The perfect gun fit is essential, no matter if you are a professional clay shot or just occasionally shooting game. A well-fitted shotgun enhances performance, accuracy, and your overall shooting experience. Poor gun fit can lead to discomfort, missed targets, and even injury. This comprehensive guide has been put together with the help of Mark Heath, West London Shooting School‘s Instructor Manager. It will explore the importance of gun fit, highlighting key factors like try-guns, the fitting process, stock length, comb height, and cast.
The Process and Why Gun Fit is Crucial to Your Shooting
West London Shooting School’s Instructor Manager Mark Heath, explains why a good gun fit is an integral part of ensuring you’re performing at your best: “A good gun fit incorporates the correct relationship between eye and muzzle; consideration of eyesight and build along with consistently correct gun mounting – combining all of these aspects mean that the gun will work for you and not against you. Gun-fitting is as much an art as a science. It requires the astute and acute observation by the gun fitter and also requires the guaranteed availability of a suitable try-gun, of which West London Shooting School has an unrivalled selection to suit every requirement, size and shape. Once correctly fitted, a gun will last for years although occasional checking with regard to changes in eyesight or build is recommended.”
Why Is Gun Fit Important?
Shotgun shooting is a hand-eye coordination sport, having your gun fitted is important for comfort and for successfully hitting targets. It is often not realised that a gun should fit better than your clothing, and a bad fitting gun is often the cause for missed shots.
A static fit, for example standing in a shop ‘dry mounting’ a gun, without using a try-gun (see What is a Try-Gun? below to find out more about try-guns) may be helpful for length but unlikely to be as precise as a proper fitting with a try-gun. A try-gun will give you accurate length, drop and cast measurements. Length is for comfort, drop and cast control whether the gun shoots high or low, left or right. With a proper gun fitting you shoot the try-gun (which can be adjusted by the instructor) until you are absolutely confident that the measurements are correct in every respect.
What is a Try-Gun?
Try-guns come in either over-and-under or side-by-side configurations. They are used by professional gun fitters to determine the optimal gun fit for shooters. Unlike standard shotguns, a try-gun features adjustable components that allow the instructor to alter the stock length, comb height, and cast (the sideways angle of the stock). These adjustments allow the gun fitter to tailor the shotgun’s dimensions to match your unique body measurements and shooting style precisely. By using a try-gun, you can experience different configurations in real-time, ensuring the final fit maximises comfort, accuracy, and overall shooting performance. Try-guns are crucial for achieving the perfect gun fit.
What Does A Gun Fitting Entail?
A gun fitting tends to take one hour. The process includes setting up a try-gun before shooting at a pattern plate (traditionally white washed steel) and a variety of clay targets. This ensures the gun is shooting where you’re looking so the shot’s pattern is having the maximum impact on the target and feels comfortable to shoot.
Some shooters struggle when it comes to shooting a pattern plate due to the static nature of the shot. The main goal for the fitter here is to place the pupil of the eye in the right place in relation to the rib making allowances for the individual style and preference of the shooter.
If you are an inexperienced shooter or struggle with a consistent gun mount, a lesson before the fitting would be beneficial to make sure that your gun mount is consistent.
Once your ideal stock measurements and dimensions have been established it is time to have your own gun adjusted. If you already have your gun or are going to buy one off of the shelf then it can be sent to a stocker to be adjusted, however if your gun is bespoke then the relevant measurements will be sent to the manufacturer. The process of having your stock adjusted can take between 2 – 6 weeks depending on the work that needs to be done.
Common Gun Fitting Questions
The simplest answer is that you probably will not know for sure that your gun fits. You may have an indication in that you shoot well with the gun, however, this might be in spite of the fact that the stock is the wrong length, or the cast or drop is incorrect – you may have just adapted to shooting with this gun.
It is common to hear that a friend or a sales assistant has said a particular gun does or does not fit. A note of warning here, it is very difficult to determine whether a gun fits when it is mounted in a shop, invariable a shooter (especially if inexperienced) may mount the gun poorly or differently when ‘dry’ mounting rather than actually shooting. There is obviously no way to test in a shop whether the gun is comfortable when fired, or if it is shooting where you are looking.
