Any time I head out hunting, I want to be as proficient as possible to make ethical shots. Most of my year is spent hunting big game, so when a wingshooting opportunity comes, I’m all in, but there’s always that sense of panic. I don’t practice wingshooting every day, or even every month, so now what?
I’ve found that putting in some time at the sporting clays range can be extremely helpful preparation for a wingshooting adventure. If an instructor can join you, it’s even better. Recently, my dad and I went to NILO farms, and before our bird hunt, we shot the sporting clays course. They sent an instructor, Scott Hushley, to show us around and he was a great coach. To have someone looking over your shoulder and telling you exactly what you did wrong or how to improve produces quick results. His instruction sped up the learning curve tremendously. He gave my dad and me tips that will help our shooting for years to come.
If you have a fall bird hunt planned or you just love shooting sporting clays, the summer is the perfect time to find a new course or build your own if you have enough property to do it safely. While an instructor isn’t always accessible, Winchester’s AA TrAAcker shells are the next best thing to having a coach over your shoulder.
Winchester developed the AA TrAAcker shotshells so that you can see where your pattern is going if you miss. The shot trap locks a small portion of shot in place, allowing the wad to track with the shot string. Thanks to this technology you can now learn from your mistakes and see if you’re shooting behind, over, etc. There are two kinds to make the wads easy to see: black for sunny days and orange for cloudy days.
Like everything, practice makes perfect. The more time you can spend shooting sporting clays, the better prepared you’ll be for fall wing shooting. Even if you don’t have any wingshooting hunts planned, it’s a fun way to spend time shooting, and thanks to Winchester you can do it on your own and still improve quickly and efficiently. Now you can not only enjoy time together with family and friends on the sporting clays course, but hopefully get out in the field together as well!
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