Ribs & Beads
Better Shooting In The Details
by Bart Chandler
All you need is a gun that fits, is well regulated, you know where it shoots and that’s well suited to your purpose. If you’re happy with your shooting and have little interest in improvement then all’s well and good. Enjoy your days at the range or in the field, each to its’ fullest. If you would like to shoot more comfortably and see your targets better then there’s something of value in this article. The following is intended for advanced shooters, instructors and older shooters who want to keep shooting as they age.
Effort is necessary to break a few more targets or put more birds in the bag. Some of this effort is “skills based” and learned by shooting with better shooters or a good coach. The other half of this effort is “knowledge based”. It’s not as much fun because you have to sit down and think about exactly how everything works. I’m going to try to make this as pain-free as possible.
What I’m going to cover in this article is how to make it easier to hit targets and tell you why it’s not possible to “never see the bead when you shoot.” I’ll give you the basics about how to use your eyes to make your vision work most effectively for you. I want to talk about high ribs and define where a shotgun shoots and how to manipulate the beads, rib and comb to make it easier to hit your targets.
I’ll tell you why high ribs make shooting more comfortable and easier to see clay targets and live birds. I’ll describe how high your eye is above the rib and exactly where your pattern impacts in relation to the front of the gun. I’ll talk about the practical side of using a pattern board. I’ll give you some insight into choosing rib heights and impact points that will make your shooting easier.
I’ll going to talk what to expect when you add a large aftermarket bead: where your shotgun will shoot and how it affects seeing the target. I’ll talk about what happens if you shoot without any beads at all.
I’m going to avoid an in-depth explanation of fit. Gun fit deserves far greater consideration than I can give it in this article. I going to a good gun fit throughout this article.
“Clearly Seeing the Target and Consistency.” Consistency the position and pressure of your head on the gun, the exact position and pressure of the butt stock on your shoulder and properly focusing your primary vision on each target are the fundamental skills that must be mastered for good shooting. Often the shooter who’s “On Fire” one day and then can’t hit crap the next, lacks consistency.
All that matters is seeing the target. Whether you use one eye or two, or start with two eyes open and close one just before you shoot isn’t as big a deal as many think. There are very good one-eyed shooters and even some right-handed shooters who are left eye dominate who do nothing more than look at the target and very successfully, pull the trigger. When you fully concentrate on the target and ignore everything else the target is going to break. (Everyone who shoots with two eyes open and has both eyes on the target will see one target and two muzzles. That’s how our vision works.) Just see the target, pull the trigger, the rest is unimportant.
Please understand that while shooting, not seeing the barrel, rib and bead on the gun isn’t possible. It’ can’t be done. It’s impossible to “Never see the bead when you shoot.” Whenever we shoot, at all levels of experience, the barrel, rib and beads are always seen, that’s how we line targets up. Here’s the deal. We ignore the barrel, rib and the beads because we see them out of focus and ignore them. For each shot we must line up the “out of focus gun” in front of our eyes with the target. We see everything but don’t pay attention to anything other than the target.
For the first few times a new shooter steps out on the field, most instructors will explain “lead” and suggest a certain distance between the front of the gun and the target which facilitates hitting the target. To put this “lead” on the target a beginning shooter must look at the barrel and then look at the target, pull ahead of it until the “lead” looks right and then finally pull the trigger. A new shooter may have to move his eyes several times between the barrel and the target to achieve the lead he has been asked to put on that target. This is where a new shooter normally begins. Soon the instructor will tell the student that he’s doing so well that now it’s time to move to the next stage of shooting where the shooter should only look at the target and ignore the barrel. I’d explain to my students that I had to teach them how to shoot wrong before I could teach them how to shoot right. Although kinda messed up it’s a place to start shooting.
The next time you’re at the range just look around. At every level of performance whether shooting sporting clays, skeet and to a lesser extent, trap there are discussions about the proper lead for each target presentation. Some will hold a thumb next to the front of the barrel while others indicate a distance between their fingers, while still others talk of feet and inches. Some may say they use the same amount of lead for all their targets and just change the speed of the barrel through the target. None of these references is possible without seeing the distance between the target and the front of the barrel.
