Lone Hunter- which quarry?

peteshamrock

OK lads I've been shooting a year now and its been a mixed time. I have a freezer full of rabbits with the .22 but my cartridge to kill rate with the shotgun is awful!
I have seen a few pheasants about but I don't have a dog.
So I think the pigeons are the quarry that I should concentrate on.

Can you decoy this time of year or is it purely a summer time activity?
If not how about trying to set up under a flight line and wait for them to fly over?

Hunter21

Decoying for pigeons can be very successful this time of year too. If not better then any time of the year.

If I were you call to yards that do tillage, will be guaranteed loads of crows there. Or farm yards, farmers hate crows ****ting on feed.
Practice your shooting on crows, experiment with different cartridges in your shotgun and find what you like. Also follow through on the shot, if missing try; double lead and patience then before you know it you'll be shooting well.

Shot to kill ratio will rise with confidence then go at the pigeons, then you'll go up a few gears.

Most of all enjoy being out and about.

snipe02

what he said

jmrc

shooting flying crows, shot their beaks off, they are never traveling that fast...IMO.
oh and keep swinging. It can be difficult to shot good at both rifle and SG. two very different disciplines. I’m always guilty of stopping the gun after shooting for a bit on rifles.

Some sporting clay shooting can smarten you up too….

Mezamo

shoot a few clays... and if you've never had a lesson go and get one!!!

peteshamrock

Thanks for all the input. I tought I was going to be slated for my nievity!

I have been shooting clays for most of the year but I'm learning fast that its easier to have the correct stance head down and swing through when you have a good idea where the target is coming from and at what speed.

I'll give myself a break and keep practising . As the man says the more I practise the luckier I become;)

meathstevie

You've just hit on the big difference between game and clayshooting, game is a lot less predictable so you'll just have to be observant all the time and rely on your reaction to pull off a "snap shot".

When you go for sporting clays try to practice shooting from a position where the gun isn't in the shoulder and the safety catch is on. It'll give you that half a second or so where you'll have to be quick and smooth to bring the gun up, point, swing, shoot and follow through and make the experience a lot more like game shooting. It's harder than shooting from a comfortable position with the gun in the shoulder but it'll polish your skills up no end and it'll help you finding a stance and way of holding the gun that's comfortable for you.

And above all, don't over think your shot. Shooting shotguns at moving targets is a very fluid action.

It's like playing football and passing a ball to a running teammate. You don't get out calculators and measuring tapes there either, you look at the lad, maybe a quick glance at the ball and you let your leg swing and your intuitive estimate will often be spot on and you get better with practice.

dev110

+1 to everything said above.

I have found that after doing a couple of sporting comps that you when go out after game you tend to think to much about the shot instead of just using instinct.

hedzball

Take all the above and blaze away... You wont hit them for the next 100 shots but trigger time is the most important thing..

I wasnt out in about a month and I was dire yesterday.. But it comes back..

Part of the country are ya in?. I do a fair bit of crow banging!

terminator2

shoot balltrap , if you can hit them youll hit anything , its like sporting only better

peteshamrock

hedzball wrote: »

Take all the above and blaze away... You wont hit them for the next 100 shots but trigger time is the most important thing..

I wasnt out in about a month and I was dire yesterday.. But it comes back..

Part of the country are ya in?. I do a fair bit of crow banging!

I live in South Dublin but if there was an offer for some shooting experience I'd travel!