How to Shoot an Overhead Target
An overhead bird passes above you. The whole move is a body-gun unit — you follow the bird with the head staying on the stock, and break it as it comes over rather than chasing it with the arms.
Right-handed
Straight overhead- Stance
- Pivoting leg oriented toward the flying path of the bird.
- Gun position
- Just below the flying path of the bird.
- Waiting position
- 40–45° between the gun and the body.
- Head
- Lifted, then settled on the stock as you follow.
- Visual
- Between the gun and the spot where you can first pick the bird up (soft focus, adjustable).
- Timing
- Move the gun as the bird approaches the barrel, and follow it with the head on the stock.
A tower bird is shot the same way as a crosser, quartering, or incomer of the same line — read the line first, then apply that setup.
Set up right and you'll break more of these. But when you do miss one — why? The Gold guides break down every miss and the exact fix from Bill Erdőss's system. See the Gold guides →
About the method. These guides come from the coaching system of Bill Erdőss, an Olympic clay shooting coach, built around one idea: diagnose the cause of a miss, not the symptom. The same logic powers ClaysBuddy's shot heatmap, which finds that cause in your own rounds and tracks whether your fix is working.