Started shooting? Your need-to-know guide

When you first pick up a shotgun – either on a clay target lesson or with a friend at a shooting ground – you’re stepping into a world with its own secret ways and language.

It’s hard to find all the info you need when you actually begin your shooting journey in one place. The result? Most of us are unsure about everything from what to wear to how to act on the stands… let alone how to shoot the targets.

We’ve all been there, feeling like a complete novice while everyone else seems to have it sussed. How do they do it?

A lot of the tips, tricks and etiquette approaches are passed on from seasoned shooters to newcomers. There isn’t a bible for it nor is there a “Clay Shooting for Dummies” book. Remember them from the 90s?

So, we had a chat between the shooters at PAIR DEAD HQ, taking a look back at our early days in the sport and recalling those “if only we’d known” things we know now but didn’t then.

It is a common trap to underestimate the mental toll of a session at the ground – be that a lesson or shooting a practice round.

We often forget that shooting isn’t just about the physical swing; it’s the ultimate mental focus marathon. Staying “switched on” for every single target – especially when the wind picks up or the targets get technical – needs 100% concentration.

Clay target shooting is much more of a mental game when you’ve mastered the basics, so when the body is moving but the mind is wandering, problems arise.

Every experienced shooter has been there: eyes on the target, call “pull”, target comes into view, swing starts, mind wanders, head lifts off the stock and you hear a very clear ‘loss‘ from the ref. This deflating process happens just because our concentration slipped for a split second. All those methodically practised moves, including keeping our head on the stock, just didn’t happen.

By the time we reach the final stand, our brains can feel like mush. It takes genuine mental stamina to keep our process consistent over 50-100 targets.

So we wish we’d have known the importance of the mental game back at the start instead of having to reverse engineer it into our plans later on.

One of the best things we discovered when we started is the variety of shooters you meet when you’re out and about. It’s a proper community of diverse people.

From teenagers with lightning-fast reflexes to veterans who have been at it for 50 years and everything in between, shooting isn’t a closed club; it’s a wonderfully open community.

Everyone has a story and most are happy to share a tip or two between stands. We’ve stood on the peg next to plasterers, surgeons, mechanics, marketing folk, firefighters and retirees – but what joins us together is the fact that we’re all obsessed with the same goal: dusting more targets than last time.

If we’d have know that the “old hands” have valid points to share, we’d have listened more.

When you’ve settled on your local ground, definitely ask them if they offer membership and the benefits it gives.

Usually paying a nominal fee (anywhere between £30 to £150 per year) will give you benefits such as:

• Reduced price for clays
• Discounts on cartridges
• Exclusive club news
• Early access to competition bookings
• And much more besides

Each club offers different membership benefits. Most will give discounted clays and rounds of shooting as a standard but some offer some really cool extras – so ask the question.

Some of us spent a good few years (and unnecessary pounds) before taking up a membership – we wish we’d known sooner…

You’ve bought your first shotgun and it’s your pride and joy. When you’re not shooting it you want to hold it, practice your mount and get to know it well so you can look after it.

And then you start to think about taking it apart to clean… and fear builds. What if I can’t get it back together or do it wrong?

It’s actually very simple to take apart and put back together but it’s definitely daunting the first few times. Again, the “old hands” will show you, no problem at all. Just ask one of them, they’ve been there too (usually many years ago).

As for cleaning it, unless you had the idea to ask the RFD or previous owner how to approach it you’re probably a bit in the dark. But again, it’s not rocket science even if it feels like it could be.

We wish we’d had a 10-min tutorial when we bought our first gun. It would have meant we could’ve spent hours fiddling and cleaning it whilst waiting impatiently for our next lesson.

When shooters talk about “I’m gonna reach that with a 28 gram 6.5” or “that’s a close one, 24 gram 9’s will sort it” – what are they going on about? (Here’s some of the secret language we mentioned at the top).

It’s a kind of shorthand for the type of cartridge they are using – load first (28 gram for example) and shot size after (6.5 for example).

Cartridges comes in a variety of sizes based on the size of the shot within the shell and the weight (which equates to the amount) of shot pellets inside.

Broadly speaking, a 28 gram 6.5 shot size shell will propel the pellets further in the air to reach a longer range target but you have less “lead in the air” based on the size of the shot and the space available in the cartridge. The pattern will also be narrower for more time, which gives the pellets a longer range before they start to spread out.

