Professional Shotgun Lessons at Your Fingertips

You’ve probably seen the advertisements for the OSP online School, also called the Knowledge Vault, but do you have any idea how comprehensive this on-line shooting school is? Now you’re here! Study this site enough – it will be like obtaining your college Bachelor of Arts degree in shotgun shooting. Don’t attend this “school” once and think you have absorbed everything – as there’s no way this is possible. As with attaining excellence in anything – keep going back. There’s so much information on the site no one will be able to have the time or memory to grasp all that’s there. So, log on to this on-line school and keep going back.

Because this school is online, take each class on your own time. Log on via your computer, your iPad, your iPhone– whatever. Even if you are only connected for a few minutes at a time – it’s time well spent – and many times during your day you’re somehow blocked from doing anything else – so the OSP School is perfect for those interludes – however briefly. On example – how many times when on the phone are you put on hold – sometimes interminably? Of course, your major use of the site will be planned and longer term.

I’m lucky because I’ve had the privilege of taking many shooting lessons with Gil and Vicki Ash. Every lesson has been enlightening, entertaining and fun. I don’t think there’s any question that this duo has taught more students than any other shotgun instructor.

An instructor learns as much about their trade from their students – as their students. Each individual student can present a special problem or problems. How can those individual problems be fixed? That’s one important knowledge base – coming up with that knowhow. Accordingly, with all their knowledge, why not have a presence on the internet so their methods can reach thousands more shotgunners? So, you not only learn via their spoken word – but also through watching on screen what they’re describing.

While this on-line school can help you or someone you know with a basic smoothbore problem, OSP provides the whole enchilada of shotgun learning. Therefore, it pays to stick with this program by going back again and again. Did I forget to tell you how much fun this is?

One of the most important basics you can learn is the “OSP Flashlight Drill.” There’s a segment in the school that explains the how-to in depth, but here’s a brief written description. Double checking that the shotgun is unloaded, if the gun is a 12-gauge use an open choke. Buy a Maglite flashlight that holds two AA batteries. If using a 20-gauge the one AA Maglite model can work. Often you’ll need a wrap of cellophane tape around the body of the Maglite for a snug fit.

The Maglite has an adjustable beam. Twist the light to its most narrow beam. With a gun now ready to mount, place that narrow beam at the junction of a wall/ceiling corner. The exercise involves learning to use both hands/arms in unison. Typically, the right hand takes over (right-hand shooter), and the light beam dips down away for the wall/ceiling corner. Learn to mount your gun using both hands/arms in unison so the light beam stays in that corner. Start slowly with this, only increasing gun mounting speed when the light beam stays right in the corner. If this is a bit confusing the OSP video instructions will clear up any questions. Further, there’s more to learn using the flashlight drill that will help your mount and move along the wall/ceiling seam.

While Gil and Vicki are world-class shotgun competitors, they are also hunters. Consequently, the OSP School also concentrates on shotgun hunting instruction. They work on helping you become a better shot in the field, and that includes doves, ducks, pheasants, quail, grouse – as well as sporting clays, trap or skeet. There are differences between clay targets and flying birds. Learn what the differences are – and how to shoot any bird better.

Then there’s the OSP Animations. These are visual, how-to snippets that make it easy to understand what Gil and Vicki are teaching in specific instances. Additionally, for each shot that’s shown in the animation you can also click on “Companion Videos” just below – for a more thorough verbal/live explanation. Shot type after shot type is explained in so much detail, with right to left crossers and left to right crossers only touching the figurative iceberg of what’s available.

Shooting a shotgun is fun. Otherwise why do it? But every shotgunner wants to get better, smoke problem targets, make cleaner kills, etc. We can study magazines that provide good information to make us better. But the OSP School makes this job of shooting better easy – visually – with their online tutorials of every imaginable shot type, and more information is being added continually. I know you want to improve your shotgun performance, but have you done anything about it?