Gun Fits Don’t Correct Sight Picture

You hear a lot about gun fit and follow-through. While they are important, here is where we have come to after thousands of shooters and 55,000 hours each over 26 years as professional coaches:

If the sight picture is correct and the muzzle speed is the same as the target’s speed and the gun mount is a little off, you have a better than average chance to hit the bird. Conversely, if the sight picture is wrong, no amount of perfection in the gun fit, gun mount, foot position, follow-through, choke selection, or ammo selection will break the target!

As professional shooting coaches, we have to demonstrate breaking clays and birds with students’ guns that do not fit us!

We will be the first to tell you this. There are two things that are most important to success with a shotgun on a moving target:

1.) The sight picture being correct, and
2.) Adjusting the muzzle speed to the target’s speed before you send the shot.

Pay attention to this next comment:

When you combine a well-practiced move and mount with a gun that reasonably fits, with a clearly practiced sight picture and muzzle speed matching bird speed, good things happen in the field.