This is basically regarding shooting action sports with a shotgun....

I'm giving a friend of a friend private shooting lessons on all three firearm types to help a virgin shooter become a 3gun shooter by spring (I'm 4-H and NRA cert.)...Long story short, after safety and general gun handling, I started with the rifle, but when he picked up the shotgun, he used almost perfect rifle form. I started to correct him, but then raised the question...

Should we shoot action shotguns more like a rifle? I started paying attention to how I shoot action type shotgun games and I do shoot more like a rifle. I watched myself on video with my elbow straight out and my fore hand way back as I shot an 1187 at steel poppers, then again with a SxS coachgun at steel squares for cowboy action...I watched tape of myself shooting clays and I don't use this form then, only during action games, and I didn't even know it.

For wingshooting and clay games, typically the shooting elbow is dropped low and the fore hand is pushed forward in order to raise the muzzle and natural point of aim, but for action rifle form, the elbow is raised almost straight out with more hand on the pistol grip and squeezing the trigger, and the fore hand is drawn rearward compared to wingshooting, which brings the natural point of aim and the muzzle down, and gives better stability.

For action shooting, should we shoot shotguns more like a rifle? We don't want a high natural point of aim and typically want a steadier muzzle, all of which the above rifle techniques provide.

Granted we should also use a sight picture more like a shotgun picture even with the rifles in order to be fast, but should the rest of the overall shotgun technique really be rifle style?