How to get your ‘back-sight' right

It’s almost impossible to shoot consistently well unless your gun fits and accommodates your eye dominance. So how do we ensure that all is correct?

- MICHAEL YARDLEY

When you fire a rifle (or a pistol) it’s a given that the sights should be adjusted correctly. A shotgun, however, does not normally have a rear sight but you effectively create one as the face comes into contact with the stock comb. If the stock fit is wrong, it is like moving the rear sight of a rifle or pistol up, down or sideways – it will affect shot placement profoundly at the target. With a shotgun, other factors may impact your sighting, most notably your eye dominance and mounting technique. They all interact and may alter where the shot charge ends up.

Addressing gun fit in isolation is never enough; ‘dry fitting’ a gun in a shop is inevitably incomplete. There is always a need for further testing, ideally at both pattern plate and clay targets. Even if your eye is looking straight along the rib (as it should for most people) and the basic physical fit of gun to shooter seems ok, undiagnosed eye-dominance issues can cause you to shoot to one side of the mark. Similarly, a poor gun mount may cause various errors of impact as well as making it difficult to access and remedy gun fit properly. They are all connected. They need to be understood and dealt with together.