5. Lead or Forward Allowance
You can calculate the lead or forward allowance very easily, it is simply using a very simple mathematical calculation, anyone can do that, right?????
The example shown below is for a bird travelling at 40mph at a distance of 40yards, 40mph equates to 5.87ft/sec, the shot travels at 1000ft/sec, therefore 5.87ft x 1.2sec = 7.04feet of lead or forward allowance, it is as simple as that.
Well it is a little more complicated than that but the principle is simple, you generally need an awful lot more lead than you are giving it, the complications are;
- What exactly is the speed
- What exactly is the distance
- Is it flying towards or going away
- Is it rising or dropping
- Is it going left or right (this does make a difference in perception of lead)
Let’s say you are at Stand 4 on a Skeet range, as a right handed shooter taking a right crosser from the Low Tower you will be “un screwing”, taking a left crosser from the High Tower you will be “screwing up”, this would mean that you may give the right crosser 2’ of lead and the left crosser 2 ½’ of lead, the lead is the same but your perception of lead is different, it is a little easier to shoot right to left than to shoot left to right.
