Minimizing Visual Confusion

“When a true pair is thrown, either close together with similar flight paths or crosses early in their flight path, are there some general practices to minimize the visual confusion? Move pick-up points? Hold well under targets? Any guidance would be appreciated.”

 

The biggest thing is to make your plan. Which target are you going to take first? Is it high? Is it low?

I would take low first, if at all possible, then take the high. Pick the one that you want to shoot first, and then figure out which trap it is coming from, then that’s where you want to look when you’re calling “pull.”

Pick that target up and be aware that the other one is going to be in your visual circle. But you have to have that first target. There will be confusion, you just got to accept that and don’t get caught up in it.

When I get to a pair like that, I’m not going to think about the confusion. There’s going to be confusion because there are two birds in the air really close together.

So, you’ve got to really plan it out and be very detailed. If one is orange, and one is black, you might tell yourself “Orange, then black.” If it’s the right one you ought to take first, tell yourself “Right bird, then left bird.” But you have to be very aware that there will be confusion. If you can shoot targets before they cross, that’s great, because then you only have one bird to worry about.

If you can’t shoot it that quick, let them cross and then take both of them. But all that needs to be detailed in your plan. 

I would also practice shooting those targets at every place along their flight path. That way, if you have to shoot it real quick, it’s not a problem; you know you can do that. That gives you a lot of more comfortable feeling about looking at the pair. 

The biggest thing with pairs that are close and coming from the same direction is you have to figure out everything that’s going to happen in the shot before you load the gun. And if you can look at that trap, of the target you want to shoot first, that’s where my eyes are going to be. And that’s where my plan is going to be. Because once you hit that first one, all you have to do is look up and see the second one and shoot it.