Trade gun shooting low.

[tenngun]

Define the difference between aiming and pointing.

Your head is the rear sight (specifically your eye)
When aiming people tend to sight down the top surface of the barrel as if it had a rear sight, taking a really fine bead.
this will make you actually look up at the sight causing you to shoot low.

Pointing is where, instead of aiming.....one focuses on a consistent hold of the rifle and "points" the front sight at the target...
this allows your head to be oriented higher....thus raising you ball on target.


It takes some getting use to.....this is why many people install rear sights on smoothbores IMO.

That's a trueism. A rear sight wont shrink your groups. I put one on my smoothies and makes it a lot easier to shoot.

 

[ike]

I agree. Find the spot on your cheek where you see more of the barrel and the ball hits where you want. Practice your mounting and your sight picture. Shoot, Shoot, Shoot and shoot some more. When you have developed motor mussel memory your 50 yrd groups will be where you want them. It took me a couple of years to feel real confident. The deer at 40 yds this year was hit just where I wanted. I can still see the sight picture when the gun went off. The ball hit just where I was looking. Not aiming and not instinct but somewhere in between. Good shooting

 

[jimmy82]

I don't want to hijack to much, but this topic piqued my interest. Do you "point" with both eyes open like when shooting a shotgun? Eventually, someday, there will be a smoothie in my gun room and would like to know more.

 

[dhobbs]

Sir,
If you want to shoot your trade gun like a long bow by using instinctive shooting, I think many have given you good advise. Sure you can adjust how much of the barrel you see when about to shoot but to achieve consistent accuracy, your form must be perfect every time....when seconds matter(like staring down the barrel of a deer of a life time or in a shooting match) will your form be perfect???
However....if you want to aim the gun to hit your target...you can..........wait for it........BEND your barrel to make it shoot point of aim. It is not a hard procedure and believe it or not it will not harm the gun if done properly.
In your case...if you are shooting low...you could pull the barrel & place it on opposite ends of a couple pieces of 2x4 on the floor. The way I have always done this is to push down on the center of barrel....basically you always push opposite of the direction you want the ball to impact...some times I flex the barrel to push it to shape.....you are only moving it a few thousands of an inch but enough to make a difference on point of impact. The 2x4 are only 1 1/2 tall so it acts as a safe point to not kink or damage to barrel. I notice several here act like the earth will spin off its axis at the mere suggestion of moving the point of impact of the barrel but.....MANY competitive shooters who regularly shoot at Friend ship have used a similar techniques....and those folks want any strategic advantage possible to win in matches. When they buy a gun if the the POI is off they find their most accurate load and then move the point of impact so they can sight over the tang screw....so they have a consistent reference every time.

Please accept this with a bit of humor...as that is what I intended. I have exclusively shot flint smooth bores since I was 24 & I just turned 52. In the last 28 years have shot against some really good shooters and have been able to hold my own. The one thing I can think of with these really good shots is, they want their gun to shoot where they aim.

 

[Britsmoothy]

I bent my short Bess as it shot to low and that was with shot!
Now I can mount it as I want!

So I bent it to suit my form in this case!

 

[Flint62Smoothie]

FWIW on my smoothies I have them 'sighted' where I visualize a pencil is lying astride or across the breech area. The base of whatever my front sight may be then sits on top of the pencil.

Then, yes ... I have bent a few barrels in my lifetime to bring the point of impact - expressly for the load developed - to coincide to the point of aim.

It works and together BOTH techniques will make you a good smoothbore shooter. Also adding in routine mounting the arm to your shoulder, while establishing that same sight picture - even if indoors - with a 'wooden' flint installed and whilst dry firing AND following through ... is some of the best practice (and free!) you will ever get.

It's all muscle memory and trigger time my friend!

 

[jethro224]

It's all muscle memory and trigger time my friend!

There you have it. :thumbsup:

 

[Keb]

Just look at more barrel. Practice, practice, practice.

 

[spudnut]

I shoot a LLP Bess with not much drop in the stock , I hold my head up and back to sight down it , If I lay my head on it like a rifle I miss every time

 

[Pete G]

Try making a temporary rear sight out of a piece of thin sheet metal and use a short strip of duct tape to attach to the barrel. Once you tinker with it enough to get your group where you want it, pay close attention to your sight picture of the barrel. That will be your hold point when you remove the sight.

 

[smilovich]

Good advice here. I struggled with shooting low for a long time with my trade gun. Even got to use my perfectly clean score card over again for several trips on woods walks! On one of those walks one of my shooting partners took my gun and shot the target with it and said "well it ain't the gun." Then he shared some of the wisdom you're reading here about head up, point and see more barrel and viola I started to hit what I was pointing at. And practice gets a lot more enjoyable when you start to dial it in!

 

[Nessmuck56]

You have to shoot these smoothies like your 1st Daisey BB gun...a lot ....and you will figure it out

 

[mancill]

Thanks for the help guys. I got to shoot it again today. If I shoot it like a shot gun it hits dead on. Also my follow through has gotten way better which helps. :hatsoff:

 

[nwtradegun]

first site it in using the bench. after you get it on from there, you need to adjust it shooting as you would when hunting, prone, standing kneeling or or sitting.