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Proper Stance for each station

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denpooch

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Discussion starter · #1 ·
Hello everyone. I am brand new to the site and have only been shooting trap for about 6 months. I love the sport, am vey much hooked and I'am trying to 'take in' as much information as possible.
Can anyone recommend a website or tutorial that details the best stance for each station. I have viewed YouTube videos by D. Lee Braun as well as the 'Go Shooting' video. They seem to conflict.
Any advise would be much appreciated. Thank you.
 
#4 ·
I think you will find everyone has their own comfortable foot position. The basic idea is to stand so you can comfortably rotate your upper body at the waist so you can get to a hard left/right target without putting yourself in a bind.

As for tutorials, I would check out some of the dvd's offered by Harlan Campbell, Leo Harrison, Phil Kiner, or Mitchel Loveless.
 
#6 ·
I agree with Cowboy Rick, that is an excellent place to start and then you can tweak your foot position and the width of your stance to what is comfortable when swinging to extreme right and left angles.
 
#7 ·
As a starting point, and for you to adjust/modify from there...as stated above...for a right handed person...imagine a line from the far left stake (marks max hard left angle, if your field has any!) running across the trap house and through the post at station 5. Your toes/feet should be roughly perpendicular (90 degrees) to that imaginary line. If you are goofy foot, do the same from the far right stake through post 1. And you can’t really do better than Mr. D. Lee Braun’s video for a start point. Everybody’s body type is different so you’ll need to adjust from the base/starting points above and find what works for you. You just want to be able to swing freely from the waist between stations 1 and 5 from each station with no effort or binding on torso or arms.
 
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#8 ·
k80bustclays said:
Does this foot positioning from Nora Ross help?
Image
Click to expand...
I don't remember Nora Martin Ross teaching me that way, but whatever she taught didn't work, for ME. Frank Little taught me to have my left foot (I'm right-handed) pointed at the center of the far edge of the trap house for Posts 1,2&3 and at the far right corner for Posts 4&5. That seems to work, again, for me.
 
#10 ·
After reading “Stock Fitters Bible” Oswald talks a lot about fixing your stance before fitting your stock but I have to say that his stance for trap doesn’t work for me. I worked on my stance last week and like others have said I found that how I stood made a big difference on how far and how easily I could swing on a bird. I’m a right handed shooter and should have more trouble shooting hard rights but actually have more trouble with the hard lefts so found I needed to stand more square with the front of the pad or I tended to stop my swing on left turning birds.
 
#12 ·
rapid86 said:
I don't remember Nora Martin Ross teaching me that way, but whatever she taught didn't work, for ME. Frank Little taught me to have my left foot (I'm right-handed) pointed at the center of the far edge of the trap house for Posts 1,2&3 and at the far right corner for Posts 4&5. That seems to work, again, for me.
Click to expand...
Dead on foot position per Frank Little. His Little Trap Book is expensive and hard to find. I am still looking for one after 10 years ago when I misplaced it.

Storeman Norman
 
#13 ·
I've been shooting Trap, Sporting Clays and Skeet since 2006 I purchased two DVD's that are both great help. One done by Phil Kiner the other by Leo Harrison. They both go into great detail not only foot position but hold points, focus etc. Do a google search for both and you will be able to view short You Tube videos from the DVD's then make your decision to buy one of both. I watch them from time to time and never fail to pick up something new.
 
#14 · (Edited)
denpooch said:
Hello everyone. I am brand new to the site and have only been shooting trap for about 6 months. I love the sport, am vey much hooked and I'am trying to 'take in' as much information as possible.
Can anyone recommend a website or tutorial that details the best stance for each station. I have viewed YouTube videos by D. Lee Braun as well as the 'Go Shooting' video. They seem to conflict.
Any advise would be much appreciated. Thank you.
Click to expand...
Remington printed a pamphlet called Trapshooting Fundamentals...

For a rightie... Position One is very open, closing as you migrate to Post 5..
.
 
