The Visual Lead

Posted On: 05-24-2026

I have talked about this so many times, but I wanted to revisit this once more with some visuals.  The lead is a must and without understanding the lead, targets will be missed.  Do you have to lead a target to break it.   No, you do not as many tend to break targets from the backside rather than the lead side. 

My point here is overall the visual is the lead and NOT THE TARGET.  At some point great shooters realize that if they look at the target they will struggle to get ahead of the target. 

Let’s start with a straight away target.  Most will agree this is the easy target but so often missed.  Likely off to the left or right, but to hit it, one has to know what the lead looks like. 

The lead looks like this:

Note how the barrel is above the target or in this case the target is rising.  Keep in mind it does not rise forever and once at the apex it will fall making it tough to hit and reversing the image above.  As well one has about 0.3 -.07 seconds to see a lead like this before the target starts to get away.  In trap rules state a target should fly between 58 and 52 yards, so keep in mind for the most part a good portion of this flight is going down to the ground not upwards.

The next visual is the hard right. 

In this image we see the barrel is leading the target to the right.  Keep in mind a hard right lead is slightly more than a hard left lead.  Whatever, this is the image one’s mind has to formulate and agree with until the trigger is pulled.  Also keep in mind the barrel is where the eyes are looking – not at the barrel but in this alignment ahead of the target.  Eyes on the lead not the target.

The last image is the hard left.  Slightly less lead but this is the visual the mind must coordinate with your trigger finger and eyes.  Here the barrel (eyes too) is not looking at the target but instead at the lead and this is what that lead looks like. 

The bottom line here is visually understanding what I mean when I talk about the lead.  One must let go of the target to progress to excellence.

As a final note I always tell young shooters there are only three ways to accomplish a lead.  First the barrel moves in the flight line ahead of the target and holds the lead necessary to break the target, second one swings the barrel ahead of the target bit goes to far and then has to retract the lead back to the target (real bad method) and third, one sweeps the barrel across the target never being on the flight line.  At best hoping they can intersect the target without a true lead. 

Use these images to ingrain into your mind what a lead looks like.  There are of course variances, but mechanically these are images worth banking. 

David R. Vaught. Ph.D.

Executive Director