It’s only a question of what the shooters’ eye focuses on, the target or the front of the gun.
An understanding of the relationship between your eyes, the rib, the beads and the target makes it easier to improve your shooting. Anything that makes your vision work more effectively for you is a winner.
Use your Eyes Efficiently. If you see one target but two muzzles, don’t sweat it, that’s normal. You’re doing everything right. Just completely focus on the target. If you see one barrel and two targets the fix is easier, just focus on the target and stop looking at the barrel.
The physiology of vision tells us our eyes focus from far to near more quickly than near to far. To see the target most easily, we need to focus our eyes well out beyond the target line, then come back to the target once it’s in the air, focusing on it and pulling the trigger before our vision has enough time to leave the target and come back to the muzzle. Assuming that the gun fits and we have a good gun mount the target breaks because the gun is shooting exactly where we are looking.
Initially we’ll pick up our targets using secondary vision, which has a field of view about the same angle as the targets on a regulation trap field. Outside the edges of or secondary vision we use our peripheral vision. After we locate a moving target with our secondary vision we switch to our primary vision, which is a cone with a width of only a couple of degrees. With our primary vision we can see the lines and shadows on the target. We shoot our best when we focus completely on a target.
Call your shots. Shot gunners may, as well, find this useful. When you shoot birds or targets it’s helpful to know how the gun and target were lined up at the time of the shot. Snipers and competitive rifle and pistol shooters are able to “call their shots”. They can mark a target lying next to them after each shot and be very close to the actual hits on their targets before their targets are returned. They see the last clear image on their retinas before recoil blurred their vision. It’s fairly easy to do and a valuable tool once you are aware of it.
What do I see when I shoot? I focus my eyes on the background behind the target line. I pick up the target in my peripheral vision and then as soon as the target comes into sharp focus I fire. This works for me but there are many other styles that work well. try watch which part of the pattern hits the target. I can recall, in the couple of tenths of a second after I shoot, what I saw when the gun went off, seeing if the blurry beads and the sharply focused target were in the right place. Unfortunately, I can also see the sharply focused beads and a fuzzy target when I’ve messed-up. After each shot I can then check see if the beads changed position since I mounted the gun. If they’ve moved, then I know my face came off the gun. As soon as I realize this is happening, I can get back into the gun properly before I before I lose the next target.
Know your gun. If I were to lend you my shotgun, I would tell you to adjust the comb so that: “if you like to cover your targets with the bead you want to see about a half of a bead stack but if you just touch the bottom of the target then you’ll want to use a full bead stack. If you’re shooting 16 yd. trap targets quickly then you’ll want to see a little bit of rib between the beads. You’ll want to shoot a flat rib when you have a station presenting dropping targets.”
The final step in shooting comes after many targets. We move from focusing on the target while seeing the front of the gun out of focus to watching the target with complete concentration, without awareness of the gun or lead.
What High Ribs Do and Don’t Do I can remember when ventilated ribs were scorned and over and under shotguns were considered “Clubby”. We’ve come a long way and I think American gunners have been in the forefront of this revolution. If you believe that a shotgun should have a rib, solid or ventilated, then the only question is: What is the best height rib for you?
Higher ribs make shooting more comfortable and make it easier to see clay targets and live birds. A high rib can help shooters with neck, back or shoulder issues. They also prevent some repetitive spine injuries that make it impossible for some shooters to shoot 12-gauge guns in later life High ribs are as well suited to sporting clay shooters, skeet shooters and hunters as they are for trap shooters. It’s surprising that the benefits high ribs offer have only been appreciated by trap shooters.
As we get older the foolishness of misspent youth takes its’ toll. Many of us have to deal with neck, back or shoulder issues that can force us away from shooting as much as we would like or in some cases give up shooting altogether. If your shooting is limited by pain issues, discuss with your doctor whether adopting a more upright head position is worth trying.
A high rib doesn’t make your gun shoot higher and it won’t force you to raise your head. When you have a high rib installed you can choose whatever point of impact you prefer. It makes it easier to shoot with your head up. It lowers where the shotgun sits on your shoulder lessening felt recoil.
