--- title: "How to Shoot a Shotgun (and Hit Every Bird) Like Your Granddaddy Did" description: "Sustain your lead, swing through, pull ahead, or snap shoot? Maybe you do all four, depending on what you're shooting" date: "2026-11-14" modified: "2026-11-14" authors: - name: "Don Zutz" job_title: "Contributor" link: "https://www.outdoorlife.com/authors/don-zutz.md" url: "https://www.outdoorlife.com/hunting/how-to-shoot-a-shotgun-and-hit-every-bird/" categories: - "Duck Hunting" - "Goose Hunting" - "Grouse Hunting" - "Guns" - "Hunting" - "Shotguns" - "Upland Bird Hunting" - "Waterfowl Hunting" tags: - "News" --- # How to Shoot a Shotgun (and Hit Every Bird) Like Your Granddaddy Did ![wingshooting tips]() *\Illustration by David Jarvis\* *Don Zutz, 43, has hunted and fished all his life and has won or scored high in many skeet and trap tournaments. He was the 1964 Wisconsin skeet co-champion in 12 gauge with 100 straight and shot 150 straight in the shootoff. This story was originally published in the November 1976 issue of Outdoor Life.* Harry couldn't understand it. He was a lifelong duck hunter and had never had any trouble hitting his share of waterfowl. His season birds-to-shells-fired average was quite impressive. That very morning, in fact, I had watched him drop a lone honker and a pair of passing mallards with only four shots. And on previous occasions when he forsook his beloved blinds for pheasant hunting, he had more than held his own. But Harry's bubble burst when I suggested that we switch to open-bored guns and visit a few grouse covers after our early-morning duck hunt. It was a new world for him. Three roaring flushes from grouse netted him only half a dozen empty shells to reload. Then he missed a spiraling woodcock. Harry was beside himself with frustration and embarrassment. "How can I be deadly at dawn and then turn into a flub by midday?" he growled. At first I didn't pay attention. Anyone can have a bad day on grouse. When he continued to growl about his troubles over a hot cup of coffee, however, the reason for his bad showing became obvious. "I guess those fantails are just too fast and tricky for me," he mused. "When ducks and geese come over, I've got plenty of time to measure off my lead, but I simply can't get ahead of these crazy grouse and swing with them—especially when they're twisting through the brush!" Anyone who is conversant with the various wing-gunning methods immediately realizes that Harry had been using the wrong technique in the thickets. Instead of building his lead with a fast swing, he had used the deliberate, precise method of leading that he had perfected during all those years of dedicated duck hunting. And because it had also worked well on pheasants in the open, Harry had never questioned his method. For him, a carefully held sustained lead was the way to go. It was his one and only wingshooting technique. But deliberate shotgun pointing doesn't work on fast-breaking game in thick cover. The hunter simply cannot measure off a precise lead and maintain it on a grouse that is threading its way through branches. Harry found out that a versatile wingshot selectively employs different methods of leading flying targets, depending on what he is shooting. ![wingshooting tips]() *Illustrations by **David Jarvis.*** ## Four Basic Methods There are four basic techniques for slapping a lead on speeding birds, clay or feathered: 1) the sustained lead, otherwise known as the maintained lead; 2) the swing-through method, alias the fast swing; 3) the pull-ahead system; and 4) the snap shot (see sketches). ### Sustained Lead The one Harry had been perfecting in duck blinds, lo those many seasons, was the sustained lead. This is the method called "maintained lead" by the late, great D. Lee Braun, an outstanding Remington skeet and trap pro, in his popular book "Skeet Shooting with D. Lee Braun." The shooter visualizes the amount of lead he will need for a given target flying at a given speed and then brings his gun up ahead of the target by that approximate distance. Swinging at about the target's speed, he then adjusts for the exact lead and continues swinging on the bird's apparent line of flight until he is satisfied that the alignment and forward allowance are perfectly correct. The trigger is pulled while the gun maintains the established lead and swing speed. If the shooter judges his lead correctly, and if he maintains his lead and swing speed by following through properly, he should center his birds. The sustained lead, like all the others, is subject to human error. The shooter who gets lazy during his swing will slow down unwittingly and shoot behind. Ditto for the gunner who tries being too precise, because any tendency to aim a scattergun like a rifle results in tightening up, which also slows the swing. The most common failing, however, is stopping the swing at trigger time, thus cancelling out the forward allowance. Many hunters miss with the sustained-lead method because they don't measure off enough lead. In other words, they overestimate shot-string speed. Even at skeet's meager 20-yard range, the low-house target at Station 3 and the high-house clay at Station 5 (right-angle-birds) require a full four-foot lead if you use this method. Passing ducks doing 70 feet per second at 40 yards require an 8½-foot lead, even with a high-velocity load of 4's doing 1,330 feet per second at the muzzle. Stretch that range to 60 yards, and the lead increases to 14 feet! In other words, you might visualize a rowboat between the duck and your shotgun's muzzle while also keeping the swing crisp and smooth at the duck's speed! A sustained lead is best employed in the open on targets flying a steady course. It is natural when hunting doves, ducks, and geese, firing at crossing skeet clays, and for certain pheasant-hunting situations. But the sustained lead can't be used effectively in the brush on fast-flushing birds. There isn't enough time, and the game seldom flies a steady course. I pointed this out to Harry. "Guess I'll have to start snap shooting, if I want some grouse," he said. ### Snap Shooting I didn't like that idea either, and tried to dissuade him. Snap shooting is the least-scientific and least-consistent shotgun technique. It consists of nothing more than picking a spot ahead of the moving target, pointing the muzzle at that spot, and firing. There is no swing; there is no attempt to coordinate with the target's speed; there is no follow-through. The gun is merely snapped, or poked, and it is virtually