Why you miss ducks -- here is a pic

The guy on the left(me) gets his limit in 10 shells or less ( .20 ga). The guy on the right shoots 2 boxes to get his limit . It has nothing to do with what kind of shells you shoot or what kind of gun. The picture explains the whole problem the guy on the right has. Point is ---- if it takes more than 10 shells to kill 6 ducks you need to slow down, pick a bird, track him and fire. Shoot once,, if you miss go back and look at this pic to see what you are doing wrong. He could have fired 5 times and would never have hit anything.

Does the guy on the right have it shouldered too low therefore isn't looking straight with the slights but downward from back to front?

To me the pic doesn't really say anything other than he might want to get his weight forward a bit. ..my first thought is that the guy on the right hasn't completed mounting his gun or possibly he has already fired (finger position on trigger) and recoil has the gun jumping. Either way, more info needed.

P_102

If this is pre shot I would guess weight forward and stock to cheek before stock to shoulder. But P_102 is right. Still need some information. That looks like me when I get sloppy or in a hurry.

he is mounted improperly for starters but looking up the barrel, or the barrel seeming to point upward is not a problem at all. A lot of really good shooters have stock work done to purposely make guns point "upward" to make to POI higher and have the gun shooting 70/30 or 80/20 instead of a 50/50 that an off the shelf gun like a 1100 or a citori will normally throw. and your "track him and fire" is way off. when the average shooter starts "tracking" they start playing mind games with the lead or more commonly completely stop swinging their gun when they shoot.

3rd hunter waded out into the decoys to get a dead duck,,,, as birds flew in he took this pic.

Let me get out here and get a low quality pic of these two hefty fellas. Maybe DU will put it on the cover of next month's magazine!

Nate33 ...I've been trying to tell a lot of these guys on here that your choke and shells are over rated you pick 1 bird out track the bird and shoot not very many birds are flying threw patterns..lol

A lot of guys are hung up on chokes shells. They need to learn how to shoot practice practice practice is by far without a doubt the best way to put birds on the ground

It's a system...shotgun, chokes, shells, patterns and practice...if anything one thing is missing the system won't work. I hate to be the guy to break it to you but you and "a lot of guys" are both correct.

What I mean by chokes are over rated is they are all good I own just about every popular choke on the market I have done the patterning thing I have not seen big gaping holes in my patterns

Bent, it is not hard to find a decent patterning combo of choke/shell at 35 yds or so and less. just about any shell and choke will put enough pellets on a paper plate at that distance to break a duck down. But, some will definitely put more pellets on target than others. When you start getting into the tighter constrictions, larger pellets, and low pellet counts, there is a perfect area where the choke, barrel, shot size, shot weight, and shot speed all have to come together to throw a good pattern at farther distances. Youd would be surprised how many imod and full chokes "blow out" and the pattern looks like an IC or mod. sometimes that is caused by pressures and too much speed. So you must slow it down some, but still retain enough knockdown to do the job.

I quit patterning guns about 5 yrs ago when I started shooting sporting clays. Go shoot 2000 to 3000 rds on a sporting clays course over the next yr then go bird hunting you will will be amazed how much of a better shot you are. I don't miss because birds are flying threw my pattern

they probably don't fly THROUGH it, but with a good shooting gun, choke, shell combo, you might hit it with 11 pellets instead of 2.

That guy on the right looks exactly like me when I get surprised, shoot, and then think "I was nowhere near that bird"

The guy in the pic gun is not pointing in the same direction as his eyes. I'm sure he blamed his shells or his choke. I bet if he would just go pattern his gun he would shoot moor birds. More than likely he can choose what bird to shoot

I think everyone agrees that if that guy hit it was by accident

The guy on the right looks constipated.
I try to avoid coffee prior to set foot into boat

If I didnt drink coffee before the hunt I would fall asleep after the decoys were put out.

Yes

Yeah, stock is not to cheek... eyes should be looking right down barrel...like guy on left

I'm guessing picture taker says "you guys mount your gun like you are shooting a duck", pretend type thing...because the pro on the left does not even have his finger on the trigger.

Keen eye Guy. Staged I'm telling ya.

You have a great duck hunting spot. Sounds like you have 25 groups decoy for the guy to shoot 2 boxes and still get a limit.

Makes sense - guy on the left has a better camo pattern hat that goes with the boat/blind. Guy on the right appears to have some sort of woodlands pattern hat on open water. If both had Max 5 HD camo all around there would only be a need for 5 shells each (1 double guaranteed). Fast grass added to boat blind to go with Max 5 HD camo = 4 shells needed, (2 doubles guaranteed).

I was taught to never look down the barrel.

While his shooting technique is often categorized as point shooting, the key characteristic of his technique is a split-second point-and-shoot move. He taught approximately 100,000 people, mostly bird hunters and law enforcement officers, his method of shooting. The bird hunters included ex-President Dwight D. Eisenhower, Henry Ford II, John Wayne, Audie Murphy, Bill Oxner and key executives of the Remington and Winchester firearms companies.

I don't miss.

You don't "focus" on the barrel, your eyes are focused on the bird, but the gun should be mounted to where your dominant eye looking straight is looking straight down the barrel. While you don't focus on the barrel, you do see it in your peripheral vision.

^^ What Guy said ^^
I have hunted with Guy, and he rarely misses. A wise man would follow his shotgunning advice.

One or both need to raise their elbows. It will create a pocket at the shoulder for the gun. Also will help them to turn at the waist instead of swinging with their arms. The guy on the blinds left has his elbow low and gun low on shoulder . he looks to be arm shooting slightly to his left and thus dropping his left shoulder and causing him to lower his head to the stock. Guy on right does not look to have his elbow at full horizontal, but it is not that low and may be correct for him.