Your view of the rib does not change unless you want it to. Higher ribs lower the receiver and muzzle in your field of view, opening that area that’s they normally block. It also lowers the shooters forward hand in his field of view. Shooters who like to point their index finger at the target will notice an immediate improvement.
It’s true that shooting with both eyes open lets us see the target with our “off eye” when our dominate eye is blocked by the gun but it’s still best to pick up the target with both eyes as soon as possible. Shooters who close one eye will like what a high rib does for them.
Choosing the best rib height seems to cause some confusion. Rib height is often measured where the ramp meets the rib. A high rib will move a shooters head into a more comfortable heads-up position and allows the shooter to see the target through the center of his shooting glasses rather than using the top 25%. To keep it simple, a .600-inch high rib works very well on any gauge gun although a one-inch high rib is probably the most comfortable for an average sized shooter and the best choice for a dedicated target gun. Ribs from one inch to two and a half inches high are best considered for shooters who need a high rib to address physical handicaps. If you wish to fine-tune the appearance for each gauge I suggest a .725-inch high on a 12 gauge, .650 on a 20 gauge, .600 on a 28 gauge and .550 on a 410.
I’ve worked with ribs as high as three inches and found them too high except in cases where a tall shooter has neck or back issues. An inch is about as high as most shooters will ever want to go.
Long Ramps The closer to your eye an object is the bigger it looks. This is foreshortening. The ramp is the first part of the rib that runs from the receiver to the main part of the rib. Where our primary vision intersects the point where the ramp ends and the rib starts determines how much foreshortening we experience. The farther from our eye the main part of the rib intersects our primary vision the narrower the rib appears to be. The narrower it looks the less vision it’s blocking, making rising targets easier to pick up and helps to more precisely line the gun up left and right. Shooters, who see some of the rib, like those who shoot a full bead stack, see a narrower rib than shooters who shoot the same gun with a flat rib.
Ramp length on a high rib gun makes a significant difference. My preferred ramp length is one-third to one-half of the distance between the breech and the mid-bead. Because of the foreshortening effect a rib that starts farther away from the eye makes the rear of the rib look narrower which helps better define where the shotgun is pointed. Olympic trap shooters figured this out long ago and their double-high ribs often start at the mid-bead.
My preferred point of impact is 50% high and 50% low when I shoot a flat rib with the center of my front bead covering my aiming point. This gives me a 60-40 pattern at the top of the bead with a full bead stack.
The location of the mid-bead. A mid-bead located closer to the front bead is easier to line up for older eyes. The closer the mid-bead is located to the front bead the greater the patterns’ vertical difference between shooting the gun with a flat rib and a bead stack.
An Older Shooters Story. Not so recently, a dear friend and student, was taking a lesson and he asked to try out my high rib 12 ga O/U. He liked it and shot the gun well but he felt that a high rib was just “not his cup of tea”.
He, a very astute individual and extremely keen bird shooter, would typically spend as many as four months a year shooting and fishing in Argentina. Firing thirty thousand rounds or more each year. He had in his collection (most with high-end SO engravings) eleven Perazzis, a pair of Hollands and a stunning little David McKay Brown .410, all magnificent arms. Along with them there were several others that were outstanding in their own right. Obviously he appreciates fine firearms.
A few years earlier I had had him shoot one of my guns fitted with a G2 Shockmaster and he soon fitted many of his guns with them. The G2 Shockmaster is a wonderful recoil reduction system that incorporates a full range of stock adjustment. This change made his shooting much more comfortable. Once he learned how to fit his gun while he was shooting he was able to stay centered on his birds. He often shot 75% to 90% on “tall birds”, mostly choosing full choked 28 gauges or 410’s, except for duck, which he shot with a 12 gauge. He liked how clearly he could see the second barrel bird and fire sooner because of the milder recoil and reduced muzzle climb.
He had been taking some golf lessons and started having some pain in his neck after hitting the ground behind the ball and coming to a dead stop. He gave up golf and focused on his shooting. Dove season rolled around in Colorado and he went on his annual three-day dove shoot. He shot two boxes that first afternoon with that beautiful David McKay Brown 410. The next day he couldn’t get out of bed and had to be driven back to Aspen by one of the guides. A stenosis in his neck threatened to end his shooting career.
