Dear Bruce,

I have been shooting low gun for both skeet and sporting clays for the last several years. I learned the fundamentals from Keith Lupton, and have never held high mount since then except for an occasional round of trap.

Recently I took up registered skeet and am now shooting a combo of A & B classes across the four gauges. Doubles shooting is inconsistent.

My question is can one reach more competitive levels in American skeet with low gun. A few shooters whose opinions I trust have suggested that the mounting process in low gun approach introduces another variable, which eventually results in occasional lost targets, and slower reaction times in doubles. Nearly everyone who shoots the game seriously uses high gun – certainly the top shooters all do (I believe?).

I’m wondering whether I should learn high gun shooting if I want to reach AA levels as a goal? Any thoughts would be appreciated.

Best wishes,
Kevin

Dear Kevin,

All those “experts” you talked to really are expert. Do what they recommend. If your goal is to win at American-style skeet, you will have to become proficient at shooting a fully pre-mounted gun. In American-style skeet, the name of the game is consistency, not brilliance. You can’t afford to make a mistake- ever. Any error- ever- costs you the shoot. If you shoot low gun against others shooting high gun, sooner or later, especially at doubles, it will cost you.

Remember, International Skeet, the Olympic game, uses a low gun to make the game more difficult, not easier. The sporting clays, mount which Lupton taught you, is ideal for many (though not all) sporting clays shots. Low gun gives you far better visibility than mounted gun. In sporting clays, due to the variance of the birds, visibility is very important. In American-style skeet, you know what each bird will do, so you can afford to sacrifice some visibility for the sake of speed and the elimination of one variable. It makes sense. It’s all a horses for courses thing. I do not mean to indicate that one game is harder or easier than another. They just have different requirements. When in Rome…

Best regards,

Bruce Buck
The Technoid writing for Shotgun Report, LLC