I took my new o/u Silver Pigeon (which veterans tell me "fits" me and is very comfortable to swing and shoot) out for the first time today on the sporting range at American shooting center. A great day outdoors, but I have much room for improvement. It was my second time at sporting clays last time was with my Remington 870, I may have hit more with the 870 than with the Silver Pigeon. Any sporting clay tips in addition to taking much needed lessons? Thank you!

No. 1 rule for hitting flying birds; If you are going to miss it....miss it in front of it, not in back of it. In other words.....work on perfecting your swing thru. ...

Swing through the bird and keep the gun moving as you slap the trigger.

The Pigeon is field grade. Shoot with target covered by barrel not on top of sight.

Trap grade shoot higher and the clay sits on the sight when shooting.

Congrats on the Beretta SP. I have one also and love it.
I'm going on my 3rd year doing sporting clays, so I'm no expert, but have improved and become more consistent.

Some tips I would give would be to, stay relaxed but focused. Watch the bird more than your bead when you're shooting. (When you focus on the bead you stop moving the gun.) Practice and have fun with it. There are several techniques to use, but as my wife says, "figure out where the bird is going and shoot it, it's rather simple."

Don't Miss!!! If you do that simple one thing you will break all the targets. Larry

A tip that helped me alot was, Focus on the front (leading) edge. Remember to shot where the bird will be!.

I had a Super Pidgin in 28 gauge and loved the shotgun and the gauge!

Ivan

On doves, pray hard and have good karma. They're wiggly little critters who seem very adept at dodging shot charges.

No, they don't taste like chicken. But you gotta kill 'em to taste 'em. They absolutely taste better than clay birds.

Keep your head down on the stock as you follow through the shot. Biggest mistake I make is raising my head which I believe causes you to shoot high. I think this is a very common mistake too.

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Possum—The other white meat!

Pretty good advice so far but right here you have the key. Lessons. A good instructor can save a LOT of time--that means dollars--in shooting flying.

Forget about the gun, the gauge, the ammo, the choke. None of that matters until you have the fundamentals down. A shooter with proper fundamentals and an off the shelf Mossberg 500 will shoot rings around an untrained shooter with a Perazzi.

Find a good instructor which is something you should be able to do in your area (Houston?). A good one will start with the mount, then fit. Tip--if someone assesses your fit without assessing your mount they don't know what they are doing. That might sound harsh but it's a fact. You CANNOT determine fit until a consistent proper mount is achieved.

Sorry to be snarky here, but there are there are lots of "experts" or "veterans" at every range willing to chime in about fit, gun, choke, lead, but there are very few who understand truly how to get you where you need to be.

Find a few instructors and interview them like you would any other employee. Decide where you want to end up and have them tell you how they are going to get you there. You have an advantage in that you already seem to know this. I was reluctant but when I found a good one--I was already hitting targets pretty well--he spotted things in what I was doing that absolutely clicked and made sense immediately and helped tremendously to make that next plateau. I'm a bird hunter and shoot clays to make me a better field shot and it took a bit of looking to fine someone who understood that. But when I did I wondered why I had waited so long to do it. I spent a lot of money to get to the lip of a plateau I could well have crossed sooner if I had gotten proper instruction.

Good advice from most people. Follow through--Keep the
shotgun barrel moving.
I don't know if lessons from anybody will help that much
to warrant what you would be charged to simply practice
as often as you can and work on your leads.
Like Texas Star has said, on Doves it's a whole new ball
game as opposed to shooting clays.
Mostly, have fun.

Chuck

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They hold no Quarter

Love the Silver Pigeon Beretta shotguns!

The 870 is no slough either!

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As one member of the Shotgunworld forum says, " they don't fly backwards, shooting behind never works"

Seriously, to understand shotgun fit, which is important because your eye is the rear sight and to be consistent your "rear sight" needs to be in the same place every time you mount the gun, get Rollin Oswald's book on trap shotgun fit. I bought mine from Amazon. Understanding how a shotgun should fit helped me tremendously.

And look through Shotgunworld Forum. The focus is on clays and wing shooting. There are many helpful members, including Rollin, and SP owners! Not a lot of HD/tactical stuff.

You're right! I happen to have five 870s, a 1988 Express 20", 1990 special Purpose with a 26" LC barrel, 1978 12ga Wingmaster, 1977 20ga Wingmaster, and a 1960 TC Trap. The TC is my favorite. You just don't find sunburst grain wood anymore.

My only advice would be to shoot way in front of the target. You would be surprised at how far you have to lead some of them.

Head on the stock, eye on the rock. Do not look back to the barrel or you will miss behind every time.

Butt, bird, beak, BANG! Follow thru is essential. It all starts with a good mount, if you don't have that basic skill set refined, then all else is moot. I bird hunted for 40 years before I started shooting clays, shooting a course can be humbling. Competent instruction, developing appropriate skill sets, and a LOT of trigger time refining those skill sets. You have a great gun to begin with. Enjoy your O/U.