Magazine Review CLAYTARGET NATION – January 2021 Some time ago there was a guy I would find myself squadded with on the practice field at Markham who always shot skeet low gun. It was obvious he was not a seasoned shooter and not good at skeet (scores in the mid to low teens). I asked him why he shot low gun. He replied he shot that way because it was more challenging and shooting pre-mounted didn’t seem fair. I followed up with a question about his golf game, “Did he hit his driver off a tee?” He responded, “Of course.” Then why did it seem unfair to premount in skeet when the rules allowed it? He had no response. The point is, he would have improved as a shooter, especially a skeet shooter, if he would have practiced shooting pre-mounted first. Learn how to shoot as a pre-mounted shooter first, then try to learn how to shoot low gun. Skeet is a fast game. Out-going targets are shot in less that 1.2 seconds even by pre-mounted shooters. For a beginner add in the low gun move to the shoulder and there’s little time left to break the target in 1.2 seconds. Not to mention the variability the low gun causes to a new shooter. Learn how to shoot premounted first then go low gun or at least just do it on the incoming targets. Just as you would use a tee for driving and you use irons or fairway woods to hit off the fairway. I believe the guy would have been better off learning how to break in the 20’s first as a pre -mounted shooter before attempting skeet
low gun. As to low gun and sporting clays you have a completely different situation. Many shooters learn sporting clays as a low gun shooter. With courses like the Whitetail at South Florida Shooting Club and the Red Course at Quail Creek you have targets totally conducive to learning low gun as a mount and shoot technique. Lots of time to see the
target and mount to shoot it on most stations. Skeet and Trap are too fast to start as a low gun shooter. Anyway, Paul Giambrone III talks about shooting American skeet from the low gun position. When he asked people why they do it they either respond that they want to simulate hunting or they see the target bet8 ter from the low gun mount. He does not address the hunters.
