On your TRIGGER hand use as tight a grip as you comfortably can......for your
FORE END HAND.....the pressure should be light enough that IF. YOU WERE
HOLDING AN EGG....YOU WOULD NOT CRACK IT !!!

 

like i hold my woman ,,,,,,,,,,,,

 

Albert William Money, Guns, Ammunition, and Tackle, 1904
Guns, Ammunition, and Tackle
“The Shot-gun And Its Handling”
The grasp of the stock with the right hand should be very firm, the thumb well over the grip. The right hand guides the gun more than most shooters are aware of, and if not firmly grasping the grip, is not able to do so properly. A loose grip also is the common cause of flinching, that most uncomfortable but prolific cause of misses.

 

I pull my gun into my shoulder with my trigger hand and pull it in tight with my forearm hand with my pointer finger on the front of forearm. Locks me in without being loosey goosey keeping me into gun.
I notice when I miss the bird its usually because I'm loose in my gun.


Jason in PA

 

I find when I dont remember to pull it in tight that is when I start missing

 

I used to hold it so tight that my eyes bugged out. Then one fellow said don't hold your gun that tight.
He was right and my scores went up.

 

Great question. Pull into your shoulder pocket until there is no more give. This provides solid mounting and not a floppy one.

 

If you ever watched Frank Hoppe mount his gun prior to a shot, you would notice that he always made sure the gun was snuggly and securely in the pocket. He actually exaggerated this move.
Steve

 

I have a gracoil on my 870 and I actually feel it just start to compress, before that it was a Jack West Stock doing the same thing. When I shot my BT Plus back in the 90s that was the same also. I was told by others that it was too tight, but I did a lot of winning with it that way but it certainly didn't seem to hurt my performance.

 

I pull the gun in tight with grip hand and forend grip.

This will keep ya from arm swinging to the target

 

I free my body but have to hold the shoulder arm tight, it helps send a little recoil to the ground giving you more concentration for a good shot.,

 

Being a Rifle competitor and a shotgun hunter, I used to really grip the forearm hard and move stiffly, hurting my swing.

A friend had me hold a cigarette on the side of the forearm with my 4 fingers and shoot. The goal was to shoot and not crush the cigarettes. Being forced to relax my grip smoothed my swing and helped my score. A trap gun is heavy and balanced enough to not jump out of your hands with a light grip.

On the butt stock. Enough to eliminate air space is all I use.

 

Never tight, no tension...........just firm. Being right-handed I make sure my trigger hand is always in the same place on the grip so my relations with the trigger are the same shot after shot. My left hand holds the fore-end positively but gently...........again no tension. It's all second nature.

 

I “try” to have a good firm grip holding gun firmly into shoulder but not to Firm to restrict my ability ty to rotate at hips following the bird. I “try” not to release this “in the gun” (shoulder and cheek) until after the shot. Forearm grip just enough to support the gun but no back pressure.

Failing to consistently perform the above routine eventually leads to a lost bird.

 

The old hold your forearm like a egg was a old saying . Don’t think you will find a top shooter in the country that would say that now . I know Nora and Kay hold theirs so tight you could not pry it out of their hands .

 

That's what I do and it keep's ya in the gun.

Most important on dub's

 

I like tight. Closer to a strangle hold than the egg hold.
Helps keep my mind it.

 

Pulling the gun into your shoulder somewhat tight and “getting into the gun” helps me.

 

IMO, a consistent mount is much more important than a death grip and pulling a gun tight to your shoulder.

Watch the best low-gun shooters in the world and you will see exactly what I'm talking about.

Do you think for one minute that George Digweed and Kim Rhode pull their guns in "tightly" to their shoulders.

Think again.

Good Luck and Good Shooting!

 

Totally different disciplines poppy

This is a video of a very young Kim at the 2008 Olympic Skeet Qualifying Match and she mounts the gun quickly and firmly

Pre-mounted Olympic doubles trap (Gold in 96' and 04') and the butt is firmly in place before calling for the target

 

The words "tight" and "firm" are relative in that different people will use them differently in terms of pulling the gun into your shoulder. As a kid I read lots of Elmer Keith articles and a couple of his books. He advocated pulling the gun firmly into the shoulder pocket as holding it more loose gives the recoiling gun kind of a running go at your shoulder. So when I grew older and started shooting big bore rifles and shotguns I followed his advice and still do when shooting clays and in the dove fields, time permitting. I don't call what I do "tight", I consider it firm. Like a previous poster, I hold the forearm in a positive manner but not tightly.

As a skinny 14-year old I had a friend who's Dad didn't own any guns, but decided out of the blue that he wanted to go deer hunting. Not knowing anything about guns he bought a .338 Winchester Magnum rifle, overkill for his intended purpose. Since they knew I liked to shoot they asked me to sight it in for him as he didn't know how. So off we went to the shooting range where my own Dad had a membership. I got it sighted in, after a fashion, although it took a full box of ammo. It was a thumper for skinny little me who hadn't hit his growth spurt yet, but because I pulled it in firmly it didn't beat me up badly. When it was the turn of my friend's Dad's to shoot he only fired three rounds. I'm sure he was holding it pretty loose. Said it kicked like a mule. I never knew if he went hunting with it or not.

Anyway, pulling the gun in firm works for me as a sore shoulder has never been much of a problem. As in much in shooting and life itself, there isn't always an absolute right way to do something, there is just your own personal way to do it.

 

Asked Britt Robinson during a lunch break at a clinic w/4 other shooters how tight he
held the forearm.

"No one is going to take it away from me" was his reply........

Additionally stressed keeping same cheek pressure at the beginning, during & end of the shot.

 

Enough to keep it up there, but not enough to compress the recoil device.

 

As almost all of the above have said, pull the gun firmly into the shoulder pocket. Pulling it tight will only hamper the hand on the forearm and the trigger hand from doing their job correctly which will result in all sorts of problems.
FIRMLY NOT TIGHT!

 

For trap shooting a solid gun mount is an important basic for most of us.
My trigger hand is holding firm. This encourages upper body rotation and discourages head lifting.

My fore hand is not as firm but allows complete control of the gun.

You can get away with a lazy gun mount @ 16 yards.
Not so much for the second shot of Doubles or 27 yard shooting.

Its All Good
West