Sustained, swing through, pull away

Obi_Wan

Active member
I’m sure this has been discussed more than once here but lets do it again. I watched a Gil Ash video and he talks about a drill and he mounts the gun ahead of the bird. It seems this would be a sustained lead but maybe I’m missing something. Chris Batha talks about swing through being better for field shooting.

When I was shooting lots of skeet and when I make a good shot on pheasant now people will ask, “How much lead did you use?” I honestly tell them, I don’t know. When I’m dialed in I don’t see the lead and I just see the bead in my peripheral vision if I see it at all. I think its either swing through or pull away but when I’m at my best, I don’t know what it is.

Which type of lead do you use field shooting?
 
I sorta fall in to your camp but if I had to say I would say sustained with a little pull away. When I’m at my best though there really is no thought to it. It just happens. If I’m thinking too much about it then it will be a clean miss.
 
I sorta fall in to your camp but if I had to say I would say sustained with a little pull away. When I’m at my best though there really is no thought to it. It just happens. If I’m thinking too much about it then it will be a clean miss.
Me too. I was concentrating too hard on the lead on my first day in SD. I was looking for it and would critique it while I was trying to shoot. It was a disaster until I quit looking for the lead and just started shooting.
 
Thinking too much is what causes misses. I spend a lot of time on a 5 stand course and you always see a guy get mixed up on where the bird is coming from. Then they see and quickly react and shoot at it maybe 5 feet off the ground. Many of those clays get broken. No thinking, no wondering about bead being fiber optic, or not being fiber optic, not thinking of lead, just instinctive reactive shooting.

All really good shots I know can do all 3 ways. I can do all 3 and practice all 3, but prefer pull through on game birds. I have used it for 50 years. One guy I know can do all 3 as the gun is coming to his shoulder and as soon as the gun hits his shoulder boom and a dead bird or broken clay. He can hit clays crazy fast. When I set up for clays my routine is I will see it here in my peripheral vision the get good look here and kill it here. He has crazy good reflexes and instincts. He kills his between my peripheral and good vision spot. Lol You should practice all 3 in the off season.
 
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