Air Guitar – Air Shooting? — Why not!

Air shooting makes good, inexpensive and frequent practice for the coming wing shooting seasons.

As hunting season approaches, first dove in three weeks then other game, I start thinking about sharpening up my shooting skills.

Sure, I go to the trap range a few times, read some shooting tips, such as the fine entries from PF’s shooting writer John Taylor (Ready, Aim, Fire! in PF Journal) and I also “air shoot.”

Yes, I “air shoot.”

You’ve all heard of air guitar, well air shooting is as much fun, practical and effective.

What is air shooting? Well, it’s a simple, free and very accessible way to sharpen up your eye and shooting timing. Say I’m on a walk, just walking to the car, or in my backyard and bird flies by, any bird, I pull up, swing and fire, saying “pow” out loud or to myself as if I’m packing a real gun.

Air shooting helps my real shooting when the time comes afield on upland game and waterfowl. This faux technique doesn’t require any gear, you can do it anywhere (that is, if you don’t mind some odd looks now and then, but I mostly air shoot when alone), anytime and any bird will do. Let me tell you, if you can get ahead of some of those fast flying “LBBs” (little brown birds), you can get on a pheasant or duck as well.

Now, some people might think this practice odd, but I’m not the only real hunter who casually follows this practice. Dedicated hunter and PF public relations bons vi·vants Anthony Hauck air shoots too. “Hard cores do what they must,” Big Cat (Hauck’s office nickname) remarked.

So, give air shooting a try next time you’re outside and a bird flies by. After pulling up and swinging on a few dozen birds, you’ll notice a difference when pheasant or quail season rolls around.

“Was that a hen sparrow or drake?”

Tags: air guitar, air shooting, Hunting, shooting practice

This entry was posted on Friday, August 6th, 2010 and is filed under Hunting. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.