Novice shooter Richard Hastings recently visited a game fair at Harewood House near Leeds where he had a lesson with a BASC shotgun coach.
Richard said: "I started shooting last year and bought my own gun but I had never really been taught how to use it. Everyone at the club where I shoot has given me pointers, e.g. not enough lead, too high, too low, but I never really had a success rate above 40-50%."
"The first thing my BASC instructor Mike discovered was that I was left eye dominant, which put a different light on why I had been missing more than I hit. Once this basic flaw was sorted out, next came the stance. It turned out I was a little too square to the target and struggled to get full rotation. This was easy enough to remedy, so with a recap of the safety we went to the shooting stand. After being shown how and when to hit the clay, I smashed it to smithereens with my first shot – and all the ones after that, too! Was I proud of myself! We went on to do different angles and flights of clay and my average was well up on anything I had ever done before. I was delighted."
"I have just got back from a shoot where I had 50 clays from different stands and hit 75% of them – my highest score to date by far. Because of this I would recommend anyone who is starting out – or who is unable to increase their hit rate – to go for proper coaching. Like me, I am sure you will see your scores improve. So thanks to coach Mike and thanks BASC."