Cartridges.......

[AW13]

75 sporting, all different clays flying around at different speeds and angles and even a rabbit bouncing along.

 

[ips]

I think Paul it refering to abt and ot. No way would you not be penalized trying to shoot the above with 21g

 

[RobertBeard]

I bought my gun in the early summer of 2012.

I'm still at the stage of buying the cheapest I can find and I haven't found anything that doesn't work equally as well ay breaking clays to date!

I have used Eley Firsts in both plastic and fibre, Hull Comp-X and Trusts Plastic all in 28 gram.

I have a few 24 and 21 gram for my daughter and nephew to use who prefer less recoil.

 

[Will Hewland]

Recoil is ALWAYS a slight issue to a newbie, because the gun mount is never good and consistent.

Go with 21g. They are cheaper and soft to shoot. You won't be attempting extreme targets where a few less pellets will disadvantage you yet. If allowed, use plas wad. Cheaper and nicer.

Shoot lots and experiment with lead until you hit a few. It's an odd sport at first..

 

[westley]

Perhaps you should consider cutting back on the amount of shooting you intend to do and put the money saved towards a lesson with a Qualified Instructor. You could then ask him/her the answers to your questions and possibly get the answers with some practical demonstrations. The money spent on a couple of lessons should answer some of the questions already raised, least of all "how much in front I need to be". Good luck and safe shooting.

 

[AW13]

Had one lesson with a borrowed gun [pre SGC] and also planning  a couple more with a CPSA trainer/coach.

I am a tenacious sod and I don;t like 2nd best so I will be practicing practicing practicing.  I have shot about 300 this year todate, I was talking to one newbie who said he had shot about 3,000 this year to date.

I hope to is 10 times better than me! 

By the year end my personal target it 50+ from 75...........no idea whether I can achieve that but I need a goal to strive for.

 

[ips]

I think i know were you are coming from. You don't like being beaten by it and i might be very wrong but i suspect you like doing your own thing, am i right ?

In which case shoot as much as you can and work it out for yourself. Yes i know many will say pay for a coach but get the impression that's not your bag. If i am wrong then forget i posted. But although its against current method many of us of a certain personality have done just that.

 

[Darkside]

Had one lesson with a borrowed gun [pre SGC] and also planning a couple more with a CPSA trainer/coach.

I am a tenacious sod and I don;t like 2nd best so I will be practicing practicing practicing. I have shot about 300 this year todate...

Don't worry, your a looooong way off being 2nd best, or 3rd best of even 4th best...just enjoy learning to shoot at the moment, meeting new people, finding new places to shoot, going to competitions, setting new goals and achieving goals you have set!!!

 

[Will Hewland]

You really need to shoot 100 per week, especially at first. Any less and you just forget at the same rate that you learn. Progress will be rapid. I reckon lesson, practice, practice, lesson, practice, practice, lesson. Fewer lessons as time goes on perhaps.

 

[AW13]

Oh hell, my wife will be a 'shooting widow' mind you she has applied for her SGC as well.

Cheers for all the advice; summary:

• don't worry too much about the cartridge make/version
• shoot lots
• get a few lessons
• keep trying....oh, and practice my mount

 

[Hamster]

:mosking:  You should go the whole hog and get a pre charged pneumatic air rifle in .177 - these are plenty powerful enough to break clays at well over 120 yards, the pellets are practically free compared to shotguns (around £9 for 500), they have zero recoil, are extremely accurate and will teach you the correct sight picture and lead without worrying about anything other than putting the single pellet on target which lets face it is the object of the exercise and you only have yourself to blame if you miss.

Then when one day you pick up a real gun with 21g loads, it will be like taking candy from kids beating all comers who have fallen into a false sense of security and come to rely on their ridiculously large, dense 28g patterns.

Get real people 21g loads are not as good as 24 or 28, all this false bravado is making me sick.

 

[Will Hewland]

Hammy,..

This is somebody who had picked up a gun fewer times than they have fingers.. Plenty of time to get mean and moody once they have learned to hold the gun half properly.

 

[Dskize]

As a new shooter as well I'm not able to give advice , I can say how Im looking at it , I'm buying cartridges by the thousand , not worrying what load and concentrating on repetitive 'drills' regards gun mount and lead times , IE shooting the same stand 50 times on the skeet field until I'm sure I've got it nailed ...moving on to another stand then going back again ..I know this is going to cost me in cartridges so cheap and cheerful and not huge worries about longer sporting targets for a while.

 

[Will Hewland]

As a new shooter as well I'm not able to give advice , I can say how Im looking at it , I'm buying cartridges by the thousand , not worrying what load and concentrating on repetitive 'drills' regards gun mount and lead times , IE shooting the same stand 50 times on the skeet field until I'm sure I've got it nailed ...moving on to another stand then going back again ..I know this is going to cost me in cartridges so cheap and cheerful and not huge worries about longer sporting targets for a while.

Good to methodically get the basics sorted. The only think I would say is that if you stand and shoot any target with a load of shells you will end up hitting it by trial and error. It might be that you are doing things wrongly, but just 'get there' by trying every patch of sky. Early days especially, just because you have hit it may not mean you have learned much, so make sure you pay attention to how you hit it and not just if you hit it. This will then help you on different targets later.

 

[Dskize]

Noted ..I have been able to see the difference in chipping and smashing the clays ...and adjusted lead accordingly.

 

[Chris Pratt]

21g,24g,28g......as a beginner as you'll be missing down to your own errors rather than shells. I can see everyones point about 21g, for costs and recoil they're great. Get whatever carts you're happy with or can afford and spend some money on coaching as you'll hit more by learning a good technique and having a gun that fits than worrying about cartridges or chokes or any other small details that make no difference as a beginner.

However if you're serious, start as you mean to go on and get some 28g shells as you'll be using them in no time anyway

 

[Will Hewland]

Noted ..I have been able to see the difference in chipping and smashing the clays ...and adjusted lead accordingly.

Good, but it's also HOW you put the lead on. Really worth having a good lesson to get some basics right to grow a method that will take you far.

 

[Dskize]

I was recommended a local coach on my intro thread so I've phoned and will be attending shortly..hopefully someone to guide me towards what I should be doing plus repetition is the way..

Anyway sorry OP for dragging off topic ..

 

[Paul120]

Interested to know why you feel the same size and quality of shot traveling at the same speed will will not break a target when there is 25% less of it in the air?

if its on the target it will break, if your on the fringe you may miss, patterning them through your chokes will give you a better idea of the difference between the weights, as you say your a beginner not a B class shooter trying for A class. you will miss plenty i have smoked DTL targets with 21g eley first, not my choice but they did the business. you may loose 10% to the cartridge who knows but when your hitting 90% worry about it then.

Also as a new shooter you will miss mount, lift your head and do all sorts of silly things and miss because you missed not because your 70 pellets short in the pattern.

All IMO of course and i am sure other points of view are just a valid, probably even more

l give up... beginners, use the most you can in the rules and pick a soft shooting cartrige as others have said.

True Individual pellets have similar energy but you mostly need more than one. Especially for edge on targets.

Give yourselves a chance.. nore lead.. more dead. Fact.

 

[AW13]

No apology necessary for going away from the original OP.  There is a whole load of very interesting info in this thread.

I am hoping that I will be working with a trainee CPSA coach so that he can practice his coaching technique on me and I can also learn the black art of estimating lead for all the different combination of clay.  Hopefully beneficial for both of us.