Articles

Pete Blakeley has written extensively on shooting techniques for over twenty years and his expert knowledge has contributed to numerous magazines both here in the United States and the United Kingdom. These include the Shooting Gazette, Texas Parks & Wildlife magazine, Texas Outdoors Journal and the Dallas Morning News. He currently writes monthly articles for Sporting Clays magazine and Skeet Shooting Review. His video "Read the Line, Feel the Lead" is (available in VHS or DVD) is one of the top selling shooting videos in the US and his latest book, "Successful Shotgunning" (published by Stackpole Books, September 2003) is considered by many to be the most complete and definitive guide to the science of successful shotgunning that has ever been written. 

 
Precision Pointing Part 1 (Sporting Clays Magazine June 2003)

There are many reasons why we miss targets and no doubt you’ve heard them all before. Gun fit, gun mount, stance, trying too hard, not trying hard enough, testosterone level, anxiety level, the weather, the sausages you had for breakfast, the list is endless. But to my mind, there’s one main thing that bubbles ominously to the surface and affects our ability to be consistent, more than any other. So to illustrate this point, here’s a story about two tournament shooters, both of them secretly aspiring to greater things, at a prestigious event somewhere in the US. 
  

Precision Pointing Part 2 (Sporting Clays Magazine July 2003)

In fact, all the guys at the upper end of the sporting clay, trap or skeet-shooting spectrum have it. So just what is this illusory but highly desirable characteristic?
 

Eye Dominance Revisited (Sporting Clays Magazine April 2004)

Judging by the number of posts on the various shooting web sites, it would appear that there are still many shooters out there who do not fully understand the importance of correctly diagnosing eye dominance and more importantly why (in a competitive environment) even when the correct diagnoses is made, some shooters can often benefit from closing the “off” eye.
 

What's Hit is History, What's Missed is Mystery (Sporting Clays Magazine June 2004)

The amusing title of this article is a saying that many coaches in the UK use. For some of us, the reason a target fails to break is often exactly that. Mystery. But it’s never a mystery for the top guys.
 

Define the Line (Sporting Clays Magazine July 2004)

I often stress to all my students that when we shoot any moving target, developing the line is the most important thing to consider. Line is more important than lead. Lead is more difficult to evaluate because it is determined by three factors: angle, speed and range. Line is merely the two-dimensional segment that we perceive the target to be traveling along relative to the position of our eyes. Unfortunately for some of us, this is where our troubles begin. Read the line wrong and we may as well forget the lead, because a miss is inevitable.
 

The "Moving Spot" Technique (Sporting Clays Magazine September 2004)

The two things that everyone asks when they shoot at a moving target are:
1. How much lead does it need.
2. What does this look like to me over the end of gun i.e. at the target end.
This is just a way that I use to indicate to you how much lead you need to see on that particular target, at the target end. It works and is a logical way to apply lead and read targets.
 

Pattern for Perfection (Sporting Clays Magazine May 2005)

We can divide successful shot gunning into three sections. The first is our mechanics, we must have a gun that fits us and we must learn to mount it correctly. The second is target evaluation. The third is our mental ability to put all this together so that we can do this repetitively, especially in a competitive environment. All three are important but the first part, our mechanics, should be the easiest part for us to accomplish. Unfortunately, many of us get it wrong.
 

The Sharpest Arrow 

Yeah, Granpappy was a great shot, a natural, wasn’t he? So why should you take shooting lessons? Don’t forget, most times, Grandpappy became a good shot out of necessity. When the grumbling in his belly reached epic proportions, out came the shotgun, or rifle as he case maybe and Grand pappy’s hunger was appeased. There was little need for formal instruction in those days. But here we are in 2004 and competitive shot gunning, especially the introduction of sporting clays as a way to hone bird-hunting skills has changed all that.