[Dan M]

I'm a new trap shooter but have shot lots of skeet, 30,000 targets and understand it's a mental game with both. Yesterday I shot a Big 50 at my home club. Dropped one the first box, started second box, 5 at 3, 5 at 4, 1st bird at 5 and here is what I'm talking about. Our club is right under the approach to TIA. Jet comes over and they're low, occasionally will set off a trap just as I am getting ready to shoot so I wait. I shoot a release so took my gun down and opened the bolt, plane goes over, reshoulder my gun call for the bird and miss, then miss another one, then pull myself together and clean the rest of them. Wound up with a 47. How do you keep from doing stuff like that?

 

[BustClaysOfficial]

You’re gonna think I’m strange but I actually just reset myself. Basically start the pre shot routine over. I tend to sing to myself in between shots. So I start it all over. It’s helped me tons.
-Dom

 

[Diesel fan]

You stop thinking about starting over. Once there is any reason you bring your gun down you start from scratch. With the kids I work with we practice this quite often. We run drills where we start over again and again. Some struggle others don't you know you have this issue work to correct it. Just focus on the now not the past.

 

[Literalist]

How do you keep from doing stuff like that?

I had that problem with overhead jets until I switched to a modified choke.

 

[Tron]

You must be an airhead.

 

[spitter]

I'm a new trap shooter but have shot lots of skeet, 30,000 targets and understand it's a mental game with both. Yesterday I shot a Big 50 at my home club. Dropped one the first box, started second box, 5 at 3, 5 at 4, 1st bird at 5 and here is what I'm talking about. Our club is right under the approach to TIA. Jet comes over and they're low, occasionally will set off a trap just as I am getting ready to shoot so I wait. I shoot a release so took my gun down and opened the bolt, plane goes over, reshoulder my gun call for the bird and miss, then miss another one, then pull myself together and clean the rest of them. Wound up with a 47. How do you keep from doing stuff like that?

Just as BCO said... You step back and start the preshoot routine all over. I do this after a a bad mount, broken bird, etc... have to get your head back to square one...

 

[bakerloo]

I shoot skeet at NAS Lemoore about 1 mile from the runways. FA18 Super Hornets and F-35s make a lot of noise…

 

[50ralph50]

It's not you it is the turbulance from the jet flying over blowing your shot column away from the bird. Don't think. Like thay say see the bird shoot the bird forget about the jet.

 

[LowBrass366]

I would encourage you to practice with my mother in law following you to every post… If you can learn to shoot through that $h!t your Jet issue will go away.

 

[Dan M]

I would encourage you to practice with my mother in law following you to every post… If you can learn to shoot through that $h!t your Jet issue will go away.

Not a jet issue, most important 6 inches in shotgunning what gets me 😆

 

[LowBrass366]

Not a jet issue, most important 6 inches in shotgunning what gets me 😆

Look, sometimes you gotta smash your hand with a hammer to get rid of the headache..

 

[Jim Porter]

Just remembering: You say you sing to yourself. Long ago Orel Hershiser (spelling?) was a major league pitcher who won a World Series. He was on the Johnny Carson show and Carson asked him how he kept his composure. He said he sang hymns to himself. Carson asked if he would sing one. In a soft voice without accompaniment, he sang an old hymn. You could hear a pin drop. It was a moment...and Carson teared up.
You are in good company.
Jim

 

[TriIceS]

Fully reset helps me in these scenarios. Putting my gun all the way down to walking mode help me reset.

 

[Mr. D]

I'm still looking for 10 straight so I will have to get back to you on that.

 

[bcnu]

It has a name but it escapes me at the moment. You go to the trap with someone standing right behind or beside you and they talk to you, almost but not quite touch you and just generally irritate you while you are getting ready to shoot and shooting. Trying to distract you and make you miss. Kind of fun and I think it might actually help. Besides, how do you think we shot the Grand in Ohio with a huge air port right there in front of the shooting line with planes taking off and landing all the time? You have seen an airplane before, and I am pretty sure you know annoying people. You just learn to NOT be distracted. The list of distracting things is long and varied. Birds, snakes, prairie dogs, bugs, rabbits, deer...

 

[Ram Rod]

When jets fly over I typically disassemble my gun and recite knewt Rockney and then start over with my pre shot routine.

 

[ktt]

I'm a new trap shooter but have shot lots of skeet, 30,000 targets and understand it's a mental game with both. Yesterday I shot a Big 50 at my home club. Dropped one the first box, started second box, 5 at 3, 5 at 4, 1st bird at 5 and here is what I'm talking about. Our club is right under the approach to TIA. Jet comes over and they're low, occasionally will set off a trap just as I am getting ready to shoot so I wait. I shoot a release so took my gun down and opened the bolt, plane goes over, reshoulder my gun call for the bird and miss, then miss another one, then pull myself together and clean the rest of them. Wound up with a 47. How do you keep from doing stuff like that?

It sounds like you did what you could do. When you became aware of a distraction or a break in your shot routine you dismounted the gun, opened it up and started over. You might ask yourself if you did indeed "reset" or if you were still thinking about what happened or were distracted. In any event, strengthening your shot routine so that you do the same thing every time regardless is the key. I think you have overcome the most difficult part of the process which is the willingness to dismount and start over. Refining your shot routine so that you can be intentional about all elements of the routine will come with self-awareness, time and repetition. Be cautious about "speaking" a weaknesses into your game. You asked, "How do you keep from doin stuff like that?" The answer is you do what you did the other 47 times. There is a saying, "a rising tide raises all boats." As you improve your visual, mechanical, and mental game specific "problems" or weaknesses are handled. I tell my students to understand what they do to break targets and do that every time. "Learn from your breaks not your mistakes."