There comes a time in every shooter’s life when they will need to change their gun. In true break-up fashion, what comes next can either be a blissful match made in heaven or an absolute car crash that crushes your self-confidence and makes you want to eat ice cream in bed for a week.
Never fear, there are some things you can do to ensure that your next partnership is of the long-term, beneficial variety.
Time for a change
Top FITASC shooter Becky McKenzie has recently taken the plunge, ending her factory sponsorship with Zoli and buying herself a beautiful secondhand Krieghoff that just feels right. Firstly, to clear the air, Becky was very keen to assure me that the Zoli was a wonderful, well-built gun that performed admirably for seven years, helping her to win a great many titles and trophies. But sometimes you just need a change.
She explained: “I felt, as a shooter, that I’d got to a certain level and plateaued, and I needed something to motivate myself to the next level. Ladies across the world have stepped it up over the past couple of years, and although I know I can shoot, I hadn’t stepped up in the same way.
“I thought a complete change would just motivate me to work a little harder, enjoy shooting more and get that hunger back! I had just reached the end of my time with Zoli after seven years, and the only other manufacturer I wanted to shoot was Krieghoff, because I got on so well with the brand before. The new gun is a Krieghoff K80 Step Rib.” And very pretty it is too!
For the rest of us, the decision to switch might be down to a range of factors: body shapes can change, resulting in a badly fitting gun; scores can plateau for no apparent reason; trusty old tools can be dented or damaged beyond repair; or perhaps you’ve just come into some dollar and want to splash it on a shiny new upgrade. Whatever the reason, there are some tips you should consider when making your new purchase.
Gun fit
First and foremost: gun fit! We bang on about it endlessly, and yet you still see petite ladies having a horrible time being bashed about by their husband’s lump of a gun, men and women alike rolling their heads over the stock in an attempt to get their eye aligned, and a vast number whose heads part contact entirely with the comb in order to catch a glimpse of the clay over the mountainous rib. Something is not sinking in.
Becky explained her own gun fitting process and why it is important, especially for women. “We went down to visit Jonathan at Mid Wales Shooting Centre, where you can go and try as many guns as you like. He brought a selection out and I saw this Krieghoff 32″ Step Rib with a cracking bit of wood on it and an adjustable comb, and I picked it up and thought, yes, I like this! He let me take it out and shoot it, and it was just love at first sight.
“The stock itself was too long, but the palm swell is slim and fitted my hand – the majority of guns on the market are standard and are just too big for ladies’ hands, which is part of the reason ladies generally have to have a custom fit stock. The length from the grip to the trigger has to be smaller so they can reach it. The Krieghoff is not a ladies gun, but it is adjustable and slim. On the way back from Mid Wales, we went to Midland Gun Services in Shrewsbury and met with Kristian, who measured me up and chopped a length of wood off straight down, which shortened it and also took the toe off to stop it digging into a lady’s chest.
“Take your time, and take someone experienced with you. People often buy based on looks. They take the gun home saying ‘I love this gun’, but they can’t shoot with it. They come for a lesson, still saying ‘I love this gun, I love it!’ But you can’t shoot with it! As a coach, you have to be quite severe, and say, yes, it is a stunning gun, beautiful, but it doesn’t fit you, and that’s why you can’t shoot with it.
“It’s also difficult to recommend brands for people. For me, if you’ve only just started shooting, I would probably recommend getting a semi-auto because they are so low recoiling and pointable.
“Especially for women, people tend to advise them to buy a 20-bore. But actually you can get loads more recoil than if you use a lighter weight cartridge in a 12-bore. A 12-bore 21g cartridge will definitely kick less than a 20-bore 28g cartridge. Also, whatever the gun, I would recommend starting off with a well-known brand, and consider buying secondhand.
“Go to a shop with a ground where you can take them out and shoot them. Sometimes, someone gets set on a certain brand, even before they’ve tried it. They have no idea if they will actually like it or not.”
It is important not to rely on the person selling you the gun to tell you if it fits correctly, unless you have a very good relationship with them and trust them already.
Both Becky and I could recount more than a few tales of woe about shooters being encouraged to buy badly fitting guns. Take a knowledgeable friend or your coach along and get them to help you out. It can be an expensive mistake if you buy something that fits like a baggy sock.
Balance
After finding the perfect fit, the next thing on your list of priorities should be the balance. This topic is less widely discussed, but it’s extremely important when seeking that elusive and indefinable feeling of ‘rightness’ in a gun. Certain brands are known for being slightly more muzzle heavy, but any gun can be altered and rebalanced to suit your own preference.