#15 ·
There is no one 'proper' stance. The charts shown and the Remington pamphlet are very good places to start, but that's not where I put my feet. In practice rounds, try a few different foot positions out, and use what works and is comfortable, or at least works, even if it's uncomfortable! ;)

My stance is more like combat shooting; square to the target (perpendicular to the Trap house on every station, that is facing forward, not at the angle the walks are at.) Both knees bent, (L more than R when shooting RH, R more than L when shooting L, and yes I can shoot both) waist leaning slightly forward, use waist mostly for windage, and knees for elevation, moving arms as little as possible.
 
#16 ·
Your stance has to work for you! And only you.

If you set to solid a foundation you can end up with arm swing. One of the easiest ways to unlock your head from the stock.

If your right handed and set your feet so your body can't get you to a hard right? You end up chasing the stock with your cheek. So again your head is unlocked from the stock.

So generally speaking on post one, right handed, set yourself so that a hard right target, its nearly a straight away, us on the edge of pulling your cheek off the stock. That helps the stock pull your face and eyes towards the target. Post two is the same setup.
Post three for me is figuring out how much swing I need to get to a hard left and even if I am set to far or open to the right the body binding up is not going to pull the stock away from my face and I am constantly surprised at how much further left I can swing them I think I can. But making the left swing as much if a body bind as I can with out thinking about it allows me to stay fully locked into the gun as far into a hard right as I want to go even those badly squibbed illegal hard rights you see on an occasion.

So for me post one is fairly square to the front line of the box. Post five the arches of my feet will be on the imaginary line drawn down the side walk from the fifteen yard to twenty seven yard box and posts two, three, and four are adjustments from facing the trap to turning to post five I have turned nearly ninety degrees.

But again this is what I found works for me.

But chasing the stock with your face makes a raised head and a lost target way to easy.

Your stance needs to adjust to keep your head locked into the stock!

Al
 
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#17 ·
What I like to tell new shooters is to find a stance that is slightly wider than there shoulders. Keep there back foot square with there shoulders. Keep the front foot, either square which shoulders, or at a 45 degree angle to there shoulders with there toes going forward. Anywhere in between the two is fine as well. When you mount your shotgun with the this stance. The the heal of your back foot, and the toes of your front foot will form a line to where you want shoot any target with zero twist in your body. Having zero twist in your body is the best place to break a bird. With zero twist in your body, your less likely to come out of your gun. So I simply line up my feet to the center stake on the field. Skeet or Trap makes no difference. In Sporting Clays I line up where I want to break the targets there with zero twist in my body. Then I simply twist my body to my hold points in all games. This works great for me. If you have trouble with the wide angles on station 1 or 5 in Trap. Feel free to move your stance 4-6 ft. to the side of the center stake on that station. I would never tell a shooter to hold there feet that close together when shooting a 12 ga. shotgun. It may work on a one shot game. But you'll be out of balance for the second shot in the other two games. Place 65% of your weight on your front foot and bend your knee's some. I use my legs to move my entire body. Just like Todd Bender teaches. If you swing at your waist only. I run out of swing on most shots. So this method does not work for me in skeet or sporting clays. You need to pick a stance that works for you though.
Shooting Stance and gun fitting go hand in hand. You must have a good stance before you go to the gun fitter. How you stand makes a huge difference in how your shotgun is fitted to you. break em all Jeff
 
#18 ·
I agree there is no one proper stance for every shooter. but here is a way to figure out what you need. First stand the way you have been on post one and when you shoot your targets pay attention to what is going on when you break them example if most of the targets to the left you are knocking pieces to the left it means your behind them which it means you need to turn you front foot to the left just a little and then re access your breaks again ,and if your hitting those targets and hitting the backs of the right turn your right foot out just a little more ( Get the Idea)?.. and this is what you do for all positions. as some people move from the hips like a turret . I move all the way down from my toes making movement harder, as i don't pivot from my hips. Hope this helps also make small adjustments like this every time this happens as it means your at the end of your gun movement and the gun will now leave your face as your body can't travel any father.
 
#20 ·
the only time i paid any attention to foot prints was when i got off the bus at Parris Island and the drill instructor said to stand on the yellow foot prints. other that that you can see by what the shooting instructors say; its all different. use common sense, take a LITTLE advice and be comfortable.
 
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