WHAT'S THAT THEN?
This is my preferred discipline (along with the other 80% of the country.) In its early form, English Sporting presented the shooter with targets that represented the flight characteristics of live quarry - nothing bad there think of greyhounds chasing a 'hare' - its not real its a game!  Examples of the target presentations used are quartering, going away, crossers, driven, overhead, rabbits and springing teal amongst others, basically whatever the course creator might feel is challenging. Today, as the most popular form of clay shooting, English Sporting provides a shooting environment that offers different layouts and a constant fun challenge, gotta get em all! The creative and attentive course designers will offer the shooter something different - its a pain to go to the same shoot a fortnight later and be shooting the same targets or am I just fussy?  The targets can be launched as singles or pairs. A pair could consist of targets on report (on the call of pull a target is released, the second target released when the first shot is taken) or simultaneous targets, both birds being released at the same time.

HOW DO YOU SHOOT IT?
English Sporting covers a multitude of set ups, there is no standard layout as in skeet or trap.  An 'English Sporting' course could be a chap with a couple of traps in a field, a club shoot which may be 50 targets and say eight stands or a registered shoot of 100 targets and maybe 10 to 15 stands and a World Championship.  Each stand will offer a number of singles or pairs of targets of varying angles and trajectories.  There is no requirement to shoot the stands in any particular order, however squadding is sometimes popular (not with me though) where, when booked in, you are allocated into groups of maybe six shooters with fixed shooting times and shooting stands in a pre-determined order.  This squadding system is used mainly in large competitions and it seems to or can work very well but at 'normal' shoots it can suck. English Sporting allows the shooter to call for the target with the gun in or out of the shoulder, it's down to personal preference as opposed to rules.

HOW IS IT SCORED?
It is simply a matter of how many targets have been broken and each shooter has the responsibility of carrying their own scorecard. This card is presented to the referee before the shooter takes to a stand, it's marked with the number of kills and losses, the card is returned and onto the next stand, the card being returned to the club house at the end of the shoot, your score totted up and then it's time for the excuses to start flying!

WHAT ABOUT THE BEST GUN FOR THE JOB?
A suitable sporting gun would normally be a 30" or 32" multichoke gun. Thinking these days looks on the 28" as being a tad short, the 30" being manageable and universally shootable, the 32" is probably the serious boys choice and can be more stable o distant clays, with 34" being seen on the odd occasion.  If using a fixed choke gun, the common advice has been to recommend choking of quarter / half, but this is too openly choked.  As a minimum start with half and half and this will be a much more usable gun.  The bigger boys will be using three quarter and full, great kills if you're on target and not as bad as you may think, look at the pattern plate at realistic target distances to back this up.  In my opinion (and you know how shooters like to let you know their opinions) too much emphasis is placed on choke changing and the reliance on quarter choke in particular, half + is where it's at!!  There is nothing wrong at all with using a fixed choke gun or selecting say Light Improved Modified (5/8th) in both barrels. The decision to stick with the same choke in both barrels removes the mental blockage of "which choke for this stand" and therefore one less problem to stand in the way of shooting.

CARTRIDGE CHOICE?
Some may say "It would be in the shooters best interests to carry a selection of size 7½ to 8 for mid-long distant targets and size 9 skeet cartridges for the close targets" Hmmmm!  Get your style of shooting nailed without worrying and fussing with cartridge choice, get the consistency, get the kills and then look at tuning your shots by cartridge choice.  Stick to do it all 28gram 7½ shot plastic wads. Again, one less worry and you KNOW they will do the job. However, I do carry different size cartridges, I have practiced what I preach but think about the 600+ pellets in a no.9 shell on close stuff and at the other end , the extra hitting power of a 6½ on distant edgy targets.

ADVICE?
While queuing at a stand make sure to watch other competitors. Study the flight of the targets and where you would like to shoot them, make a mental image for when you take the stand. This should help you with your timing, although don't completely rely on this picture as the clays may still surprise you.  Winds change targets and on simultaneous pairs it may change the order you will shoot them, consider also that trappers can be 'changeable' and release the clays out of sequence or with some delay which can throw you out of your rhythmn ... you shoot one and look for the second clay expecting it to be there and it's not!. My biggest tip is to try to shoot naturally, your mind is an excellent tool and you can make complex calculations as to when is the best time to pull the trigger, but this can be screwed up by the lump of lard trying to make sure!  Oh yes ... keep the gun moving after taking the shot this cuts down on misses behind the bird (in theory). 

FURTHER ADVICE?
Looking down the rib can you see the much desired 'figure of eight' - the mid bead forming the lower section of the '8' and the end bead aligning to form the top 'o'.?  If you can, then great, now forget the gun, don't look at it and shoot that clay!  Both eyes open, keep the gun moving, if it feels right squeeze the trigger, instinctive shooting kills clays!  Head height above the rib is said to be largely unimportant, you will just see more or less rib, however looking down the side of the gun will be fatal.  Admittedly some people could be doing this and killing birds but it may well be for the wrong reasons, so different target presentations will not be approached from a solid basis and the 'harder' shots will be given more and more lead to achieve a kill ... or even the situation where you shoot behind the clay and hit it.

BEGINNERS RATING?
First time out, you could be a natural and dust all the clays, but don't be disheartened if you only get 20% or even 10%!  The only thing you lack as a complete novice is familiarity - learn the target presentations and scores should climb up.  A good (regular shooter) beginners score would be around 50%. However, if you are shooting easy club targets you should be aiming higher (so to speak)

DIGWEED RATING?
If you are shooting a good standard of clays and putting in regular scores of 80%+ then you are certainly a good shot, edging to the late 80's would be good, an average of 90+ would see you being up there with the best and most talented shooters.