Perceptions of Lead on Live Birds and Clays

We have been to South America and Mexico more than 50 times both to hunt and coach in the field on the real thing. Almost all of the hunters that went with us were our clients and could already shoot really well. But like all great performers, they were always pushing themselves to get better and better. In wing shooting, this means expanding your zone of lethality to greater and greater distances.

In these target-rich environments, the perfect storm existed, and we took full advantage of the situation to push our clients beyond their comfort zones and improve their success ratios dramatically.

One of the things that they all learned is that lead is a perception and the more comfortable you become with the necessary lead to hit birds at distance, the easier the closer ones become and the less lead necessary to hit them. The other thing that became obvious after several hunts is that the lead they all had to see on the longer shots on the first hunt was much less on the subsequent hunts!

This led to some interesting discussions on the patio over drinks and snacks. One of the conclusions we all agreed on was the more you are conscious of the lead, the bigger it seemed to be and the less conscious you were on the lead, the less it seemed to be.

This perception is something we have noticed in coaching longer shots on clay targets. It has to do with how the brain tracks moving objects and anticipates where they will be in the future, even though it sees the object where is really is. Our brains are constantly anticipating ahead of where we are which is how we pick up a glass of water without knocking it over or how we hit our mouths with a toothbrush. You have never really seen your mouth - only reflections of it.

So, why the perceptions of different leads on the same target at the same distance? It has to do with where your sharp vision is when you become more consciously aware of the lead. To be more aware of the lead, your sharp vision moves to the spot between the barrel and the target. When this happens, the movement data of where the target has been is compromised and as a result the brain’s ability to know where the target will be is also compromised. Now both the target and the barrel are in the periphery and everything you are aware of in the periphery is 0.3 seconds behind real time - and it is not real.

So, if you hit it looking at the lead, the perceived lead when you pulled the trigger must be 1/3 to 1/2 again more to make up for the lag time in peripheral awareness.

The better you become at hitting moving targets with a shotgun, the more your brain knows exactly how much or how little muzzle awareness you can have and still consistently hit your targets - especially at greater distances.