Sighting-in your shotgun?  I know you are about ready to dismiss this article already because you sight-in a rifle not a shotgun and I agree with you except for the fact that you have to know where your shotgun shoots compared to with where you are looking!  Let me repeat that:  You have to know where your shotgun shoots compared to where you are looking!

Remember those times every year, early in the bird hunting season, when you miss that first shot then you “bear down” and hit the bird on the second (or third) shot?  Very simply you were not looking where your gun shoots.  I will bet that a huge percentage of the people who go out and buy a shotgun never pattern the gun with the ammo that they are going to shoot.  Would you ever take a rifle out deer hunting that you have not sighted-in?  Of course you wouldn’t!  You would never go big game hunting without first knowing exactly where the rifle shoots.

So why on earth would you pack up your new $2500 Beretta, put on your $700 worth of “proper” upland hunting gear, put your $3500 bird dog (with e-collar) into your $350 aluminum porta kennel, climb into your $55,000 Suburban and drive two hours (or two days) to miss the birds that you shoot at?  It does not make much sense to me either.  But there is a simple solution:  Sight-in your shotgun.

Sighting-in your shotgun is different than patterning your shotgun, but the two functions can be accomplished at the same outing with the same equipment; just different procedures.  I think we all know how to pattern a shotgun but if not here your go.  Usually at your local trap/skeet/sporting clays club there is a patterning board which is often a sheet of plywood held up vertically by a couple of support posts.  A better patterning board is a couple of vertical posts with open mesh steel in the span.  You attach your pattern target, which you can either buy at an outdoor sporting store or you can make the pattern sheet with a wide roll of paper and a magic marker.  The target has a 30” diameter circle with a target in the middle and a vertical and horizontal line that divide the target into 1/4ths.  I like to tape the targets to the patterning board.  Then you step back 25-30 yards, load your gun, mount your gun and fire at the target.  You do this to see where the density of the shot hits the target.  Patterning allows you to determine the correct choke.

Now for “sighting-in”.  The exact same process as above for patterning, except now you only step back about 15 yards and with a little change in your mount.  You have stepped back, you have loaded your gun now I want you to close your eyes while you mount the gun.  No I do not want you to shoot with your eyes closed (although sometimes we feel like we are hunting with our eyes closed!).  Mount your gun with your eyes closed; without changing the gun mount open your eyes, acquire the target and fire with both eyes open.  Instead of a pattern in a 30” circle you will have a concentrated/dense pattern that will be very easy to discern where the gun is shooting compared to where you are looking.  This is “sighting-in” a shotgun and think you will be amazed.

The lucky ones of you will have your target with top of the center almost obliterated.  Ideally your shot will be “dead on” left to right and just a touch high vertically.  About 55% high to 60% high and you are ready to go hunting.

I asked you to mount your gun with your eyes closed for an important reason.  The perfect gun mount you bring the gun to your face NOT your face to the gun.  Remember that first shot that you miss every year then you “bear down” and hit the second shot?  You did not have a good gun mount.  Bringing the gun to your face instead of your face to the gun is easy to learn and will make your shotgun shooting much better and easier.

At home, facing in front of a mirror, close your eyes, mount your gun and open your eyes, both eyes.  You should be looking  just over the top of the rib (barrel).  If I was at the muzzle end looking back at you I want to see your iris just above the flat of the rib.  I am not going to try to write all of the techniques that you can employ to learn to properly mount a gun so call me if you want specifics.

Now you have sighted-in your shotgun and it shoots left or right, or too high or too low; now what?  If your gun mount is good and this is happening and you have a modern semi-auto or pump you probably have an easy fix.  Many of today’s guns come with stock shims to correct those specific problems.  I have lost count on how many shims I have changed in my lifetime to correct problems for customer’s shooting.  It works!

A side x side or and O/U shotgun may not be so easy to correct, but it can be done.  I recently was at a friend’s house going through his guns for him and found two really nice, small frame, small gauge Winchester 101’s.  I looked at the guns and I said to him “bet you don’t shoot these worth a darn?”  He asked how I knew that?  Pretty simple, both guns’ stocks have left-hand cast to them and he is right handed; so they do not fit him AND he has owned the guns for 15 years and never understood why they did not shoot well for him.  The guns are now having their stocks “bent” to correct the problem.

Stock bending is a centuries old process to change the cast and the drop on wood gun stocks.  Done by a competent and experienced stock bending specialist, it works.

This is another “call me” for information.

Two last things and these are as important and gun mount and knowing where your gun shoots:  BOTH EYES OPEN and LOOK AT WHAT YOU ARE SHOOTING AT

With one eye closed you have no depth perception, period!  If you don’t believe me try parallel parking with one eye closed; in fact try hitting a golf ball or just about anything with one eye closed; it does not work.  Most of guns shot a BB gun or a rifle before we shot a shotgun so we aimed the gun and that habit followed us into our shotgun shooting.  Quit it!  Quit shooting with one eye closed RIGHT NOW!  If for some reason your other eye is dominant than put a piece of scotch tape or a smudge of chapstick on the lens of your shooting glasses just over the focus spot of your (wrong) dominant eye.  Now your weaker eye takes over and you still have your depth perception.  Practice with both eyes open until you get used to it and soon you will not even remember closing one eye!

Now:  Look at what you are shooting at.  It is physically impossible to see the end of your gun barrel (the bead) and the bird at the same time!  This is where your gun mount takes over.  The proper gun mount and keeping both of your eyes looking at only what you are shooting at, be it a blue rock or a bobwhite quail is imperative.  With the proper gun mount your eyes become an extension of where your gun is going to shoot so you never need to see the bead on the end of your barrel.

I promise you that if you know where your gun shoots, mount your gun properly and shoot with both eyes open looking at your target, your shotgun shooting experiences will be much more rewarding and a lot more fun.

Well in order not to confuse you any more than I probably already have I am drawing this to an end.

Cheers

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