In a previous post, I shared some Vincent Hancock videos that demonstrate the three basic shotgun leads. Swing-through, pull-ahead and sustained lead. I had been a sustained lead fan for skeet for all of December, 2010 (when I started learning the game). After my first lesson (with the guy that is now my coach), I learned there is a fourth lead type – converging lead. I need to find the time to setup my gun camera and take some footage of how that lead looks.
In a nutshell, instead of trying to quickly get the right lead and sustain it by exactly matching the birds speed, this is a lead where you move the gun at a speed slightly slower than the bird and shoot the bird when the correct site picture/lead is recognized. I find this much easier to hit the bird faster and makes my break points much more consistent.
I used to have a break point that moved. It had to. With sustained lead, I’m having to move the gun quite a bit. With converging lead, I can start the gun further from the house and slowly let the bird catch up to my gun. With a rehearsed and consistent gun speed at each station, that always happens at my desired break point. Getting the slower, consistent gun speed is taking a lot of work and my coach is having to remind me to slow my gun on a regular occasion. I’ll get there or piss of my coach trying.
Once I pickup a new SDRAM card for the gun camera, I’ll get some footage and add it.
