Finishing Up at Advance Schools

We had a great three weeks of Advance Schools. A whole lot of learning went on in the three-and-a-half days of classes.

Being at the 74 Ranch is such a great learning experience. You eat, sleep, and live shooting clays for the whole time. It’s a great way to begin the shooting year, as we find all the weaknesses in your game and give you a plan of practice.

It’s always a great group of students with many new ideas and things that we haven’t thought about. You know, just when you think that you have heard everything, someone comes up with something we haven’t thought of or expressed differently. We all learned a ton and expanded their games.

We have found out that when we take the iPad videos of each student, we all learn something. Many students think they’re doing what we’ve asked them to do, but they really aren’t. The video doesn’t lie.

The Two-Part Gun Mount

The explanation of the two-part gun mount seemed to be the hardest for students to do, just because it was a new tool for their toolbox to be used in specific instances.

We are not throwing away the move, mount, shoot for quartering targets. But being able to softly mount to the shoulder and take that out of the equation, then move at the same speed as the target brought a lot of control in everyone’s game.

When your first move is away from the target, it won’t catch up and you are ahead the whole time with a chance of hitting it. We are all so used to having the gun so close to the target, but when you allow the gun to stay way out there in front (somewhere between 15-30 yards) and let the target come to you, you get the feeling of calm and no panic.

Wouldn’t that be a nice way to shoot? No panic and not rushed.

Reading targets was also a big deal. If you don’t read it correctly you can’t shoot it correctly or you end up taking the wrong target first then hurrying to the next one.

More Updates

Next year, our son Brian will be on board and teaching with us. Being a master target setter, he will be coming down to the ranch to set targets and tell everyone how he is trying to fool you and make you second-guess yourself – or just guess wrong. It will be a wonderful addition to the Advance School for 2016.

Marlene will be sending an email in October to all interested parties. Just let her know to put you on the list.

The new website and Knowledge Vault will hopefully be up by April 15 to run faster and smoother. And we can add new videos, so stay tuned for that.

I’m off to Oregon to kid sit with one of our granddaughters, Avery who is six and very active. It will be a fun week for me, and Gil will stay home and work. Both of us will be working – just differently. You forget how active and fun kids are at that age. Everything is exciting. She cracks me up. When you say something silly, she just looks at you and with her hand on her hip and says, “Seriously?” I wonder where she got that…

More later when hopefully we get some warm weather!