Although he was resigned to giving up shooting forever, he remembered the high rib on my gun and shot it again to see if a higher rib might help. We soon sent five of his guns off for high ribs. By then he’d sold his Perazzis and switched to Krieghoffs. As he used them, he went with higher and higher ribs until we finally built one that was just too high. This rib, fully two-inches high, pushed the butt so low on his shoulder that on our first day in Argentina he blistered the skin on his chest below his shoulder.
Now he’s settled on shooting 1-¼ inch to 1-½ inch high ribs on his guns. He recently returned to Argentina and had no trouble shooting 8,000 rounds in a couple of weeks. Without the high ribs and G2 Shockmasters his shooting career would have ended after that day in the Colorado dove field. Now, fifteen years later, he has gone to shooting mostly 410’s. Not uncommonly he’ll shoot five hundred to 1000 skeet tagets in a day. In the field he’ll occasionally shoot a twenty-eight gauge shotgun. His twenty- and twelve-gauge guns have fallen into disuse. Those gauges have almost become irrelevant for waterfowl. With the appearance of TSS shot the twenty-eight gauge and .410 have become fully capable making 60-yard shots on high birds in Scotland, England or Spain and equally long shots on waterfowl.
These modifications are heaven-sent for the shooter who only shoots a box or two a day and then quits because he’s had as much punishment as he cares to endure and for the shooter who only shoots a few times a year because it’s gotten harder to tolerate recoil or handle his gun. Shooting should be comfortable and fun.
Where Does my Shotgun Shoot? Making a shooter better by making small changes is easy to do. Especially for shooters who “never see the front of the gun” there is much to be gained by knowing exactly where the front of the gun is in relation to the target and his eye.
I want to define in exact detail where a shotgun shoots and how to manipulate the beads, rib and comb to make it easier to hit your target. I’ll give you some simple terms to describe how high your eye is above the rib and exactly where your pattern impacts in relation to the front of the gun. I’ll talk about the practical side of using a pattern board and fitting a gun. This isn’t about where a gun should shoot. It’s only a brief introduction into the concepts involved. It’s surprisingly easy to have a factory rib taken off and replaced with a custom rib that shoots exactly where you want it to shoot or to have a rib added on to your existing rib. My preference is replacing the old rib with a new one, but I often just add a rib on top to get the height I prefer.
You should be able to describe where you reference your bead to the target line “I cover my target with the bead” or “I like to just touch the bottom of the target”, and how much rib you see “I shoot a flat rib” or “I like to stack my beads” and where your gun patterns “I’m a sporting clays shooter so I like my gun patterning 50%-50%” or “I usually shoot trap so I like my gun shooting 75%-25%”.
It’s as simple as “When I shoot a flat rib I want the point of impact to center on the center of the bead” or “When I stack my beads I want the point of impact to center 70% high from the top of the front bead at forty yards. One descriptor common to many manufactures is to reference the point of impact to the rib without any beads installed. “I want the point of impact from the flat rib to be five inches high at 35 yards”.
For the purpose of this article I’m going to assume all shotguns have mid-beads. Of course, many don’t and for the gunners who don’t have one the amount of rib that you need to see will have to referenced in a way that’s repeatable and you’re comfortable with. Adding a mid-bead is easily done.
Regular trips to the pattern board equals more targets broken. Once a month isn’t too often. The pattern board is the first half of checking the relationship between the shooter, the shotgun and the target. After Christmas and New Year many shooters put on weight. A fatter face makes it necessary to drop the comb and maybe add a little cast on to bring the rib back into perfect alignment. Have a tooth removed and the comb may have to be moved. It’s all these little gremlins that like to mess with your shooting. After working with the pattern board because most shooters mount the gun differently when they shoot at the board than when they shoot a moving target, charting how your targets break is the next step.
You’ll shoot your best when you’re able center your targets in the pattern. Closely watching the way your targets break is the critical second step after the pattern board. Have someone chart your hits to see if you’re hitting high, low, left or right. A good hit looks like a “starburst” where the pieces of the target radiate evenly around the impact point. If there are a few chips below the target while most of the target remains intact you’re a little low, a few chips high – you’re a little high, chips left – you’re left etc.
