It's shooting time, with the pink glow of dawn in the east, the bite of a north wind on your ears, and the familiar feel of that favorite shotgun in your hands. And here come the birds, big ones, gray/white with a black neck and a thin white cheek patch. You bide your time while your heart beats wildly. But then the time is right. You rise up from your crouched hide as the birds pass to your right, that special smoothbore swings into action. "Bam," "Bam," "Bam."

Different shooting situations require different techniques. Practice these awkward positions, even and especially during the season.

The flock flies on. Your mouth opens in disbelief. You wonder if the breakfast eggs are smeared on your cheek. What happened here?

Of course, the answer to that question could be many faceted, but there's a good chance that, as a right-handed shooter, your shoulders were the problem. They did not stay level. Instead those shoulders produced a sort of rainbow trajectory. When that happens the same thing happens to your gun's muzzle(s), another rainbow trajectory. Consequently, it was impossible to stay "on line" with that magnificent Canada that you were so bent on bringing down.

"Rainbowing" the shoulders is a very common problem with shotgunners--and especially with duck and goose shooting on crossing shots. The longer the shot the more "rainbowing" is likely to surface. This dilemma has razed its ugly face for me many times, so I constantly have to be on guard--to make certain it doesn't happen in the excitement of an important shot like I've just described.

With any crosser, but especially with longer shots, the left to right duck or goose is going to create the most problem--and just the opposite for southpaws--their "rainbowing" nemesis the right to left crosser. Why is this so?

The main reason for this problem is neglecting to take a body position that allows us to swing freely where we are going to pull the trigger. Typically, we set up our body position for a crossing bird--for where the bird is when we first see it. Why not? It's simply natural to do that. There's the bird. So maintain your body position and start the gun moving.

But what happens is that we can only move a relatively short distance to the right with our swing on this bird--before our muscles and joints start binding up--i.e. we start running out of swing. Our muscles are only capable of moving so far right--for a right-handed shooter. So what does the body do?

The body does the only thing it can't do when our muscles begin to get constricted with this move. The right shoulder starts going down so the swing can be maintained. That means the muzzle(s) also goes down--and thus away from the flight path of the bird in question. That's the most plausible reason for the example in this column's opening.

One big help to avoid this scenario is simple--when you see that bird is going to be a left to right crosser--first turn your body--to at least the point where you guess you are going to pull the trigger. Do that--and now you can begin your swing and start your gun mount almost immediately thereafter.

But it's still very important to make a level swing with your shoulders. I've watched lots of shooters get their body positioned correctly for a shot like this--but they still "rainbow" their shoulders. When that is true, "rainbowing" has simply become a habit. The way to break that bad habit is to go to the skeet range and practice the High bird from stations three, four and five--assuming you are right-handed shooter.

If you swing from the port side practice on birds from the Low house, stations three, four and five. All the while make your swing with the shoulders level. There's no other way to maintain contact with the bird's flight path. Rainbow the shoulders even slightly--the muzzle(s) comes off the bird's flight line. Anyone with a habit of "rainbowing" the shoulders will not find this easy to undo. But clay target practice is the key.