However, a 28 gram 9 shot size shell will not reach as far as a 6.5. You’d use a ‘9’ (as the vernacular goes) for close range targets that could be fizzing past, because a 9 patterns outwards much sooner; there’s a larger swarm of pellets in the air and therefore you can afford to be a little less accurate – so you’ve got a better chance of hitting the close target.

But when you add in the variety of shotguns – such as .410, 28, 20, 12, etc – the shell combinations get even wilder.

There’s a ton more that we can share on this and we’ll do that in an article soon.

Think of a shotgun choke like the adjustable nozzle on a garden hose.

Just as twisting the nozzle changes the water from a wide, close mist to a tight, long-distance stream, a choke directs your pellets in just the same way as they leave the barrel.

There’s many types/sizes of chokes – Improved, Modified, 5/8’s etc – so it can be a mind bender knowing what to use when.

But for now, a choke labelled as Cylinder is wide open, perfect for hitting close targets that are moving fast. At the other end, a Full choke squeezes those pellets into a tight cluster, allowing you to reach targets that are much further away.

If we’d known that you can completely change how your shotgun sends the pellets skywards just by swapping out small metal tubes, it could’ve been an early game changer.

But as with all shooting matters, there’s mixed opinions – “do you choke twiddle or don’t you?”

That’s one for another article.

When we first headed out to the ground, we took little more than ourselves, our phone and a wallet.

Soon we realised we need way more than that – as well as the shells and the gun itself shooters need loads more kit.

Glasses with a variety of lenses, 100+ shells for a big shoot so we have enough in case of “no-birds” and misfires (which are mercifully rare), drink, snacks, cap, vest, towel, the list goes on.

Getting a good sturdy kit bag is essential. You can take a normal gym bag or everyday holdall but when you’ve got all that kit and kilos of cartridges in your bag, that anything other than a proper shooting bag won’t cut it for long.

A quality kit bag designed for our sport will come with sturdy stitching to carry the weight, waterproof treatment for those wet days and compartments designed to stop your shells from whacking your glasses around.

Most of us started out with a bag we had at home but they soon fell apart, normally on the shoulder straps due to the weight. And of course using the wrong kit opened us up to that piss-taking moment when everything hits the floor at speed and spreads like water…

You’ve heard the joke about a left handed screwdriver haven’t you? If you haven’t then spoiler alert, it’s the same – only the gullible fall for that old one.

But there are left and right handed scissors for good reason – if you didn’t know that then you’re welcome.

Like scissors, shotguns have left handers and right handers. So depending on which way you shoot (if the butt of the gun is in your right shoulder you’re right handed) you’ll need a gun that suits you.

Naturally there are more right handed guns out there than left, that’s just due to population statistics, but a left handed gun is not hard to find.

And the reason we (well actually just one of us) wished we’d known this at the start is because when you buy your first gun the first question to ask is which handed it is. If the answer doesn’t match your shooting shoulder, it’s not for you. It’s never going to show you the true picture of barrels versus target so you’re going to miss the target +80% of the time.

To a seasoned eye it’s easy to see which gun is which but it is subtle – so it’s very easy to miss if you don’t know what you’re looking for.

When you rock up to a new range you could find anything from a small wooden cabin to a fully decked-out, multi-level building. But one thing is always the same: The clubhouse is a community space waiting for you.

It’s where we gather to “talk shop” and share the highs and lows of the day’s shooting. It’s where you’ll meet new people easily and without pretence. If you don’t know anyone in the clubhouse, just wander up and say:

“Hi, I’m new to clay shooting and have just shot here. How did you get on, any tips for me for stand [insert tricky stand number] next time?”

And then begins a lengthy chat about stands 1 to 13, the pesky critters that got away, why they were missed and how you could tackle said tricky stand next time.

Whilst we’re all out on the range to beat each other to the top spot, none of us wants anyone to feel beaten up by a stand or worse, go home feeling the sport isn’t for them.

We kept ourselves to ourselves when we started as we thought all the shooters in the clubhouse were solid lifelong mates – purely based on the way they were interacting. Of course, some are but the vast majority met each other because of shooting – and they met in the clubhouse by just wandering over and saying hello.