Tight chokes make it easier to analyze your hits just because they require greater precision. Shooting to a more demanding level in practice and then choking properly in competition makes good sense but each shooter is different and needs to adjust practice accordingly. Practicing with tight chokes is a handy tool as long as it doesn’t bother you to miss a few birds while learning more precisely where the center of your pattern is.
It’s not easy to use a pattern board (plate) properly. Most shooters flinch at the plate and think they need to use some sort of rest to pattern their guns. Unfortunately resting on a pad or bench will raise the point of impact to some degree depending on how firm your hold on the rest is. I rest my barrel lightly against a vertical bar while holding the fore-end the same way I normally shoot. Where you place the butt pad on your shoulder affects the pattern horizontally. Just as with pistols and rifles you need to pattern your shotguns the same way you’re going to shoot them.
Lining up the front bead, the mid-bead and the target point precisely can be hard to do. I like to shoot on an overcast day with as few shadows as possible. Bright days light up the beads and if the sun is off to one side or the other it can give a false indication, throwing your patterns a bit toward the side the sun is on. It’s a good idea to repeat your pattern board tests on a couple of different days to confirm that you have good data to base decisions upon. Just as with pistols, for this exercise focus on the front bead
Shooting five patterns, one on top of the other, is a good way to get an idea about where the gun is shooting. If the five shot pattern looks about the same size as the first shot you can assume that you have a good pattern to analyze. If it’s bigger, then shoot it over. Good “shot calls” will tell you if you’ve put all five in the right place. Just start over if you have a bad shot call.
Barrel Regulation There is no reason to believe that any shotguns’ barrels shoot where they should. About 20% of the guns in the $2000 to $5000 range which I’ve patterned from a couple of very large manufacturers are poorly regulated to the point where it will cost the shooter birds or targets. Expensive shotguns are no exception but bad barrels are less frequent among the better makers. Even some of the world’s most expensive makers let a stinker slip out of the door from time to time.
The beads, rib and the barrel on a single barrel pump gun, auto-loader or trap single may not be perfectly lined up. With double guns there’s no reason to believe that each barrel, the rib and the beads, are perfectly lined up. I strongly recommend spending time on the pattern board each time you get a new gun..
The best thing you can do with a new gun is to pattern it and see what it’s capable of. Just because one gun shoots well with a full bead stack that doesn’t mean that the exact same model (that you bought because you shot his gun well) will. The load you shoot will have some effect on the vertical. I have sent several barrels back to manufacturers for replacement and have returned guns to sellers because they weren’t right. I buy guns on the condition that if I don’t like the way it patterns I will return it. Some major manufacturers consider a difference of 8-10 inches between the barrels “within acceptable tolerances” and consider that as standing behind their products. I don’t buy their arms anymore. You may be surprised how much height difference there can be shooting the same gun between a heavyset shooter who uses a tight grip with his forward hand and a lighter shooter who uses a light grip. Even with a single barrel gun I want to see where it patterns.
Pattern all your guns. It matters. I have a chart that diagrams where each of my guns shoot and use it whenever I pull out a gun I haven’t shot in a while. You can’t say that because you shoot a full bead stack with your trap gun that you can do the same with your clays gun or your pump gun. You need to test each gun to know what you need to see to center your targets.
First, you need to know where the gun is shooting. Fire your group with a flat rib. The front bead should look like it is sitting on top of the receiver or the rearmost end of the rib. Hold the front bead centered on your target point. Look to see where the pattern is located in reference to the exact center of the bead while paying attention to the horizontal point of impact. Repeat this test but change the hold point to the top of the bead and note the difference.
Now repeat the process with the top of the mid-bead touching the bottom of the front bead. Some call this a “snowman”. Again shoot the hold point to the center of the bead and then to the top of the bead. Now you have enough information to tell you what you need to see and then you’ll only have to adjust the comb to put your eye in the proper place each time.
If half the pattern is above the target and half is below it then your gun is said to be shooting 50/50. Most hunting guns are set up to shoot this way and is a favorite for sporting clay shooters. If you find the bottom of the pattern is just touching the target point then the pattern is called a 100/0 or 100% high. This is most common with trap guns because they always shoot at rising targets.
