Outdoors
The BDN outdoors section brings readers into the woods, waters and wild places of Maine. It features stories on hunting, fishing, wildlife, conservation and recreation, told by people who live these experiences. This section emphasizes hands-on knowledge, field reports, issues, trends and the traditions that define life outside in Maine. Read more Outdoors stories here.
It may seem a little premature to think about October wing shooting when the welts of black fly season are just subsiding. But savvy hunters would be wise to take advantage of the summer months to prepare for bird season.
What you do during the sweltering days of June, July, August and September may help you achieve success on those frosty fall mornings.
More than one hunter has had the experience of ambling down an old logging trail when startled by a partridge exploding from a swath of alders, then proceeding to miss a clear shot. The hunter is left puzzled by a failed attempt as his retrieving companion stares at him with the most judgmental look.
There’s a good chance the miss was a result of a poor shooting stance, a sloppy gun mount or simply staring at the end of the barrel instead of focusing on the bird.
The good news is that such bad habits are correctable with a summer regimen of clay shooting. It’s not a guarantee of bag limits but it certainly will improve the odds for both upland hunters and waterfowlers.
Maine has several clay range locations where skills can be honed. And if you really want to up your game, you may want to schedule a visit to Freeport and L.L. Bean’s clay range where you can practice on targets that will simulate the flights of game birds. Courses and private lessons are available for those interested in improving specific aspects of their shooting.
Most shotgun instructors in Maine are hunters, too, and understand the substantial difference between the controlled environment of a clay range and the unpredictability of the field. And yet attention to detail and consistent practice on fundamentals at the range, cementing those lessons into muscle memory, can translate to more confidence and efficiency when conditions are more incalculable.
Peyton Higgison is an instructor at L.L. Bean. He is a former state skeet champion and certified by the National Sporting Clays Association. He is also a waterfowler.
“Hitting moving targets is an art,” he explained. “It must be learned and felt. It’s not something you just go out and do without learning some basics.”
Those basics can be broken down into the Holy Trinity of shooting — stance, gun mount and focus. Master those skills and you’ll likely see a difference when your quarry has wings instead of a 4-inch orange disc of crushed limestone.
Stance is the foundation of shooting. A poor stance is also one of the main reasons shots are missed in the field, according to Mark Warren, who spent much of his career with the Maine Warden Service prior to joining L.L. Bean’s shotgun instruction staff.
“Based on my experience of 60 years of bird hunting,” said Warren, “I have determined that missing shots at upland birds is often the result of poor gun mount and stance. This should come as no surprise due to variable hunting terrain, underbrush and adverse weather conditions.
“Far too often, a miss is because of foot positioning and stance at the time of the shot,” he said.
A proper stance requires a balanced position, feet about shoulder width apart with more weight distributed to the front foot — nose over toes as they say. The shooter should have steady footing and be able to pivot enough to cover a wide target area.
Just as important as stance, if not more, is gun mount. At clay target events, you notice more shooters using a high mount and pre-positioned stance whereas it’s more common to use a low mount in the field since birds are unlikely to flush when the shooter yells “pull.”
“So when you practice clay shooting getting ready for duck season,” said Higgison, “practice high mount to hone your chops but then go to low mount and have your partner pull without you calling.”
Regardless of the mount, eventually the shooter must bring the gun into a firing position with the butt tucked firmly into the shoulder pocket and the comb resting firmly under the cheekbone. More shots are missed at the range and in the field when shooters lift their cheek from the comb.
Finally, the shooter must focus on the bird. Instructors constantly preach to not look at the barrel but the clay target. Of course, the barrel will be in the shooter’s peripheral vision but the focus should still be on the bird.
“One’s focus on the bird will have been honed by clay target shooting,” said Warren, “resulting in more focus on the bird rather than the bead on the barrel of the gun. The complete focus learned while shooting multiple clay targets will be directly relative to bird hunting as the hunter’s eye will follow the bird much as it does a clay target resulting in fewer missed shots or wounded birds.”
Obviously, conditions in the field fluctuate much greater than on a range. The erratic flights of partridge, woodcock and waterfowl are difficult to simulate with trap machines.
“Ducks don’t fly like clay targets,” noted Higgison. “They weave, climb, turn and all sorts of maneuvers not seen in clay shooting.”
Waterfowlers are best served by practicing crossing shots as well as incomers and outgoers on the clay range. These are the kinds of presentations that approximate the flights of ducks.
For partridge and woodcock, practice outgoing shots but at a lower height than you might for waterfowl. Quartering shots can be especially helpful for partridge. Clay ranges that have a wobble machine with the ability to launch outgoing targets at various trajectories are excellent for field preparation.
Shooters should be aware that simulation can’t replace shooting in the field.
“As hard as we try to simulate a clay to act like a bird, there is one thing that is uniquely different,” explained John Dumont, a longtime L.L. Bean instructor.
“A clay target starts out fast and slows down as it travels where a bird starts out slow and increases speed, a subtle but major difference.”
While considering the obvious nuances between the range and the field, there is still great value in using the summer months to prepare as you practice regularly. You will still miss your fair share of shots during the fall bird season.
Even the most seasoned wing shooters are left muttering to themselves when a partridge seems to mystically dodge a barrage of birdshot.
Spend more time at the clay range this summer and you may find yourself muttering a lot less than in past years.