When it comes to shooting clays, muscle memory is one of those things that can be either a blessing or a curse.

It’s a blessing when you imprint the proper way to mount and swing a shotgun into your motor skills so that they become “second nature.” It’s a curse if you’ve developed an awful swing or mount that has already turned into a so-called "bad habit" that becomes difficult to break.

Either way, you can see the subconscious power of muscle memory at work every time you step up to shoot a clay target.

In a nutshell, muscle memory implies the benefits of ongoing repetition to develop a motor skill that requires less and less conscious thought to execute. Shotgun instructors and other experts in the field would argue that muscle memory is associated with the notion of instinct shooting, where you are able to immediately identify a target break point, pull the trigger and score the hit. Regardless, developing good muscle memory that ensures top performance can be a challenge.

While muscle memory may not be considered part of the core curriculum for clays shooting, you’ll read about it in material from leading coaches.

In their book "The Coaching Hour Chronicles: Conversations in the Pursuit of Sporting Clays Excellence – Volume 1," Gil and Vicki Ash write: "You create muscle memory through slow, repetitive movements that you can feel, not see. You don’t create muscle memory visually. You create it through feel. I will be very blunt and honest with you. If you will spend fifteen to twenty minutes a day, by yourself, in a room with a gun, (not loaded of course) with your eyes closed and shoot five stations, six pairs in a row, with the gun, with a routine, with your eyes closed, you will begin to feel your swing."

Tom Deck, author of the book "The Orvis Guide to Gunfitting," says: "First you commit the fundamentals to muscle memory."

Bruce Bowlen’s book "The Orvis Wing-Shooting Handbook," advises: "To be a successful shooter, you must understand the basic technique involved and practice enough to maintain muscle memory and timing."

And leading instructor Chris Batha has written: "Learning and constantly reinforcing the muscle memory of planning, implementing a plan and problem-solving will help hone your mental toughness in the stress of a competition or in a shoot-off."

The obvious way to develop muscle memory is to shoot a lot of targets. The caveat here is that you had better make sure your shotgunning basics are good, or you risk embedding poorly learned skills that can hurt your game long-term.

That means you should have taken lessons from a trusted, qualified instructor to get down the fundamentals of foot position, gun mount, focus, stance, swing and so on. Once you feel comfortable that you have mastered the fundamentals then the rest is practice, practice, practice.

Getting out to actually shoot, however, can present some familiar obstacles. There’s that thing called a job, which dominates most of our time. We all have family obligations that take precedence.

The shotgun laser bore emits a laser beam from the front to help you practice your mount and swing.

There are the long, dreary winters for many shooters, who can find their favorite clays course buried under snow for several weeks at a stretch. And what about money? Some of us fret over the price of gas, ammunition and target fees.

That’s where the shotgun laser bore cartridge comes into play. They are shaped like a shotgun shell and come in different gauge sizes. They are designed for indoor practice of your muscle-memory session. Most of them are powered by several disc-shaped 1.5-volt batteries that are included.

You drop the shotgun laser bore into the chamber of your over-and-under or side-by-side shotgun and a laser beam projects onto the wall.

Here’s a shotgun laser bore in 20 gauge. Twelve gauge and 20 gauge are the most popular sizes.

If you’re practicing a lateral swing, focus on the seam between the wall and the ceiling as you swing the shotgun. If you’re more interested in a vertical swing, the beam should focus on the seam between two walls as you move the gun up and down.

What you’re looking for is a consistent mount and smooth movement at the average distance you’re typically at (16 yards is good for starters). The beam shouldn’t really waver, but move like a straight pencil line.

Naturally, you’ll also be practicing your swing on the clays course where you can see real results.

You can buy a shotgun laser bore online for $10 to $15. These are really inexpensive tools to improve your shotgunning skills, especially as winter sets in and keeps you indoors.

Shotgun laser bores are typically packaged with several 1.5-volt batteries.