Doesn't seem possible to miss those straight-aways, does it. I think what happens is partly an optical illusion. Unlike crossers, the straight-away looks like the bird is just hanging there nearly motionless, when actually he is moving out and up - fast! The tendancy is to aim like a rifle, not swing like a shotgun, with the bird visible above the bead. The result is a miss behind/below the rising bird, or a cripple hit in the tail end. For me, the secret to the straight-away (and the incommer for that matter) is to deliberately start the gun below the bird and swing up through it, slapping the trigger as the barrel completely covers the bird.