I was shooting to the left with my new over-under!

I wasn’t aware of doing this and wondered what might be the cause. Strangely I didn’t have a problem on lower pheasants when taking them a little in front.

CLAY PIGEON SHOOTING
John Bidwell
If you’re a right-handed Shot then this sounds to me a classic case of using a gun with a stock that’s too low in the comb.

In short, you are losing master eye contact with the bird when the gun is mounted.

On birds taken in front your eye remains above the rib of the gun so the shot goes where you are looking but, as the angle steepens, the master eye ends up below the line of sight, its view obscured by the gun’s breech and top lever.

Now, it’s down to the other eye to take control, dragging the muzzles to the left in the process, and a miss in that direction.

You can have the stock raised by a gunsmith but, before that, check it out yourself by raising the comb gradually with layers of insulating tape until your eye remains just above the rib with the gun mounted and vertical on a driven clay from the high tower at a shooting school.

An increase of just 1/8 – 1/4in can make a huge difference, so don’t overdo the taping process!