doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion DoubleGun BBS @ doublegunshop.com Vision, Focus on the target.

In your mind maybe...not mine.

Just an example of being focused...

I am 63 and I can "focus" as Batha means it, for a little longer than that. But, really, much longer than that is not necessary when shooting sporting clays. I've heard that stuff about focusing hard enough to see the rings, and at times I can not only see the rings, I can tell you which direction the rotation is. But, that is not necessary to break a clay in flight. The reason they say all that is to get your mind off the muzzle/bead and onto the bird.

Bill McGuire's method is absolutely the best for a man who, like the majority of us, cannot shoot clays several times a week. It emphasizes an economy of gun movement, and is much easier to replicate every time for the average Joe (jOe). I talked to Chris recently at a shoot. He is a standup guy who really believes what he teaches. Bill, is a standup guy too, who happens to utilize the same stuff he teaches to win or place in the money at nearly every tournament he enters. Watch "Focus and Fire" if you want to see a video that can really make a difference in your sporting clays scores.

SRH

I thought that focus and fire involved premounting the gun?

If so how can it be used on clays course that require low gun?

It can't. I didn't see anything in buzz's o.p. that mentioned low gun. My apologies if my post is out of context. I thought he was talking about sporting clays, and I am unaware of any sporting courses that require low gun.

SRH

In Europe we shoot sporting clays from low gun, or at least with the butt off the shoulder.

Clays are not the only moving target game. Anyone who shot running boar with a rifle or sight equipped shotgun, has to wonder about the suggestion to focus on the target hard enough to see the rings. In running boar at 50 meters you focus on the front sight, and most people hit the boar, many stay consistently on the kill zone.

Second point, if your eyes are on the target, how is lead established? By peripheral vision? If so what happens to gunfit that is meant to put your muzzles where "you look"? Where are you lookin when focusing and what are the muzzles pointing at?

Third point, is it possible to point ahead of the target and your eyes not focus on the sight reflexively? Eyes cannot focus on empty sky, os so some eye doctors tell me.

The issue is confusing. A look at the "quiet eyes" techniques developed by sports doctors for sports rquiring shooting accuracy, though no twith a gun, brings some fascinating angles to this topic.

I don't think lead....kind of like the instinctive Recurve/English long bow shooter doesn't think distance.

"The issue is confusing"......I couldn't agree more. I'm very interested in everyone's opinion on this subject! It's a complex issue and I must say, I don't have it figured out 100%. Stan, Where can I watch Bill McGuire's video? Is it on the Internet or something to purchase? Thx.

Move, Mount and shoot- sounds like the method Bryan Belinski, owner of Fieldsport in Traverse City, MI teaches, predicated on two "givens" that is-- (1) A near perfect gun fit, and (2) 20-20 corrected vision with no cross-eyed dominance- Also espoused by Ken Davies, former H&H instructor- It works for me, and I'm NOT a clays shooter, just real birds (barn pigeons and crows) in the off-seasons.

I believe John Bideell is move mount shoot, at least he is in a DVD i have.

I expect others use and teach the method as well, as well as variants.

When I had my AYA fitted, the fitter and I hit it off and we had several hour long discussions about shooting and hunting. At one time he was a competitive shooter and his coach told him, "Focus Bob, you are not focusing. Bob said that he really didn't under stand what the coach meant and the coach never explained it. Later, Bob discovered what the coach meant and he explained it as follows: When you focus either on a bird or a clay target your vision is concentrated not on the whole but on part of the whole and that is all that you see and that part is as big as a dinner plate.
He told me to concentrate on the white ring on a pheasant�s neck or the head of a Hun. As an exercise, when I'm a passenger in a vehicle I look at the approaching highway roadside reflectors. They are mounted on steel posts and are no larger than 2" in diameter. In the center of the reflector is a rivet and that is what I concentrate on at highway speeds. At first they were a blur, but now I see the rivet and it is huge. When I'm outside working on our ranch, I take the time to focus on the heads of different small birds as they fly by me. Bob also told me that major league home run hitters claim that if they can see the stitches on the baseball anytime after the ball leaves the pitchers had, they hit a home run. Practice, practice and practice some more and you will be amazed at how quickly you will be able to focus