We all know that if a rifle or handgun sight is not adjusted correctly, hitting what we're aiming at will not happen.

How about a shotgun? "Shotguns don't have sights", you say. "Shotguns aren't like rifles. They're pointed and not aimed", you say. "They throw a pattern and so aiming isn't necessary", you say.

You're right... to a point. About the only shotguns that are actually aimed are thosedesigned for deer hunting. So how do we hit ducks with a shotgun?Answer: We point it at the duck and pull the trigger.

So why don't we bring down all the ducks we shoot at? There are a number of technicalanswers to that question but all of themrelate tothe fact that the gun wasn't pointing at the spot where the duck will be when the pattern arrives.

Duck guns don't have sights! Well, yes and no. They have front beads that could be called sights. Have you ever shot a rifle without a rear sight? No, you haven't. So it is with duck guns. Shooting "at" anything with a long gun requires both a front sight and a rear sight.

So how can we hit anything without a rear sight? Easy. The shooter's eye serves as the rear sight when we shoot shotguns. It serves exactly the same purpose as the rear sight on a rifle or handgun.

Most of us know that if a rifle isn't shooting where we want, adjusting the rear sight in the same direction that we want the bullet impact to move will solve the problem.

What does this have to do with shotguns? Well, if you're like I was in the 1950s, you don't have a clue. All though high school and for years afterward, I was hard pressed to hit anything that was crossing in front of me. Hitting birds that were flushing in front of me and flying off at an angle was also challenging at times.

It was not until many years later when I started shooting trap that I began to learn why I was not only having trouble hitting trap targets but why I had so little success hitting crossing teal, years earlier.

The cause was a genetic anomaly. I was born with low cheekbones. This isan evil, insidious condition little recognized by the shotgun community, myself especially.

When I mounted a shotgun, this awful condition placed my eye too far above the rib on the barrel. I was looking down-onto rather than along its surface. As you may suspect, I had unknowingly raised the rear sight on my shotgun. Like raising the rear sight on any gun, it caused the gun to shoot higher than expected. In my case, it was even higher than required for leading rising trap targets, many of which, I also shot over.

Where all this is leading is here: The shooter's eye must be in a position that allows it to look along the rib on the gun, neither above or to one side. Unless it is looking along the rib, the pattern will not go where expected. Raise your head during swings to birds or pull your cheek away from the stock to combat recoil and the pattern will not go where you expect.

Sure, patterns are often judged to be 30" in diameter but that is often not enough to compensate for head/eye movement during swings to targets. Add to that an imperfect job of pointing and birds can easily be missed.

Have you ever thought, "I should have hit that bird"? Maybe you had too much or too little forward lead but your head may also have moved during your swing. You may have low cheekbones like I do, as well.

A shot atducks or any flushing game does not usually begin with the gun mounted on the shoulder. Rather, it is mounted as the barrel is being swung to the bird. When the cheek meets the comb on the stock, the shot if often fired (depending on the shooting and swingmethod that is being used.)

When the gun is mounted, no one has or takes the time to check the eye's position relative to the gun's rib like skeet and trap shooters do when shooting with pre-mounted guns. During the swing to a bird, you don't glance back at the rib to check the eye's position, either. If you do, the swing will slow and you will shoot behind it.

Finally, most field guns have field stocks, stocks with their top surfaces, their combs, rising and not parallel to the barrel. That means that when these guns are mounted, care must be taken to place the cheek on the comb is the same place each time you shoot.

With different thicknesses of clothing often worn during duck season, the effectivelength of the stock changes - more clothing, longer stock. This will have a tendency to make you mount the gun with your cheek farther back on a lower part of the comb or force your hear farther forward to put your cheek on the part of the comb that is high enough to allow your eyeto look along the rib.

The point of all this is that how you mount your gun, where on your shoulder you mount it and the clothing you're wearing at the time, all can affect where the gun shoots. Please keep this in mind the next time you try mounting your empty gun at home or when snuggled in a blind in sub-zero weather wearing every piece of warm clothing you own. It can and will make a difference in your shooting success.

I was going to answer the semi-rhetorical question you posed in the title with some junk about stock shims for proper fit.... but I think you pretty much got that one covered up. Nice post with good info.

Stock shims, depending on their purpose and design, can alter the cast and drops at the comb and heel on a stock. The problem with lowering the comb and heel with shims is that by lowering (or raising) the stock with shim,the pitch on the stock is also changed.

Also, when shimming a stock to change the cast, both the cast at the comb and the cast at the heel are changed when only one changemay be needed.

All things condiered, shims are very useful. With shooters becoming more aware of the benefits of a well fitting gun, shims are the best they can provide for making a gun fit better; that's "better" and not "well". (Couldn't get the italics to work.)

Sheesh, and here I was thinking "man that's easy, take the palm of your hand and wack yourself in the side of the head, opposite of the direction you need to adjust. If you still miss, repeat"

[8D][8D][8D][8D]

Bob:

That may work too. I can't honestly say it doesn't because I haven't tried it. If you have tried it and it has been successful, let me know and I'll put it in the book in addition with the other ways to change cast. (Include photographs if they would be applicable or entertaining.)

Rollin

I found this interesting. With the duck season now over in Oklahoma where I hunt, I'm thinking about what to do over the year before the next season rolls around to improve. Just last night I read an article from an old magazine on "17 Ways to Improve Your Shotgun Shooting," or something to that effect. One of those hints was to practice your mount of the shotgun throughout the year. Given what is said below, a consistent and proper mount can go a long ways towards consistent and accurate shooting. Another point that was mentioned in this article, I think, was the admonishon to keep your face on the stock. Again, fitting in with your points above. Thanks for posting this illuminating thread.