Maybe this what I need to improve my shotgun shooting

[wm]

https://www.guns.com/news/2019/03/20/ra ... r-surfaces

My father served in 8th Air Force during WW2 as a radio man. Sure wish he was still around to share this with & get him to share some stories.

Wm

[GunnyMack]

That would be good for dove season!
Just shoot your shotgun more and you'll get better!

[gamekeeper]

I have always wondered how those guys were trained. Thanks for posting.

[GunnyMack]

I have always wondered how those guys were trained. Thanks for posting.

The boys were also taught how to shoot skeet, ya really learn how to leade a target that way.

[Blaine]

Robert Ruark's Old Man described as " think of the shot stream like the water out of a hose. If you want to wet down your cousin that's running across the yard you have to aim far enough ahead to he runs into the water of water"...or words to that effect.

[Rusty]

Where I was raised in SW Fla it once been the sight of the Buckinham Army Air Base during WWII. We used to ride 4WDs and motorcycles where the old gunnery hill was. 500 yards or so off into the scrub was a row of trap houses pointed off in the opposite direction. I always thought the trap houses were for recreation, never knew they were used for training.

[Old No7]

That was really neat -- thanks for sharing!

I also recall once seeing pictures of a shooter riding in a small train car -- so he's moving -- shooting at a target towed by another train car moving in the opposite direction; and I've also read sometimes the aerial gunner would be in a car towed behind the target and they engage it while taking turns, practicing right and left angles.

I have always wondered how those guys were trained. Thanks for posting.

The boys were also taught how to shoot skeet, ya really learn how to leade a target that way.

I recall my late father telling us boys they had several skeet and trap fields at the RAF fighter airbase he was stationed at north of London -- equipped with some very nice U.S. shotguns after the Yanks of the 8th Air Force took over -- and all the shells and clay targets the pilots wanted to shoot. But I was told very few ever did, much to the dismay and chagrin of my dad who was a hunter/shooter.

Some pilots shot by "feel" or instinct, and those with exceptional eyesight and reflexes did very well. Some others could fly well, but maybe never quite learned the art of "deflection shooting" (aka leading the target) as well as they could.

I'll have to watch that whole video when I get a chance.

Old No7

[Sixgun]

I watched the whole thing...cool....thanks for sharing.....

It reminded me of a box of shotgun ammo I have from WW2....made in 1943... all brass...OO buckshot.....
as we know, multiple lead projectiles were supposedly outlawed so the boxes were marked "for small game hunting"...yea, buckshot for small game.... ....the "small game" were japs. The Japs must of been hard to hit as, the way I see it, not enough of them were killed. The all brass shells were needed as paper shells would expand in the humidity of the South Pacific. --6

The box of Remington Kleanbore above and to the left is also military ammo and is so printed over the face of the box. Regular number 6's

[claybob86]

Great film, thanks for the link. Couple of those guys were kind of recognizable!

[Bill in Oregon]

Robert Stack was a gunnery instructor in the Navy in WWII. Gave him a chance to put his outstanding shotgun talent to great use. He was an All-American skeet shooter.

[Larkbill]

My best man's Dad moved down from Newfoundland to join the Marines because he was tired of being hungry. They ended up giving him the gunnery test in the back of the flatbed shooting clay birds and found out he could outshoot the instructors. He explained if his Dad gave him 2 shells he was expected to bring back 2 or more ducks or he had to miss a meal. He ended up a gunner in Dauntlesses. I asked if he ever regretted signing up. He said no, they ate good on the carriers. He said the biggest worry he had was the pilots mostly didn't look old enough to drive much less fly, but he made it back every time.

One of his best stories was telling about finding out one of the guys in another squadron had figured out how to replace the 30 cal they used with a 50. It was fun shooting at the Jap fighters when they thought they were out of range, but even more fun shooting up the merchies they bombed on the pull out. He said, "you know, that 50 would shoot clear through a Jap merchant ship or barge".