Becky’s Krieghoff took a fair amount of work to achieve perfection: “The Krieghoff did need quite a bit of rebalancing for what I wanted. It has 32″ barrels and I shortened the stock, which meant it became too muzzle heavy. It’s very personal how people like to have their guns balanced – I still like the front end to be a little heavy, but it did need balancing to make it more ‘lively’. Sometimes, you pick a gun up and it feels like a dead weight in your hands, and then you balance it and hit the sweet spot and suddenly it just feels much easier to move, like it’s alive in your hands.
“There are tunnels under Midland Gun Services with pattern plates where you can test the gun and tweak the balance and the fit, which is great. I’ll be honest, I’ve never really been into pattern plate testing, but aside from checking fit and balance, it can be very useful for diagnosing problems if you do start to miss. Otherwise, it plays on your mind… did I miss that target because the gun is firing too high?”
Again, it might be worth asking your coach to help you out when rebalancing a new gun, and you could even consider visiting somewhere like Midland Gun Services that has testing facilities available, in order to check and perfect it.
Muscle memory and timing
Shooting, like many sports, is all about muscle memory. Repeat, repeat, repeat until it becomes second nature, right? Right. But if you are changing guns and have been shooting your current model for several years, it might take you a little while to get used to your new squeeze. This is because you will have built up quite specific muscle memory, and it takes a little while to reacclimatise to the new feeling.
Even top shooters like Becky experience this. She described her own journey: “Going from Krieghoff to Zoli the first time meant I had to change my hold points because the Zoli was a much lighter gun. Now I’ve gone from Zoli back to Krieghoff it’s all changed again, but it’s been a lot easier because picking up the Krieghoff is just like picking up your favourite pair of gloves. It just feels right.
“Even so, I had a couple of really good months with it, and then I faltered. I couldn’t really fathom what I was doing, and I thought perhaps I’m not strong enough for 32″ barrels. I put some 30″s on and shot like a plonker, then put the 32″s back on and shot brilliantly. For me, if I’m thinking about it, I’ve got to try it, even if it’s wrong. I tried [the barrel change], it was wrong. Then I looked back and really thought about it – I’d shot awesomely with it for two months, so I thought about what I was doing, went back and practised. The more you shoot, the more muscle memory and hand-eye coordination you get, and now I love it. You’ve just got to put the effort in. Gun fit is paramount. Balance is paramount. And then you just need to shoot it and get used to it.
“It can be tricky, and as a coach I can help. If you have someone who is going from a gun such as a Browning, which tend to be more muzzle-heavy, to a lighter gun like a Zoli, it’s difficult because they’ve got that much muscle memory from shooting the gun with the heavier muzzle end that they can’t cope with the change. To help, you can set the Zoli up initially to be barrel heavy, or half barrel heavy, and then ease it back gradually. Otherwise, they can lose faith in the gun entirely.”
It is a comforting thought that even Becky took a little while to get used to her new gun. It is also an important one to bear in mind if you end up taking your beautiful, new, perfectly fitted, perfectly balanced gun to the ground and struggle to hit anything.
Don’t despair – remember that muscle memory needs to be retrained and built up again following a change. As long as it fits you well and feels right between the hands, persevere with that practice and before long you’ll be smoking the targets again. Book a session with your coach if you are really struggling, and he/she may be able to help by tweaking the balance a little, as Becky described above.
Timing is also important – you don’t want to be changing your gun and trying to get comfortable with it in the middle of the competitive season. The time is now! If you want to switch, do it over the winter. It may not be pleasant shooting weather, but it gives you ages to get used to it, ready to smash the competitions come the start of the season.
Barrel length
Barrel length is another hotly debated topic, and one that also tends to alter with what is perceived to be fashionable. Over time, the fashionable length has gradually grown from rather short to rather long, but just like balance, barrels are a personal choice. What suits one shooter might horrify another, and what works for a six foot five Sporting shooter probably won’t delight a five foot nothing Skeet shooter.
Ability also plays a part, with shorter barrels generally being better suited for novices. Becky has personally opted for slightly longer barrels than she used to shoot: “I started off shooting with 30″ barrels. Before I bought my own Krieghoff, my husband John had bought one with 32″ barrels in left-hander. I shot with that and, despite it being all wrong for me as a right-hander, it was so well balanced that it just felt nice. I was shooting FITASC with it and it was just bang, smash, bang, smash. I thought – if I can get a right-handed one of these I’ll be happy!
“I’d been going to the gym a lot so was stronger, and I felt that a 32″ barrelled gun would be more suited to my style of shooting. Some people don’t like them because they find them too heavy, some find them too quick because once you get them going they’re hard to stop… again, it’s personal.”
Whatever brand, model or bore you are thinking of switching to, whatever your level, the same principles apply if you want it to be a smooth transition. Make sure it fits, get it balanced to suit you, choose suitable barrels for your style and experience, don’t be drawn in by certain brands or looks alone, practise lots with it to build muscle memory and, above all, make sure to try before you buy.
If in any doubt, take your coach or a trusted friend. Good luck!
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