Top tips for a clay shooting beginner

Time Well Spent June 15, 2022

Budding clay shooters look no further! Here you’ll find useful advice and top tips to help you out when beginning your clay shooting career…

• Make sure to attend a have-a-go day and do not underestimate the importance of what will be learnt from it.

• Gun safety is the most important thing you will learn, so ensure you understand and can practice all safety procedures taught to protect yourself and others around you.

• Think of the first lesson as a foundation for the rest of your clay shooting career.

• Try to stay calm and listen carefully when learning to shoot; it can be very exciting when you have caught the clay shooting bug.

• Perfect the basics before pushing yourself into hitting harder targets.

• If you’re reasonably serious about shooting try to get a gun that fits you right from the start, for a pleasant and successful shooting experience.

• Before altering your gun ensure that your position is correct by seeking professional advice from an instructor, just in case the problem isn’t the gun but is the shooter’s technique.

• Don’t rush yourself when focusing on the first clay of a pair.

• If the first pair goes well, try to keep everything the same – you’re not shooting one pair, you’re shooting five.

• Have realistic goals to work towards and monitor progress with.

• Once confident in your lessons, begin to work towards small competitions to help with practice.

• Know that in your first competitions you are not there to win, but to gain experience.

• If you miss a target, don’t panic! Think about what went wrong and then change one thing at a time.

• Stay patient! It takes a lot of practice and dedication to shoot successfully.