While shooting high mount you should line up your beads carefully and then focus out beyond the target line, call for your target and fire as soon as it snaps into focus. Immediately after the shot, during your follow through check to see the beads are still in proper alignment. Low mount shooters will be best served by repeated dry mounts until the gun comes up in the same position each time. Some shooters pattern their guns throwing the gun up and firing without using the beads. Your gun mount must be consistent to do this. If your patterns aren’t all on target then more work on your gun mount and fit is in order. The point is that when you just throw your gun up and shoot a perfectly placed pattern on the board the beads must also be in perfect alignment. A drill to check this out is to put multiple target points on the pattern board. Have someone call out one of them for you and then move to it and shoot it as quickly as possible. Then have him randomly call “no shot” just before you pull the trigger. When you get the “no shot” call check your beads instead of firing.
Beads have their place in shooting. The first is on the plate when you use them to determine the best sight picture that puts the center of your pattern exactly on your target. Secondly, they’re necessary when shooting high mount to get an exact alignment before calling for each handicap trap target or long sporting clays target. Thirdly, for the low-mount gunner, they make dry-mounting practice much more effective. Finally, the greatest value they have is after the shot. I use mine after each shot to see whether my head moved during the shot, hopefully turning a weak hit into a centered hit rather than a lost target. Coming back to the beads after a shot encourages good follow through.
Shooters reference either the center of the bead or the top of the bead to the target. Game shooters and hunting guns traditionally put the center of the bead on the target line which allows the gunner to cover a going away bird with the bead. Target shooters don’t like to lose sight of their targets. Trap shooters often choose a gun where the top of the bead references the bottom of the pattern. A 100% high pattern. A few trap shooters like to have the pattern well above the bead to shoot targets quickly. Sporting clays shooters seem to like a 50/50 pattern to the center of the bead which helps with dropping targets.
I shoot a .125 brass bead on the muzzle and a .065 brass mid-bead. They’re small enough to make it easy to keep sharp focus on the target without drawing my eyes to the front of the gun while still letting me carefully line up the barrel vertically and horizontally for high-mount shooting. I’ve recently shot a rib that was mounted with a pair of .065 mid-beads. This set up makes very good sense to me, but I’ve only shot it at a patterning board.
Beads are available in many colors. Large or highly visible beads can be distracting especially when the sun is at the shooters back while modest white or brass beads are quite good unless you have to shoot with the sun behind you, which can really light them up. The coral bead that Winchester installed on some of their now classic guns was a nice choice.
If someone made dull black beads I would be first in line to buy them. I paint mine with DuraCoat from time to time. Sometimes a black magic marker does the trick. The black beads give just enough reference to line up the gun without distraction, especially helpful when the sun is at your back.
Installing a large, highly visible bead has two major influences.
Many shooters install a large highly visible bead. These beads are designed to make it easy to look at the bead rather than focus on the target. The bigger and brighter the bead the more easily a shooters’ vision is drawn to focusing on it while obscuring a larger area around the target. The second and lesser-understood influence is that because they are larger they lower the point of impact of a shotgun. This effect is profound for the shooter who references the target line in relation to the top of the bead because the top of the large bead is now higher above the rib. The effect is half as much for the shooter who references the target line through the center of the bead. The height of the center of a large aftermarket bead is often nearly the same as the top of a normal bead.
Large beads make it necessary for a trap shooter to run the front of the gun higher above the target than normal before pulling the trigger. Many shooters like the looks of a big bead but if you put one on and find that you are missing rising targets you’re probably shooting under them. They encourage shooters to look at the bead while pulling the trigger.
A lesser effect, one more important to high-mount shooters when shooting long targets is that it’s harder to center large bead to get an exact alignment of the rib.
Some shooters remove the beads from their guns entirely.
Why bother with all this? When you know exactly where your pattern hits and you know your gun-fit is perfect, you can forget about everything except the target line and devote your full concentration on clearly seeing each target. This is when you’ll shoot your best.
FYI: The companies that I have been most happy with their products and service are Caesar Guerini and Krieghoff (Not listed in any order of preference. These are both superb companies) and Mike Gregory with G2 Shock Master System.