Brushing Up for the Uplands

From our July/August 2025 Issue

With upland openers right around the corner, there is no better time than now to begin getting ready. This means everything from getting into mental and physical shape, to making sure your guns and gear are in working order, to practicing those shots that were giving you fits last season. Following is a checklist of sorts for making sure you are properly prepared when you step into the bird field this year.

Be Ready!

When walk-up shooting or upland hunting, you typically walk a lot and shoot a little. It is very easy to “switch off” and become lethargic, especially if the dogs have been hunting for a while and not finding birds. You need to develop a relaxed readiness, so that you are actively hunting and not just out for a walk. Otherwise, when that fleeting opportunity presents itself, you may not see the bird well and make a hurried, sloppy gun mount and shot. During the off-season you can actually practice your reaction time while out walking or running your dog. When you see a bird—any bird—you can get your feet in the correct position, mount an imaginary gun and pretend to shoot. Just be aware of who may be watching when you draw down on that passing robin. . . .

Focus

When a bird does flush, hard focus on the bird! It is not enough to just see a pheasant; you should be able to “sex” it as well. Focus on the head as it flushes. A pheasant is 30 inches long, and if you shoot at the body, you likely will miss behind or wound the bird. Remember: The body has to go where the head leads, so if you focus on the head, you will hit the bird in the vital organs. Practice this when observing flying birds in the off-season. Don't just casually watch them winging past. Try to focus on their heads, colors and feathers.

Quartering Shots

The most common shots taken by upland hunters are straightaway or quartering shots within 20 to 30 yards. “Quartering” is used to describe a wide variety of lines of flight, both away and toward the hunter. The various speeds, angles and curls of these flights make the shots very difficult. For example, as Hungarian partridge make their escape on the slopes of steep hills, their flight lines lift and curl into the wind—often quartering downhill.

Quartering birds are tricky, as they require the shooter to match changes in the perceived lead to make the shot. For example, a trye quartering bird requires more lead than a bird at a more acute (narrow) angle to the shooter.

Minimizing Gun Movement

Quartering targets do not require a great deal of gun movement. The most successful action is more of an insertion “to and through” the bird, rather than the swing that one uses on a long passing shot. Precise gun movement is required, as there is very little margin for error. A good shot begins with a step into the line of flight and an excellent, well-practiced gun mount. Then comes a full-body swing, with the body turning the gun like a tank turret, the arms lifting and pointing the gun to the bird. Using arm movement alone would create an uncontrolled fast swing and yield inconsistent results.

Footwork

Say you hear the whirr of wingbeats or catch sight of a flushing bird. If you are walking, stop and “harness” both the sight and sound of the flush. By harnessing the sight and sound, you will focus more and see the bird better before moving to shoot. Consider the bird's distance and direction of flight. Is it straight away or quartering? “The deadliest move a bird shooter can make is with his feet!”

By stepping with your leading foot into the line of flight, begin your gun mount, overcoming the inertia of the gun and starting it in the bird's direction. The step is essential to allow a smooth, full-body rotation throughout the shot sequence. If you don't move your feet and body in the direction of the bird's flight, you will run out of rotation at the firing point, which will slow or stop your swing and cause a miss behind. Or if you are in the wrong position, you might realize that you are behind and attempt to throw the gun in front of the target, which likely will result in a miss in front.

Ready Position

From your “walking gun carry,” you need to adopt the ready position with the stock well up under your arm, between your bicep and pectoral muscles. With your eyes looking out over the muzzles, let a bird rise and gain sufficeient distance (so you dont ruin it with too tight a pattern), and step into the line while simultaneously pointing your leading hand and mussles at the bird. As the stock is fully mounted into your cheek and shoulder pocket, pull the trigger. It is important that your head is kept still throughout the shot. Pointing the muzzles at the bird throughout the shot effectively establishes the bird's speed and line of flight, allowing the shot to be taken without a pause or check.

It is important that you do not “ride the target” but rather take the shot when instinct dictates. The more obtuse the angle created by where you visualize the shotstring intercepting with the bird's flight line and the distance of the bird, the greater the lead that will be required. A straightaway or acute-angle shot requires little, if any, forward allowance.

Anticipation

As a wingshooter, you cannot anticipate a bird's line of flight. Moving your hands to the target—i.e., pointing at the bird with your gun—is the only way that you can react to the bird's speed and direction. If you can practice shooting the fast quartering targets on the skeet field, you can fine-tune your reaction and move to the bird in the field. You see the bird, step into the line, smoothly move and mount the gun with your eyes and muzzles firmly on the bird, and gently brush through the line: butt . . . belly . . . break . . . bang!

Techniques

I consider “swing-through” and “pull-away” to be the best techniques for upland hunting. With swing-through, you insert the muzzles right on the tail of the bird, not feet behind. If the muzzles are too far behind, you are forced into a rushed, “catch-up” swing, and then you burst past the target and have to stop the gun, resulting in a miss behind.

With pull-away, you insert the muzzles on the head of the bird, and a deliberate, controlled acceleration of the gun establishes the lead. Your gun has to move only marginally quicker than the target to make the shot. An aggressive, uncontrolled swing will cause a miss in front. I would caution against using the “sustained lead” method, as the often erratic flight lines of flushing birds make it difficult to maintain a line.

Lead

The correct amount of lead is learned by practice, to the point that making a shot becomes an “instinctive awareness” of where the target is when the trigger is pulled. Soon you will be able to apply the required lead without looking at it—or more important, thinking about it.

The first step toward developing this awareness is to control your gun speed. Because of its line of flight in relation to your shooting position, the quartering bird appears much faster than it really is.

When practicing on the skeet field, look at two targets the same size thrown at the same speed—low-house 6 quartering-away and low-house 4 crossing. The going-away (quartering) target will always appear the faster of the two.

To the beginner and intermediate shot, this perceived speed is often addressed with an equally fast gun swing to the bird. The greater gun speed causes the shot to overtake the bird and is the reason most quartering targets are missed high or in front. Using a light field gun can compound the problem, as a very light gun is quick to start but equally quick to stop, causing misses behind from over-correction.

Complex Lead

A bird quartering in (toward you) requires less lead than an outgoing bird on the same line. Also, the earlier you take an outgoing bird, the more lead it requires. If you can wait a bit to allow the bird to settle into its flight, it will require less lead.

Just like an airplane, a bird will try to turn into the wind to achieve lift. Observing the wind's direction will give you an indication of the direction of flight. Even if the bird flushes downwind, it will bank back. A bird's curling-dropping-sliding moves in flight are exploiting nature's tricks of survival and require practice on the shooter's part to connect. Again, practice on the skeet field can “groove the move.” These shots require complex lead—a combination of lead both in front of and under or above the target.

Every bird will have its own nuanced and subtle flight differences, demanding a matching expertise to consistently read the line, direction and drift, slide or curl. The practice that develops intuitive clay shooting also develops instinctive wingshooting. Put in the practice time on the skeet field, and you will see improved success in the field!

A version of this article appears as a chapter in Chris Batha's book The Instinctive Shot. The book can be ordered by visiting chrisbathashooting.com, which also includes schedules of shoots and clinics with the author.