Top Sporting shot and coach Matt Hance kicks off a new series with a look at the foundations of good shooting
Whenever I work with a new student, the first few lessons are spent perfecting the fundamentals. You’ve got to get those right first. So in this first article we are going to dive deep into the basic aspects of the game – what are they, and how to get them right. Even minor problems in any of these areas will have a major effect on your overall performance. We’ll see how to do the fundamentals correctly, and how that will help you perform better.
As with most of the topics that I will cover in this series, you must recognise what stage you’re at in your shooting.
In my own career, to ensure that I’m always heading towards my goals, I always ask myself what is the next critical thing that will incrementally improve my overall game, relative to my level.
But no matter how proficient you are, and whether your aim is to win the English Open or just to beat your mates on a Sunday, there is always a good reason to spend some time just developing the fundamentals.
Make it your goal that, once you have mastered any of the basics, you won’t let them trip you up in the future. In the longer term you will be a much better overall shooter if you dedicate some time to these points.
Gun fit
No doubt you will have been told that a fitted gun is essential to becoming a good shot, and that is absolutely right. Your eye needs to align along the rib, so that the gun shoots where your eyes are focused. By bending the stock – adjusting ‘cast’, ‘heel’ or ‘toe – we can bring the gun closer to or further away from the face. Similarly, by the use of an adjustable stock we can raise or lower the height of the comb, to allow for the butt of the gun to still sit correctly in your shoulder, your neck to stay in a comfortable and repeatable position, and for your eye to sit in line with the rib.
By setting the comb so that your eye sits above the line of the rib, your gun will naturally shoot slightly higher than the point of aim. The opposite effect will happen should we set the comb lower than parallel. I would argue that in the majority of cases you want a gun that shoots to the point of aim. We call that 50/50, meaning that 50% of the shot goes above the target and 50% below it. However, it is still the preference of some shooters, myself included, to have the comb set slightly higher than flat, such that the eye can see around the gun a bit more;
