Practice Shooting Rising Birds

Most shooters can’t hit a teal going up two-thirds or three-fourths of the way up the line. It’s the weakest target presentation for 90 percent of shooters.

They’re going to wait until it stops and try to shoot it at the top. They can’t hit it going up. And they damn sure can’t hit it going down because their guns all shoot high.

We’ve told this to so many people: “You need to learn to shoot a teal target with speed and some distance on the rise.” If you can do that, if there are four of those targets delivered such that you don’t have time to shoot it at the top, you got to shoot it going up or then coming down. You will gain at least three targets on your competition, because you can do it four times out of four times.

But because that target is “hard” by the so-so shooter, they’ll take the other one and shoot that one at the top instead of getting out of their comfort zone and practicing shooting that rising bird on the rise.

It doesn’t have to be a straight-up teal. It can be a trap teal. All of those rising targets with spring with speed should be the enemy. You should spend more time on those.

Once you understand how to shoot crossers, they’re no big deal. But that rising bird with power, especially if it’s shot straight up, it’s kind of a trap teal, it’s going out where, when you see it, it’s got a lot of up in it. But by the time you get the gun to it, it hadn’t leveled out completely, but it takes more left or right than over.

You need to be able to recognize that target and be able to put the salve on the sore on that bird. And instead of shooting it at 50 yards at the peak, shoot it at 38 to 40 yards while it’s still got some speed. You’ll find that the lead on that target is a lot more forgiving at 38 to 40 yards than it is at 50 to 60.

 

This is an excerpt from the June 2021 Coaching Hour podcast. You can listen to it and read a written transcript, along with more than 20 years of archived episodes with your Knowledge Vault membership.