A shotgun’s point of impact, or POI, is measured as a ratio of the percentage of shot that rises above the line of sight when the gun is mounted to the percentage of the shot charge that remains below the line of sight.
Trap guns usually shoot 70/30, so the bulk of your shot string impacts above the rib, which makes sense in a discipline where virtually every target is climbing away from the shooter.
In most cases, you don’t really need to count pellets—a 30-inch circle target with a dot in the middle will immediately give you an idea of where you are patterning without counting each and every hole.
Altering POI Some new shotguns come with shims that can change POI, or you might have a target model that has an adjustable comb or rib that allows you to transfer your point of impact.
Shims also allow you to adjust cast if you are shooting to the left or right.
But even if you don’t have a shotgun with shims, there are options.
If you’re trying to lower the POI, you’ll need to either lower the comb or raise the front bead.
Experienced gunsmiths can rehead the stock, adjusting the angle at which the stock meets the action, or bend a wooden stock.
They allow toe-on, toe-off alterations to make shooting more comfortable.
This causes POI to shift in the direction of the honing.
After installing a cheekpiece, a bird hunter checks his shotgun’s POI on a range in Arizona.
W hat are the odds you’d buy a brand-new rifle, mount a scope on it, and head out to the field without ever having sighted the gun in at the range? It seems like a silly question, but in essence, that’s what most of us do each time we pick up a new shotgun. We assume that each shotgun shoots the same way, but nothing could be further from the truth.
A shotgun’s point of impact, or POI, is measured as a ratio of the percentage of shot that rises above the line of sight when the gun is mounted to the percentage of the shot charge that remains below the line of sight. If these two percentages are roughly equal, then your gun is said to shoot 50/50, or flat. Trap guns usually shoot 70/30, so the bulk of your shot string impacts above the rib, which makes sense in a discipline where virtually every target is climbing away from the shooter. Sporting shotguns that are designed for other applications, like sporting clays, skeet, and trap, often shoot 60/40. And most guns shoot a 50/50 horizontal pattern, meaning that half the shot clusters to the left of the target and half to the right. But unfortunately that isn’t always the case.
So whether you’re chasing the Grand American title or doves in a sunflower field, it…
