Top Tips To Improve Your Clay Pigeon Shooting Technique

Target shooting is a really fun way to build up a team, have fun with friends or celebrate a major milestone, and clay pigeon shooting around our beautiful grounds leads to a particularly exciting afternoon.

Most people will try it and have a good time, but some will want to take it a step further and develop their skills at shooting clays in order to not only shoot accurately but improve their reflexes and their ability to think and act instinctively.

When you go to a shooting event with friends, family or colleagues, everyone will be trained to shoot safely and learn the essentials for handling a weapon, but if you want to take your shooting to the next level, here are some tips for elevating your skills.

Figure Out Your Dominant Eye

Most people will have a dominant eye, which is the eye that has better vision or better focus. Usually, it matches your dominant hand, so a shooter who is right-handed will typically have their right eye be dominant.

There are a lot of ways to test this, but learning your dominant eye quickly will allow you to adjust your stance and mount to give you the best accuracy.

Hold The Gun In A Secure Stance

Your entire body is involved in accurate shooting, as a balanced stance will help reduce shaky aim, allow you to move into position more quickly and handle the recoil of the gun, all of which will help provide more consistent results.

An instructor will help you establish the right mounting point and stance for you, but the general rule is to stand with your feet about shoulder-width apart, leaning slightly forward.

Get Used To The Gun

The first few shots you will take will be somewhat erratic; shooting a gun drives a lot of unexpected forces that can jerk your arms backwards. This is recoil and whilst a strong stance will help you weather the impact, the feeling takes every new shooter by surprise.

Understanding how it feels will allow your body to prepare and properly follow through rather than let the gun carry you in whatever direction it wants.

Do Not Rush

A common mistake with new shooters is not so much that they react too slowly but they will try and act too quickly, taking a shot as soon as they catch a glimpse of the target.

Most of the time, you will have time to catch the clay on a wide arching trajectory, so take a deep breath, move with the target and fire when you feel like you have tracked the clay.

Look At The Clay

Much like you will keep an eye on the ball and not your foot, look at the clay rather than at the gun barrel, otherwise you will find it difficult to know where to aim and will often shoot wide.

Instead, focus your eyes on the target itself, and your body will tend to aim towards it instead. With practice and time, you will get more comfortable and trust where you will aim without having to consciously focus on the barrel.