How Far

SIMON WARD talks about range judging, tighter chokes and stock fitting. Mastering the art of judging range, line and speed is absolutely vital to good shooting. To practice the accurate judging of range will be of great benefit whether you are shooting sporting clays, woodpigeons, or game in season

There are some simple exercises that will help. For instance when you are in the garden or maybe taking the dog for a walk in the countryside, make a quick assessment of how far an object is from where you are standing. And then pace it out.

Also try this... walk out ten paces from a tree, post or where your dog has been told to sit and stay. Look back at where you started from. Then walk another 10 paces, look back and keep doing the same at 10 pace intervals until you reach 100 paces.

Also try looking up in the sky for an imaginary reference point each time you stop. This might all sound a little extreme, but I can assure you it will help your assessment of range greatly and as a consequence will help your shooting immensely.

This very same exercise can be done by shooting at a crossing clay pigeon, both right-to-left and left-to-right. I suggest standing at ten paces from at the 12o’clock position from where you intend to break the clay. Have ten shots, then walk back ten paces at a time out for up to 60 paces.

Remember both right-to left and left-to-right. This is a wonderful exercise for improving not only your skills of range judging, but also as learning and retaining lead pictures.

You only have to think about the amount of practice which pro’ golfers put in to judging distances on driving ranges as well as on the course. Think how they choose a different club for a different shot - it is in effect like choosing a different lead picture for a more distant or nearer shot when shooting.

The only difference with shooting is that you won’t have a caddy to discuss it with, so even more important that you improve your range judging with practice. Indeed with time and practice, judging range accurately will be done sub-consciously, and this is when your performance will rise to a different level.

Remember, when out game shooting, the skill of range judging is every bit as relevant whether too close or too far.

People’s perceptions vary enormously - someone might think a pheasant is 20 yards distant, while another would guess on 50 yards. But there is nothing worse than a pheasant or partridge rendered unfit for the table.

So try to refrain from shooting at anything which is less than 20 yards from the gun end. The average oak tree is 20 yards high, while a mature beech, on level ground, is 40 yards, so both will give a good indication of how high the birds are fl ying. But out in the open with no points of reference it is more difficult to assess range - it is here where the practice comes into its own.

When shooting look carefully at the bird coming towards you. Focus and sub-consciously think - how far? This will decide your forward allowance, or indeed if you should be shooting at all.

Talking of range...I had a most illuminating experience recently when I joined Dave Carrie to shoot some targets off the 45 yard high tower at Monckton Shooting Ground near Market Weighton, Yorkshire. Dave, you may recall, was featured in this magazine (Winter 2007) shooting 50 gram cartridges (to great effect) at stratospheric pheasants at Whitfield.

This time we compared what could be achieved with 50 gram 3s and 28 gram 7s on long range shots. We ended up shooting the tower at 100 paces to the sides. It would have seemed impossible... I’ll tell you what happened in our next issue.

 
 
 

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