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Gun Mount Training the Total Shooting way
A solid repeating gun mount is fundamental to good shooting, yet it's a fair bet that few people ever practice it beyond the odd waggle or two. And this usually involves a fast slap of the stock into the face, a meaningless exercise that is too quick for even the fastest targets.
Done properly gun mount training leads to rapid improvement, and best of all it's free. The action of mounting the gun is quite physically complex, and to learn it correctly it needs to be done not fast but in slow time, at about half normal speed. For the basics of gun mounting go here.
Why half speed? This is the easiest way to learn the correct movement. Also it puts the entire effort of mounting the gun into the muscles responsible, whereas mounting the gun very fast allows the momentum of the gun to take some of the effort out of it. Here is a basic drill to help improve your gunmount.
The Method
Mounting at half speed works like this. Stand comfortably and in good balance. Position the gun in the ready position, ideally rather lower than normal, almost down in the Olympic Skeet position. This gives your gun mounting muscles a much better work out than if you were to mount from a higher starting point. Make sure your the gun sits directly under your Master Eye.
Pick a point on which to concentrate your focus (obviously not the gun) and slowly move the gun into the fully mounted position. Hold it there for a count of three, during which time you can check the gun is in the correct place in the face and shoulder, that the shoulder is pushed forwards and up into the butt of the stock, and that there is a general feeling of firmness about the position. Now lower the gun back to your ready position, again at half pace. Now repeat, again checking everything is right as the gun mounts and check the final mounted position. After a count of three slowly lower.
Repeat this slow mount - hold for 3 - slow dismount, 25 times. Take a 30 second break then repeat the 25. If you have never done this exercise before, and even if you regularly train with weights, I would be surprised if you could do four sets of 25 without your shoulder/arm muscles screaming for mercy. Most men can manage two sets and then struggle with the third, very few untrained in this exercise can do four sets straight off. Of course you must stop before you get to the point of collapse, because it's important to maintain good form throughout.
Set aside time for this important excercise three or four times a week, and gradually build the number of sets you can manage. This is a particularly important training drill for ladies, who can sometimes find a gun unmanageable when they first start shooting. This training drill will avoid months, perhaps years of fruitless effort caused by muscles struggling to come to terms with the weight of the gun. When you can do eight sets or more in a session then you are making progress!
There are many more Total Shooting gunmounting drills, and we'll be looking at those in the coming months. In the meantime practise slow-time gunmounting and see the difference it makes.
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