More from 74 Ranch Advance School

Well, three classes at 74 Ranch and one to go.

I am more convinced that seeing the bird behind the barrel is a concept that mainlines to the right brain and is less confusing than focusing on the target and getting the gun in front. The circuit we are accessing is the anticipation circuit in the brain. Well, duh! You can’t anticipate from behind. You anticipate from in front. We use this circuit every day and it knows us better than we know ourselves.

The other thing that is becoming obvious to us is just how much the brain fills in to our mind what it thinks is really there based on past experiences. If you’re not watching the Brain Games series on Nat Geo, then shame on you. It’s incredible and has opened my eyes to many of the visual anomalies we face in shooting.

Back to the anticipation circuit in the brain. One of us said this past weekend that the brain seeks comfort and wants to be comfortable where ever it finds itself.

Phil is trying to shoot a 100-yard crosser without me being there and he has tried twice and has been successful out to 60-70 yards. But he hasn’t cracked the 100-yard mark. On a pheasant hunt the other day, he was about to pass up a 60-yard plus crossing shot but decided to see it across the barrel and stabilize the shot. And guess what happened? Dead bird, one-shot kill.

His comment was he was learning something. My comment was that his brain is getting more comfortable seeing the bird farther and farther behind the barrel, therefore he was able to let the gun go and the right brain just did its thing. This is a big deal.

To access the anticipation circuit and right brain, you must be comfortable seeing the bird well behind the barrel. The farther behind you are comfortable, the better you can perform on longer and longer targets. The more comfortable you are on longer targets, the more the closer ones look like chip shots. Remember to stabilize the shot on crossers and be stubborn with the picture on quartering shots same speed at the end. Do not close the gun without the preload. The preload is huge.

We had more than a few “a-has” at the Advance Schools. Ron began to set his release trigger before he called “pull” and got better fast. Doss began to understand “same speed at the end.”

On his first tournament after the Advance School, Rick shot a personal best of 93 and was runner-up HOA. His goals? Preload every shot. Stabilize the crossers and be stubborn with the picture on crossers.

Preload every shot. Hmm, now where have i heard that before?