Gun Fit in New Shooters

In working with a lot of the high school athletes and the high school coaches, we’ve learned that gun fit is a huge thing for them. There are no guns out there that are going to fit somebody that’s 5’6 and weighs 115 pounds. That’s just not out there.

You need to do what I would call a novice gun fit, which I’ve done quite a few of. Get the length of pull close and probably cut a little bit on the comb to get it down to where it doesn’t hurt them by hitting them in the face.

One of the biggest things they need to understand is their gun fit is going to need to be adjusted as many as two or three times during the first 2,000 to 3,000 rounds. Because as they begin to develop, as their posture improves, as the gun mount improves, and their face goes forward, and they begin to understand how the body helps them take recoil and holding on to it.

They begin to learn all these things that have to come together in 1/10th of a second. When you pull the trigger at the right place, then things change and shift.

A lot of parents have come to us pretty upset because they went to so-and-so and got the gun shortened. But they come and see us and all of a sudden now the gun’s too short. And they’re upset. We have to tell them “No, no, no. Let me show you how your child was standing in the beginning. The child had his weight on his back foot, which brings his head back. Now he’s learned to get the weight on his front foot, his muscles are built up. His gun fit’s going to change two to three times in the first 2,000 to 3,000 shots.”

It’s necessary for a beginner to have a basic understanding of foot position, shooting posture, and something that resembles a breakpoint. Not specific. They just need to know that there is a breakpoint. It’s good for them to go shoot singles, shoot really simple targets, birds that are in the air a long time, learn to shoot and move and mount the gun. They need trigger time.

You need to establish an eye preference and sight pictures and begin to build the inventory of what it looks like to you when the gun’s ahead of the bird.

A lot of the parent coaches say “Well, they’re shooting pairs, so we need to practice pairs.” And nothing could be further from the truth. We tell people to concentrate on shooting singles in practice.