Gun Mount

[esox]

Hi all, only been clay shooting 18 month now and i recently bought a Browning XRT. After a bit of moving the comb i felt the gun fitted me pretty well, bead & rib lined up perfectly and all seemed well. Was shooting on Saturday when someone told me when i mounted the gun the barrels were not vertical, they were sitting at a approx angle of 10 degrees. Now, whould this slight angle make any difference ???? and if so could i fix it by fitting an adjustable butt pad ???.

Thanks in advance Barry.

 

[Skeet UK]

Hi Barry and welcome,

What the person pointed out, is what is known as "cant" (k-ant).

You are tilting the gun (most likely) in towards your head.  This may be because you are pre-mounting the gun, then bringing your head down to the comb.  By pre-mounting, you are getting the butt of the gun, comfortable in your shoulder, causing a tilt.

Or, you are tilting the gun over to your face, in order to keep your head upright.

Anyway, try mounting the gun to your face, while looking at a "target", head upright, gun upright, then bring the gun back into your shoulder and see how it feels.

You may benefit from an adjustable butt plate, in order to "cant the pad" rather than the whole gun, and/or to allow you to bring the stock in towards your face a touch more.  Though if you have an adjustable comb, this shouldn't be an issue. 

Canting the gun,can certainly be a cause of misses.

Somebody here asked the same question, and got a good answer http://www.ssaa.org.au/competition-info/stories/clay-target_question57-lionel.html

http://www.recoilsystems.com/adjustableRecoilPad/adjustable-recoil-pad.asp

 

[chippy]

Well explained Skeet UK

I guess some people tilt the gun towards the head L/H tilt and some away from the head R/H tilt.i think I do this but have only noticed since getting some new electronic ear muffs and hearing several people behind saying "look at this bloke shooting he's a right Kant"

 

[esox]

Skeet Uk..............what you have described is exactly what i have been doing. Thank you for that informative answer.

 

[move-mount-miss]

Well explained Skeet UK

I guess some people tilt the gun towards the head L/H tilt and some away from the head R/H tilt.i think I do this but have only noticed since getting some new electronic ear muffs and hearing several people behind saying "look at this bloke shooting he's a right Kant"

Probably got something to do with all the blue tape

 

[Skeet UK]

Well explained Skeet UK

I guess some people tilt the gun towards the head L/H tilt and some away from the head R/H tilt.i think I do this but have only noticed since getting some new electronic ear muffs and hearing several people behind saying "look at this bloke shooting he's a right Kant"

Not just shooters in either. A bloke I know, was in the Army and spent lots of time riding Camels. When he left the Army, he thought a Camel would be good for getting to work in London.

So he bought one and used to ride it to work and tie it up outside.

Anyway, one day he comes out and someone has nicked it!

So he goes to the police station, explains the situation. Policeman asks if there are any identifying features.

My mate says, it must have a bit of a lean on it, as be quite often hears people shout "Look at the cant on the Camel!".

 

[squimp]

You were doing well until that post !

 

[no.1topdog]

You were doing well until that post !

Are you serious?? That was the best bit!!  :sarcastic:

 

[Skeet UK]

I had to modify the original joke, which contains the line; "How do you know the Camel is female?" asked the Policeman.

When modifying jokes, one has to make do.

 

[Les53]

I agree with what Skeet UK said, but I would like to add something! Before you add anything to the gun such as an adjustable pad, get your gun mount checked out by a decent gun fitter/coach. Many years ago I did a bit or trap coaching and a good skeet shooter came to me for a bit of help shooting DTL, because he was only hitting about 8 or 10 out of 25 at DTL. I noticed that he was canting his gun by a fair margin, so I asked him to shoot a few DTL birds with gun down, he hit everything! When he shot gun down the gun went into the shoulder correctly, but when he tried to shoot pre mounted, as is normal for trap, he could not get the gun into the same place twice!!! He had to learn how to mount the gun properly before calling for the shot, he was in fact lifting his shoulder and tilting his head away from the comb before mounting the gun to it. Yes he could have had an adjustable pad fitted, but it would have just been masking the real problem of a bad gun mount! A lot of people assume that shooting pre mounted is easier than shooting gun down, but it doesn't always work that way as many trap shooter will know! So get your gun mount checked before you alter the gun!

 

[Wonko the Sane]

Mounting the gun properly and canting are two different things.  The link below includes, some post down, comments by Neil Winston in ref to canting.

The short version is proper gun mount counts and you can't cant enough to matter.

http://www.trapshooters.com/noframes/cfpages/thread.cfm?threadid=352546&Messages=78

Of course that may not be true in the MirrorWorld since math works differently there   :hunter: