instinctive shooting

[billy mims]

when shooting this way do you raise your face from the stock? DO you use your secondary vision to point the barrel or do you try to ignore the barrel and pick a spot and focus only on target. I have used both methods when shooting bow.

Rebel, what method do you use to shoot those groups? Do you use the bead to aim?
thanks

 

[Capt. Jas.]

Need a little more info. Are you talking about shooting moving targets with shot? The gun should always come to the face and not the face to the stock when shooting a shotgun. The target should always be focused on and an awareness of the barrel is all that should be had. The eye becomes the rear sight which means gun fit is an important factor.
Shooting a sigle projectile would be more like rifle shooting where you are focused on the front sight I would think but I am not as versed on PRB thru a smoothbore. Since there is usually no rear sight, a sight picture needs to be developed with each gun using the tang screw or some other means as a reference of alignment.
Since the smoothbore can shoot shot or a single projectile it might be good to have a subcategory on the board as shotgun shooting is nothing like shooting a rifle.

 

[TANSTAAFL]

Hope the long winded following does not sound too convoluted, but.

With my fusil de chasse, the first thing I learned with it, was to forget about looking down the bbl, but over it. Pick target, shoulder piece, the turtle of it's own volition seems to acquire the target, touch her off, and follow through.

As a kid, I grew up hunting almost exclusively with sling shots, which requires an instinctive skill for proficiency. Bows and the snap shooting of guns seemed to naturally follow in the same vein

The most important thing I have found is, getting into correct foot and body stance, with repeatability of same. In effect, the entire body then becomes the sighting system, which one does without conscious thought.

 

[roundball]

Hope the long winded following does not sound too convoluted, but.

With my fusil de chasse, the first thing I learned with it, was to forget about looking down the bbl, but over it. Pick target, shoulder piece, the turtle of it's own volition seems to acquire the target, touch her off, and follow through.

As a kid, I grew up hunting almost exclusively with sling shots, which requires an instinctive skill for proficiency. Bows and the snap shooting of guns seemed to naturally follow in the same vein

The most important thing I have found is, getting into correct foot and body stance, with repeatability of same. In effect, the entire body then becomes the sighting system, which one does without conscious thought.

Best practice I've ever seen is to shoot a dozen rounds of skeet from the 'gun down' (international) position...even just using a modern shotgun...to ingrain that reflex, body position, and flow into the shot

 

[Rebel]

I guess you mean with my double barrel. Actually, i have a temporary rear sight on it. I filed a sight to fit in the rib between the barrels and then used Super Glue to keep it in place. I wanted to see what the gun was capable of with rd balls, and so far it has been real good at it.

 

[more powder]

The best way to teach your self instinctive shooting is with a bb gun it cheap and you get a lot of shots for your buck,not the single shot type.That how i learned comes in pretty handy in combat to. :v

 

[billy mims]

Sorry i wasn't clear on my question. I'm not new at shooting a shotgun or rifle or longbow. I believe it was Musketman in a prior post had compared shooting a smoothbore to shooting a bow instinctively. I know wingshooting you just point and focus on target but on a still target I would have used the bead front sight whether it was rb or shot. Thanks for info. Rebel i was talking about your double.

 

[rich pierce]

I think few people shoot a gun instinctively. It could be done from the hip that way I guess. Since we have a sighting plane on a gun, people use it.

 

[billy mims]

Thanks, great help.

 

[roundball]

I think few people shoot a gun instinctively. It could be done from the hip that way I guess. Since we have a sighting plane on a gun, people use it.

It seems like you might be referring to my post about "gun down"...I didn't mean to shoot it with the gun down...that's just one of skeet's "starting positions"...called "gun down" or "International style"...gun is at the ready but down low along side your body instead of already mounted at the shoulder like most skeet shooters do.

When the bird leaves the house, you have to bring up the gun, swing, fire, follow through, etc basically all in one fluid motion...it helps develop reflexes and an overall smooth motion of turning while bringing the gun into position at the same time...and the raising of the gun's weight and body turn builds momentum into the swing which helps generate follow through, etc.

 

[CrackStock]

Rich,

I thought that at one time as well and still think that very few can do it with a ML.

However, I do know that instinctive shooting can be learned with time and repetition. I attended a shooting class where we worked on speed drills at steel plates. The goal was to deliver successful shots from a handgun to the 9 inch steel plate in under a second from a holstered position. Most of us made that goal in a couple of days. At one point, an instructor removed my gun and replaced it with another gun. I drew and fired and hit, but it seemed odd. The replacement gun had no sights. I continued to shoot that gun for quite some time and continued to hit. The simple fact is that you can train yourself to shoot instinctively rather than through sight alignment.

We wound up working similar techniques with shotguns later.

If I can do it, it can't be that hard! It just takes coaching, time, ammo and desire.

CS

 

[Slamfire]

I tried that internation startin' position once, I might have gotten pretty close to double figures on the broken targets. But that was only because I broke two birds with one shot. :rotf:

 

[AZ-Robert]

Sometimes you don't have even the little bit of time required to get a sight picture. So you "point and shoot", even if you find yourself pointing with barrel while the stock is on your shoulder. Same technique for moving targets or stationary - just ignore the sight(s).

Like Ron Vaughn (I'm guessing) the Army taught me to do it using a daisy BB gun. Pretty handy technique at short ranges (~25 yards). For longer ranges I have a need to use the sights.

 

[thomas]

I went thru using the BB gun in the army to learn "instinctive shooting" as well, I think they called it "quick-kill". They told us to many guys were dying in RVN from using the sights, when they needed to shoot fast.

Thomas