If I-and most of us-could get that Copperfield fellow to make my barrel disappear we would all probably shoot better. We want to look at it and it screws things up. Everyone says shotgun shooting is an eye/hand game. Most of us make it an eye/barrel/hand game and when we look at the barrel, even for a moment the barrel slows down and we lose the eye/hand relationship.

Those kids have essentially taken the barrel out of the picture and they are shooting on instinct and just looking at the target. When one does that fit becomes less important and almost irrelevant. The shot naturally goes where the eyes are looking. Do you really think fit is relevant when the guy in the second video is breaking clays when the shotgun is pointing backwards on the crook of his arm in the second video? Nope he has trained his hands to do what his eyes tell him.

No doubt fit is important. It gives the head a stable platform. The reason those kids can do what they do is their heads essentially stay rock still when they make the shot.The don't need a stock to do it for them. Do that and look at nothing but the target and it doesn't matter if the comb and heel are xxxx inches.

The eyes will then lead the hands. Easier said than done and I wish I could.

Addition: Hitting a baseball, we don't look at the bat. Catching a ball, we don't look at the glove. Hitting a tennis ball, we don't look at the racket. Yet when shooting a shotgun, most of us look at the barrel and that is where most of our biggest problems come from, not gun fit.




Last edited by battue; 02/17/12.

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