stationary, when the shot charge is triggered. If the shooter "guesstimates" right, he scores. Otherwise it's a miss. And misses always outnumber the hits. This is not to say that snap shooting doesn't play a role in modern wingshooting. When a hunter is caught completely off guard and can't recover in time to make a coordinated swing, his only chance lies in a snap shot. In my opinion, about the only time snap shooting is really best is when you are trying for cottontails in the brambles. Those bounding, zigzagging, change-of-pace artists seldom allow you to take a smooth swing, and a hunter must resort to the "poke-and-hope" method. (For very different opinions on snap shooting, see Robert W. Woodruff on quail in "Five Topflight Gunners Tell How" in the October 1976 issue of this magazine, and Peter Miller on woodcock on page 72 of this issue.) Many skeet and trap shooters use a variation of snap shooting that they call spot shooting. This specialized technique has arisen because most clay-target shooters already have their guns mounted and pointed at a specific spot when the claybird appears. They do not have to bring their guns to their shoulders from a low, field-carry position. In trap, the first bird of doubles is often spot shot, because the shooters know exactly where it will be. Many skeetmen "spot" the high-house bird at Station 1 and the low-house disc at Station 7. But since a hunter doesn't walk around with a mounted gun, and since he doesn't know when or where the birds will appear or how they will fly, spot shooting has little application afield. "I'd sooner see you try the swing-through method," I told Harry. "It's more dependable and consistent, and once you get the timing right, it can be lightning quick. In fact, some people call it the fast swing instead of the swing-through." "Well, right now I'll try anything," Harry muttered, spinning the cap back onto his thermos. ### Swing-Through I explained that the shooter starts his gun behind the target. He then swings aggressively, catches up with the bird, and strokes right through it with a muzzle speed faster than the target's flight. The mental command to fire is given just as the muzzle passes the moving mark, and the gun continues its accelerating swing along the target's line of flight. Theoretically, the correct lead is built up by the rapidly swinging gun while the shooter's muscles respond to the mental command to fire and while the trigger yields, the firing pin falls, the primer ignites, the powder burns, and the shot charge clears the barrel. The faster the swing, the longer the lead will be. The muzzle moves ahead of the target during the shooter's physical responses and the gun's lock and combustion time. The swing-through system can be applied to more different hunting, skeet, and trap situations than any other method. I've even come to favor it over sustained lead for distant birds, because the accelerating, "heave-ho" swing needed to generate leads of eight to 15 feet after coming from behind develops a gun momentum which, in turn, insures a good, positive follow-through. Unfortunately, however, some people can't handle the true swing-through method. They don't feel comfortable starting behind the bird. They are doubtful about swinging with gusto, and lack the timing needed to coordinate trigger pull with swinging muzzle. Harry was one of them. After years of starting his gun ahead of ducks and geese and taking a deliberate, measured lead, he didn't like swinging from behind and firing with no visually apparent lead. ![wingshooting]() *Outdoor Life* ### Pull Ahead But there was still hope. The following weekend I had him try a variation called the pull-ahead method. With this technique the hunter starts by bringing his gun up right on the bird. Then he builds up gun momentum by pulling ahead for a very short distance. Once he has gun alignment and momentum, the shooter moves the muzzle ahead of the bird. When the right amount of daylight appears between muzzle and bird, the trigger is pulled while the swing continues to accelerate. The amount of visual lead is supplemented by the time that elapses during the shooter's body responses, the function of the gun, and the shot bore travel. The pull-ahead method does require good timing. There is only one point during the accelerating swing when the muzzle is in correct juxtaposition to the target. In general, though, the average person masters the pull-ahead faster than he does the swifter movement required by the true swing-through. Although the pull-ahead method hasn't received much publicity, I'm certain many shotgunners use it unwittingly while thinking that they are employing the true swing-through. Thousands of skeet and trap shooters align directly on their clays first and then generate leads merely by swinging crisply ahead. The business portion of their swings never starts behind the targets, and yet many of them think they are swinging through. There's nothing wrong with that, of course, but I believe a shooter should try to understand exactly what he is doing, not what he thinks he's doing! In the field, pull-ahead shooting works nicely with incoming birds and close-range shots at upland birds. It also works well with rabbits when the cover is fairly open. This method is faster than sustained lead, less complex than the swing-through, and more dependable than snap shooting. **Read Next: [How to Miss Fewer Birds]()** Harry picked it up easily. He felt comfortable coming up with the muzzle on the bird rather than behind it, and he liked seeing daylight between barrel and bird. But he knew better than to look for a precise, measured lead. He still uses the sustained lead for ducks because there is more time and open sky. In the brush, he found, it is simply a matter of getting on target, swinging ahead briskly, and letting go with a positive follow-through. This doesn't mean pulling ahead can be used for all kinds of shooting. I seriously doubt that its abbreviated swing, starting on the bird, can develop enough gun momentum to generate the really long leads needed for distant crossing shots at waterfowl. To be a versatile wingshot, the scattergunner must have more than a single swing/lead system in his repertoire. He should learn the strengths and weaknesses of all four basic techniques, practice them with claybirds until the movements are automatic, and then apply the appropriate method as field conditions and individual shots dictate. There is no other way to become a successful all-around performer with the bird gun.