[fabsroman]

Yeah, it is kind of like the article I was reading. This guy was shooting a pretty big clays tournament and after he won he was interviewed. The interviewer noted that he used 7 to 8 of the 12 different techniques in winning the tournament and the shooter responded with, "I did?" He had no clue that he was using any of the techniques. The only thing he knew was how to break the clays.

Personally, it is when I am not concentrating that I usually miss, and I usually miss the really easy ones because I blow the off as easy.

Skeet has it right. It is all about angles. A quartering bird, going the same speed as a crossing bird, needs less lead. The more a bird takes an angle going away from you, the less lead it needs. The first time I was in a blind shooting over big water, everybody was astounded at my shooting. It wasn't so much that I was knocking them down right in front of the blind at first, but I was killing them right as they were leaving (i.e., when the angle was decreased). My first shot at a crossing bird was about 3 feet behind it. I could tell because I was shooting down at the water from this blind that is several feet above the water. After that, I made sure I got way in front of the bird and I started knocking them down.

All I can say is practice, practice, practice. Distance and speed of the target do play a role, but it is more about practice. About 4 years ago, I was on the clays course and shooting with a couple of guys that are pretty good. We all shot in the 40's, but I was at the lower end. At the end, they told me that I am breaking the back portion off of the bird and that I need to get a little bit more in front. I shot a couple more rounds that summer and increased my lead a little. I was breaking birds really well that way. Transferred the concept to dove hunting and I was knocking them dead. A couple of years ago I bought two new 391's. One in 20 ga. and the other in 12 ga. My dad wanted to use the 20 ga. the first day of dove season so I let him. He didn't take any long shots because he didn't think the gun could make them. Next time we went hunting I used the 20 ga. because I had a new dog with me. He was surprised when I hit a crossing bird about 50 yards away that was packing the mail. I tried to keep telling him that the gun was able to shoot that far, but he just couldn't believe it. He still suffers from the same problem I suffered from. He is usually behind the bird and he still gets a lot of wounded birds and has feathers falling with birds flying away.

Practice, practice, practice.

By the way, if you are ever in the Maryland Eastern Shore area, you should see if you can drop by and take some lessons from Skeet. I hear he is a pretty good teacher. I don't have the patience.