Duck Hunting Forum banner

1st time shooting skeet...

6K views 13 replies 11 participants last post by  Sagebrush 
#1 ·
Well that was humbling. I shoot trap from time to time.
I must say I had a blast. I missed a lot, I also surprised
myself with some doubles. I was using my new a400.
A regular there said that waterfowl guns tend to shoot
low. Is there a different POA/POI set up on field/skeet/
waterfowl guns? I was thinking it might be best to get an
O/U mostly for skeet. I'm pretty tapped after getting
the last gun. Any thoughts or input would be appreciated.
Thanks
 
#3 ·
As 3200 said.............
where the gun patterns/shoots is a matter of stock fit,cheek pressure and a few other things.

Lots of shooters use a semi auto to shoot skeet,trap and clays, just a matter of getting the gun to fit you......
guns sent out of a factory are set up for the "Average Joe Blow" and you might need to tweek it a little for it to shoot better for you.

The O/U does have the advantage of having TWO different CHOKES at hand for you to select but generally a skeet or modified choke will break 90% of all your birds, when you get things right.

Good luck.
 
#4 ·
With the different shims, it's impossible to know how it shoots for you out of the box. Go shoot at a patterning board and make a determination where it's shooting. For skeet people generally use a 50/50 ratio (50 percent of pellets above, 50 percent below the aim point). For trap it's anywhere from 60/40 - 80/20, and for sporting a good starting point is 60/40. In trap they do that because the bird is always rising, and they don't ever want the barrel covering the bird. They "float" the bird on top of the barrel. In skeet, the bird is crossing, so normally you want to cover the bird and pull the trigger. With sporting, birds can come from any direction or orientation, so they set it up slightly high so you don't cover rising birds, but still can get underneath falling birds. I set up my waterfowl guns slightly high, say 55/45 or 60/40. I shoot a lot of sporting clays and want my sight picture to look the same.

Long story short, go pattern your gun and adjust from there.
 
#5 ·
If your looking for a cheaper O/U i recommend the Stoeger Condor with 28" barrels and 12 gauge/ Or If you want even more range ( More for trap than skeet) Id get the Stoeger Longfowler with 30 inch barrels and swapable mod. and full chokes. I own Both and there amazing guns. Nothing too beautiful, but they look good and shoot better.
 
#7 ·
As stated above go to a patterning board . When shooting skeet if you do as OR said and cover the bird you are going to miss a lot of birds . You can cover a few but most require a lead and some a long lead .

I shoot over / under exclusively for all the games . No time to be chasing down empties thrown from a semi or a pump . If you don't reload I suppose it doesn't matter except when shooting trap and then you should have a shell catcher on it . A lot of guys get pissed when an empty comes flying over hitting their K & P guns. Spend the money to have the gun fitted to you if you want to shoot optimal . Country Gentleman is just one of many people that can do that .
 
#12 ·
OK, a couple of things first. Waterfowl guns do not shoot low. If they do, there's a gun fit problem. Waterfowl guns should shot flat. That is the POA and the POI should be exactly the same. Trap guns shoot high. This allows the shooter to float the target, i.e. never having to loose sight of the target by it being blocked by the barrel. Typically, skeet guns either shoot flat or only slightly high. Maybe something like 60/40, depending on the individual shooter's preferences. Personally, I shoot flat for everything, skeet, sporting, upland and waterfowl. I don't shoot much trap, but when I do I shoot with a flat gun.

Regarding your choice of gun for skeet. The best gun you can get for skeet, should you choose to shoot the game seriously, either in competition or league, is an O/U. That's because the O/U is actually the cheapest to shoot IF you are going to shoot all four gauges. O/Us allow for the installation of tube sets, so there is no need for four separate guns. If, on the other hand, you are going to shoot one gauge, you can do very well with a semi auto. Most guys that use S/As will get gas guns for the recoil reduction. The most important thing to remember is to shoot wide open chokes. Skeet choke is best, but even cylinder will work. In fact, I prefer my skeet gun to be choked C in the upper bbl and Sk in the lower bbl. The reasoning is that the second barrel is only used for the second shot on doubles which is an incomer, so it is relatively closer and the slightly more open pattern helps a little. You can also switch to the upper bbl at station 8 for the same reasons.
 
This is an older thread, you may not receive a response, and could be reviving an old thread. Please consider creating a new thread.
Top