doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion DoubleGun BBS @ doublegunshop.com OLD TIME SHOOTING STYLE

Wow! Thanks for posting. I wonder how they see the target? But then, who am I to talk? Quite a different style from the Lon Smith guns shown by Researcher.

"it seems to work for her in both games."

Gold medalist women's double trap 96' and 04'
Keep in mind Kim is only 5'4"

Corey Cogdell of U.S.A.



Richard Faulds has a less exagerated lean and neck extension

Most likely all these shooters are using guns with parallel combs, so the distance of the cheek weld back from the comb does not really matter as far as seeing the target. Drop at face and drop at heel is the same.

Also interesting that every one of them appear to be shooting Perazzis.

IMHO, Richard's position gives him a full view of the target. The crawlers are looking through the very top of their vision and not letting their eye fully observe the target. But then, how many Olympic events have I been in---zero! so, so much for that opinion!

It has always interested me that most of the top skeet shooters that I have seen hold the elbow of their trigger-finger hand very high, almost an exaggerated position, in some cases. However, having been at sporting shoot with, and watched, the top Sporting shooters in the world I've never seen any of them do that. Watched Digweed, Faulds, Husthwaithe, Kruger, McGuire and many more, but none of them mount in that position. Neither do I, not that it means anything because I don't.

Some of these photos remind me that a while back I saw several of the famous traphooter Lela Hall (ca. 1940). I was appalled at her crawl and more so at how she hunched her shoulder. Not pretty. Effective to be sure, but not pretty.

Well, we've pretty well beat this to death. I guess it all just goes to show that there's someone out there that can make most any style work convincingly well. That's gotta' drive shooting coaches nuts.

One of the most clearly remembered things as a kid in my fishing village 65 years ago, watching the old-time gunners in blinds and gunning tubs, was that they leaned slightly forward and raised their doubles into line of vision, all sort of rounded at the top as if they were sneaking up on something. I don't recall any variance; maybe that's why they were all good shooters. I remember Old Monnie, the postmaster, taking 22 whistlers out of the air over decoys with his old black-powder double. Sometimes I think I saw the best of it.

http://www.la84foundation.org/SportsLibrary/SportingLife/1893/VOL_20_NO_20/SL2020015.pdf
Feb. 11, 1893 Sporting Life
MODIFIED GUN STOCK.
Something New From England Which Isn't Popular.
A representative English gun firm recently devised a new gun stock which is quite a novelty, but not likely to find favor with many sportsmen. The firm terms the new stock a "modified stock." This stock, while retaining the extreme drop at the butt, has a parallel bend along the face line from the comb to five or six inches back, giving the same alignment at any point between these limits, subject in some cases to slight modifications.
It is generally conceded that shooting is greatly improved when the stock fits easily against the face at the moment of sighting. This cannot always be obtained when the drop of the stock continuously increases from the comb to the extreme butt. As most guns used by American sportsmen have a bend of one and three-fourths inches at comb to three inches or more at butt, there is an increasing slope of about one-fourth-inch between these points.
It follows that in shooting a high-flying bird the face presses against the stock nearer the comb than when aiming at a low-flying bird or ground game; therefore, according to the flight, high or low, so the sight is taken at various distances from the comb and practically increasing or diminishing the bend of the gun at each shot.
English and continental sportsmen for years have used stocks parallel from comb to butt, but the extreme drop of guns which has prevailed with American sportsmen, although there is now a tendency to use straight stocks, has interfered with, the attainment of that desideratum - easy and accurate shooting.

Possibly a reference to what later was called a Monte Carlo?

And Ithaca 5E thought we'd beaten this one to death!!

December 1 1900 Sporting Life
"Light Field Guns"
http://www.la84foundation.org/SportsLibrary/SportingLife/1900/VOL_36_NO_11/SL3611012.pdf

The drop of a gun stock is the most important feature of a field gun, yet how few men seem to understand it. Many men will buy a gun in a store with a 2 1/4 or 2 1/2 inch drop, and as it handles well, comes up quickly and they can look across the rib by dropping their head, they accept it as the proper article. Too often the gunner comes home without any game and cannot understand it. He blames his poor aim of the swiftness of the birds.
The fault lies with himself in not having a proper drop of stock. All or nearly all the shots in grouse, quail and woodcock in this country are low or close to the ground. Few shots on these birds are of the "overhead" or "driven" kind, as in foreign countries. It is plain that for quick, snap shooting or even deliberate aim, a stock of three-inch drop at the heel and two-inch drop at the comb is about the proper thing.
With a gun of these dimensions the shooter does not have to duck his head to catch a sure sight, but the liberal drop makes the rib come up to his eye instead, thus giving him a quick sight and a true one.


This seems to support the "lotsa drop = head up" theory