mid teens. I tried SCs when it started to become popular and liked the idea that it was more like field shooting than skeet. I shot at some courses that I really liked where the targets were presented in some interesting angles, thru small openings in the tree canopy. Then the local SC range got into throwing some real long range targets and some unrealistic presentations that just annoyed me. I was doing a lot of bird hunting then and wanted realistic presentations. My scores were ok but I think I had a higher % of hits on real birds. I then got into rimfire benchrest and have done that for the past 15 years. I'm now getting back into skeet shooting with the retired guys from my club and it's all about just swinging a shotgun again and having fun with other shooters. I'm no longer interested in competing, just shooting as well as I can and hanging out with the other old guys. Nobody keeps score and everyone encourages and helps each other. It's fun! That's what I'm all about now. I've been there and done that with competition and now just want to relax and break a few clays. A friend wants me to shoot some SC and I probably will, but skeet is just fine for me right now.

Could you explain that to me please?

when your shot goes out the bbl, it spreads. 50% goes above the bead and 50% goes below. hunters like 50-50 , because if a bird dips in flight, he'll still get him.
skeet shooters like to see the bird the whole time, so they prefer to have their guns pattern 60 above and 40 below for better hits. trap shooters like 70-30 since trap birds rise and by the time the shot arrives at the bird as its going away, the bird rises even more, so having a 70-30, the shot goes high ahead of the bird and the bird flies into the bottom of the swarm. make sense?

now, move to a 5 stand field. take the straight up shot. clays guys will hit it as it peaks and stands still.
if a 60-40 gun waits for it to peak, 60% of the shot will go over the bird, and to make matters worse, the bird is starting down. so by the time the shot get to the bird...the bird drops and skeet shooters tend to miss more by shooting over....with guns built 60-40.

How is this pattern predictable, or changeable?

By adjustments on the gun such as adjustable comb?

Yes, that would be one way. I shoot a sporting clays gun with an adjustable comb. For skeet I have the comb all the way down where the beads are aligned. I want a 50/50 pattern for skeet. For trap I use the same shotgun but I will put a couple washers under the comb such that the muzzle bead sits atop the mid bead. Without an adjustable comb one would just buy a shotgun either with a stock that gives the desired pattern or the barrels can be regulated to provide a 60/40 pattern (Browning has a Citori Crossover Target model with this configuration.)

all shotgun owners should pattern a gun when they buy it.
put up paper with a 30" circle drawn on it. mark center and draw cross hairs thru it. back off 21 yds, choose a choke, and shoot it the way you normally would hold your gun aiming at the center mark.
go look at your pattern.
the holes will tell you where your gun prints by design....if you didnt flinch. if you did, do it again with new paper.

look where the majority of holes are. they will either be equal in the whole circle in all sections, or high, low, left or right. do it a couple of times. get a trend.
now you know where your gun patterns, so when you actually shoot your gun, youll know where that shot is really going. no more magic guessing.

All true. However if you you don't start in the right place, know where and how to look, along with being able to dance, it will not take you all that far.

like flying...everyone needs someone in the other seat when you start.

This is really not the best way to do it for a Sporting, FITASC, or hunting gun, but it's better than nothing for any other game that will be shot with a pre-mounted gun.

All it will tell you is where the barrels shoot when you get the sight picture you particularly want and then "aim" at the target.

There's no place for "aiming" in any shotgun sport.

Absolutely correct. This is why THE most important thing about buying a shotgun is the fit. It HAS to point where you are looking and come up to your head naturally. When I see people trying out a new shotgun and contorting themselves to get their face on the stock such that they can see the bead(s) on the rib. Some will stretch their necks out or tuck them in or pick their head up. All are doomed. Oh, and shoot with both eyes open. When I went to buy a hunting weight O/U for myself a number of years ago when the salesman asked me what I was interested in, I told him to just start handing me what he had on hand. When he handed me one that I could pull up to my shoulder and pointed where I was looking, then I looked at it to see what it was and how well made it was. It was a Franchi Alcione and has accounted for many pheasants, duck and geese over the years.

So, to pattern your shotgun, put up your 30" circle, look at it (and I mean fixate on the target) and quickly bring the shotgun up to your face and slap the trigger. That'll tell you how your shotgun patterns for you.

All the above is fine as long as one has a consistent mount. If they don't most of the above will not amount to much.

I can make most any shotgun fit me when I'm consciously mounting it or shooting pre-mounted. When I'm not is when the truth is revealed.

Part of a gun fit is shooting at targets. Mounting one in the store it may seem right, but there is a better than even chance it isn't.

See many go to the pattern board and quickly bring the gun up and slap it into the face then slap the trigger. Most of the newer shooters are quick, but not smooth. The experienced ones are smooth, but not necessarily all that quick.

I hear many say slap the trigger hard. I'm not for anything that moves my head around. Either in the mount or hitting the trigger. I can't think of any eye/hand game where bouncing your head around is an advantage.

Shooting a shotgun that doesn't shoot where you look (a shotgun that has not been fitted) is akin to shooting a rifle that isn't sighted in.

The shooter is doing everything that he's told but can't succeed because of equipment that is wrong. He then compensates and learns poor form and bad habits.

Fitting a gun to even a novice is the first step to long term success.

+1

Back when I was poor I bought an 870 that did not fit me well. I couldn't hit much with it unless I had time to mount and crane my neck to see the bead on the rib and shoot. Snap shooting was a miss. Most times I usually shot over the bird/target. After buying the Franchi, I could just look at the bird, bring the gun up, and, yes, SLAP the trigger and more times than not, down it would come. I remember one shot on a pheasant where my dog put up the bird just as I was stepping over a small old rock fence, to my hard left. All I had time to do was look at the bird, throw the gun to my shoulder and shoot. Down it came. No thought, no sight picture, no hesitation. Just instinctive, look, mount, shoot. Impossible without a gun that fits you perfectly.

The shot you describe I've made on Ruffed Grouse more times than I would want to know if I could. I've made them with Remington's 870"s, Winchester 101's, Model 12's and 59's, original and Repo Parkers, Beretta's, Ithaca 37's and perhaps another one or two. Pumps, semi-auto and SxS. Made them with my head on the stock and off the stock. Perfect foot placements and mounts can be sometimes difficult to find in the Grouse wood. All probably had different dimensions. Close, but different and definitely not perfect. Impossible? Obviously not. Some had the element of luck involved, some didn't. Some where only successful because a good Dog saved the day.


Perfect is great, close is damn good when it comes to a hunting shotgun. With the clay target sports as close to perfect as you can get should be the goal.

so anyone shoot this weekend?

Yes.