The costs of having a gun fitted comes in two parts: the fitting, and the alterations.
Firstly the actual fitting itself that takes place at a shooting school using a try-gun can vary in cost depending on where you go (some charge a premium for the fitting). To give an example price West London Shooting School charges the price of a single lesson, which is £172.00 plus cays and cartridges at the time of writing in 2024.
The second part, the cost of alterations to your gun, is dependant on the work that needs to be done. If it’s just one movement, say either the cast, drop or length, the cost may be just a couple hundred pounds or less, however the price increases with the amount of work that needs to be carried out.
The ideal is to buy a gun where the measurements are as close to the fitting as possible so that minimum alteration is required. But there are of course the other things to consider, such as the type of shooting you intend to do.
In short, no. Pick the gun that suits the majority of the shooting that you do and have it altered and then shoot it. If you are struggling invest in some lessons to get your shooting performance to where you want it to be.
Over-and-under and side-by-side guns need two different fittings; length, cast, and drop will vary significantly. A side-by-side will be longer than an over-and-under due to the double triggers and straight hand stock, the cast will be more to ensure the pupil of the eye sits in the middle of the rib, and the drop will be different as the action is shallower than an over-and-under.
Semi-autos are another ball game and are best adjusted using shims and spacers (which often come with the gun) to adjust drop and length.
Many, if not most, ladies would benefit from a fitted standard stock rather than a high comb stock to improve their shooting. It is also recommend to fit a pad rather than a hard heel plate on a stock for lady shooters. Guns with hard (usually plastic style) heel plates often have an additional 3/8 inch measurement to the toe resulting in a disproportionate amount of the recoil which will push back into the chest with obvious discomfort.
If you lose or gain a significant amount of weight and your shooting performance has suffered it is worth having a lesson which includes a gun fit check. It may be a combination of technical shooting error and/or gun fit that needs adjusting.
Most well known gun shops use tried and tested gunsmiths/stockers to carry out alterations. If in doubt look for recommendations from other shooters that have had work carried out.
What Gun-Fit Terms Should I Know?
A try-gun can either be an over-and-under or a side-by-side shotgun. They are used by professional gun fitters to determine the optimal gun fit for shooters. Unlike standard shotguns, a try-gun features adjustable components that allow the instructor to alter the stock length, comb height, and cast (the sideways angle of the stock). These adjustments allow the gun fitter to tailor the shotgun’s dimensions to match your unique body measurements and shooting style precisely. By using a try-gun, you can experience different configurations in real-time, ensuring the final fit maximises comfort, accuracy, and overall shooting performance. Try-guns are crucial for achieving a perfect gun fit.
Cast refers to the sideways angle of the shotgun’s stock. It determines how the gun fits against your shoulder and aligns with your dominant eye. A stock can have a cast-off (for a right handed shooter) or cast-on (angled towards a left-handed shooter) to better align the barrel with your line of sight.
Drop is the vertical distance between the top of the stock and the gun’s rib. It is measured at two points: the comb (where your cheek rests) and the heel (top of the butt end of the stock). The drop affects how naturally the shooter’s eye aligns with the sight plane of the barrel.
Comb height is the height of the top of the stock where your cheek rests. Adjusting the comb height helps align your eye with the sights or rib of the shotgun, impacting accuracy and comfort.
Stock length (also known as length-of-pull) is the distance from the trigger to the end of the buttstock. Proper stock length ensures that the shotgun is comfortably and securely shouldered, allowing for better control and reduced recoil impact.
The heel plate is the top portion of the butt end of the shotgun stock. It is often made from rubber, plastic, or wood to protect the stock and provide a secure fit against your shoulder, helping to absorb recoil and enhance stability.
A shotgun’s rib is the flat, elevated strip that runs along the top of an over-and-under’s barrels, and between a side-by-side’s barrels. It serves as a sighting plane, and usually has a brass or fluorescent bead at the muzzle end. Ribs can be ventilated or solid, and their design can influence the weight distribution and balance of the shotgun.
