When your gun fits you, this is all you need to know. Truly. Mount, swing, mash down on the trigger - poof. Done.

Here's the thing about shotguns:

There is no rear sight.

Now, most of you will say "Duuuuh! This is obvious Dave..." but you're failing to understand why the lack of a rear sight is such an issue.

On a rifle, when the rifle doesn't fit you, you can contort your fit/mount of the rifle to a point where you get the rear sight aligned with the front sight, You hold that alignment and squeeze the trigger. Even when the rifle doesn't fit you, you hit what you're aiming at. Look at the way that the AR-15 doesn't fit a huge number of people. The butt of the rifle is halfway off many people's shoulders, or they have their necks contorted down onto the comb, etc. Yet they hit what they're aiming at - because it has a rear sight.

Now, on a shotgun, there is no rear sight. Let's assume there's a front bead. So how is it that you align the gun to the target?

The big issue that lots of people miss about shotguns is this: Your eye is the rear sight. And when your eye isn't in the same place every time you mount the gun, you're going to have problems.

Sometimes when you mount a shotgun that doesn't fit you, your alignment is off - and you miss the clay. Sometimes, your alignment is spot-on, and you hit the clay without any effort. But when your gun doesn't fit you, you're likely not going to mount the gun the same way, time after time. Your hit rate will be low.

So for some shooters who have a gun that fits them, they seem to hit a high percentage of their targets with ease and seemingly no effort. They mount the gun, point, and pull the trigger. Hand that very same gun to someone else, and those whom the gun does not fit might struggle to hit as much as 1 in 4 clays. Same gun, same loads, same clay game/range. Huge difference in gun mount, tho. This is why some people want a mid-rib bead on their gun - it is, in effect, a rear sight that allows you to align a gun that doesn't fit you. A gun that fits you needs no bead at all - you just look down the rib and mash down on the trigger.

I cannot explain gun fit to people in a textual message - I'd have to have you here with me to explain how guns fit and not fit. It's more than just the length of pull. There is quite a bit of issue in how the gun's comb mounts to your cheek. There's cast-off, toe-out/in, etc. And of course, there is the length of pull issue.

When you have a gun that fits you, it seems as if it is more difficult to miss than it is to hit a clay. It really is that profound a change in your shooting.