Target Practicing in Awkward Positions
When at the range it is easy to get comfortable shooting from the shooting table with and without gun holding assistance like the lead sled. Plenty of shooters practice regularly shooting free style, off sticks and prone on the ground. Now the next step is to set up the unexpected and awkward shooting scenarios. Competitive target shooters and real, life hunters will encounter situations where they need to shoot awkward and often uncomfortable shooting positions. This kind of shooting take practice and time to set up the challenges. Lots of everyday items can be used to simulate the awkward places a shooter might encounter. Trash cans laid down, rocks plied up, logs and tree limbs piled up, an old chain link gate to shoot through, an opened end drum to shoot through, holes cut in ply wood , old doors and with some imagination many more items from around your home, your work and trash on the curb.
Here at Poetry Shooting Club we are always looking for ways to support the young shooters coming along. My friend Ray Sasser with the Dallas Morning News shared his belief that youngsters needed to have some real life shooting experiences at the range. Many times youngsters find themselves at the deer lease; cold, sometimes wet, in smelly, creepy, buggy deer blind, usually with awkward seating arrangement and expected to rise to the occasion acquire the target and place the perfect shot.
We wanted to help these youngsters so we now have some pop up blinds for youngster to come sit in and practice shooting out of with the target appears. We can also set it up on the pond for clay pigeon shooting from the blind requiring standing up to “Get Em” overhead.
So in the future try to think of different and awkward shooting positions to practice from before the day of the hunt.
Hunters and competitive target shooters are sometimes required to shoot from many different and potentially uncomfortable positions. To be quick and effective requires practice. In this video Clint Smith, President and Director of Thunder Ranch Training Center, walks us through a shooting course designed to simulate several real world shooting environments and provides helpful pointers how to engage targets more effectively.
