“Trust” was the word that kept coming up two weekends ago when I helped with a shooting clinic for adults.
Learning to trust your eyes and hands is a very important part of successful shotgunning.
Our students had a range of experience and I think I talked about trust with all of them. Two in particular stood out: Dan the Rifleman was a very experienced rifle and pistol shooter who struggled with a shotgun. We worked on crossing targets, where you have to take your eyes off the gun and keep them on the target.
You could watch his muzzle start and stop as he chased the birds, which is a sure sign that his eyes were going back and forth from the target to the gun. Forget the gun, I told him. Look at the target and your eyes will send your hands to right place. It made him visibly uncomfortable to try that, but he did.
Even after he I helped him break the crossers he had…
