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Sporting Clay lessons and tipping


jfkoxford

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I am going be taking a one-hour sporting clay lesson and was curious if it is normal to tip the instructor or if the lesson fee is sufficient? Any perspetive would be appreciated. The person I will be taking the lesson from is the manager of the clays facility. Thanks

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I am going be taking a one-hour sporting clay lesson and was curious if it is normal to tip the instructor or if the lesson fee is sufficient? Any perspetive would be appreciated. The person I will be taking the lesson from is the manager of the clays facility. Thanks

 

My experience is that the fee is sufficient but it doesn't hurt to offer a little extra if you are satisfied with the service.

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I am going be taking a one-hour sporting clay lesson and was curious if it is normal to tip the instructor or if the lesson fee is sufficient? Any perspetive would be appreciated. The person I will be taking the lesson from is the manager of the clays facility. Thanks

 

It depends upon the “culture” at the shooting club where you take the lesson, and upon the expertise level of your instructor. Actually, it’s not too different from taking a golf lesson.

 

If you are planning a series of sessions from the same instructor, you certainly want to provide a gratuity that starts with lesson one, and continues-on consistently with each lesson. Twenty percent is very reasonable if that gets the best effort from your instructor, and it can even earn “extra lessons” or “after school” instruction.

 

I never worry about a 20 percent increase in an investment that is producing significant benefit (profit). Don’t be stingy if the system is working.

 

--Spike

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Thanks for the replies. Had a fantastic lesson and was only too happy to tip. A very wise investment and I will definitely be back for more lessons.

Hi jfkoxford,

 

You mention being pleased with the results of your sporting clay lesson. I share the same experience, but I would like to compare the specific instructions we both received that improved our shooting.

 

 

Here are the two pieces that were most significant in increasing my percentage of hits in sporting clays.

  1. Synchronizing the rotation of my hips with my shoulders (while keeping my head rotating with my shoulders) is essential for consistent target-striking. Your upper body turns first, but never completely independent of the lower body.
  2. Your head must be “over the top” of the stock’s comb so that your right eye is aligned straight with your shotgun’s front sight without canting (tipping your head). Your right eye (for a right-handed shooter) serves as the rear sight. That’s why your head must be over the top of the stock and straight-up (and never canted).

I’m curious if your instructor mentioned either of these points.

 

--Spike

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Spike,

I was focused on overcoming some bad habits. A few months ago I played with the shims for my M2 and dropped the butt. A much better fit and reduced recoil. However, with the drop I realized that the targer was obscured in many situations and that was causing me to raise my head to see the target, leading to many misses. So I acquired a raised comb pad and now the gun shoots 60/40. Part of the lesson was making sure the fit was correct and correcting the bad habit of head lifting. So in some ways, it was similar to your item 2.

 

The second part of the lesson focused on fast crossers. Had a lot of trouble with them. The cure here was to improve my mount and start the mount while turning with the target. Worked wonders and I was hitting most of the targets. I had been basically "jabbing" the gun into position such that my timing had to be perfect rather than using a measured swing in combination with the mount. So again, somewhat similar to your experience and what others have suggested above.

 

What felt good about the lesson was that the instructor worked on the items I needed help on rahter than using a generic lesson. A little more practice on the learnings from the last lesson and I will be back for another before I pick up some other bad habits.

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^^ Thanks for the reply. For sure an instructor tailoring the lesson after evaluating your strengths and weaknesses is desirable and produces the best result.

 

And… I agree that coordinating gun mounting with sighting and rotation is the way you get consistent hits. Once a shooter understands the basic principles, it just takes practice.

 

--Spike

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Keep swinging the gun.........and you can never be too far ahead....there you have it.!!

 

cpw110415zp

That statement is generally correct. Most misses are behind or below the target, and that happens for the same reason, which is stopping or slowing the swing. If you stop or slow the swing, you will obviously shoot behind the target, and also shoot low since the target is rising.

 

The question is: Why does a shooter stop or slow swing the gun?

 

The answer is: Some shooters tend to look at the front sight (bead) when tracking the target, and doing this causes in an attempt at alignment which often results in slowing the gun’s swing.

 

After stopping your gun, the next reason you miss is canting your head over the stock. You can do this when shooting a rifle since you align a front and rear sight. But, tipping/canting your head when shooting a shotgun results in inconsistent hits. Your dominant eye is the rear sight on a shotgun, so you must have your head upright and consistently positioned in relation to the gun’s barrel. Tipping your head will also result in uneven swings (left/right and up/down) that defeat tracking targets consistently.

 

--Spike

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