Shoot reports and news 2024

Martinj said:

Westfields today. Discovered that the A419 Swindon to Cirencester was closed so travelled through just about every little Cotswold village doing the scenic route. Parking was a bit hairy as the far field had an inch layer of liquid clay in places making it like an ice rink. (4x4 a distinct advantage.)
Oh the shoot? just about the softest I've done for many a moon, the stats say the average was 85% so that speaks volumes, I wasn't just having a good day (sadly.) To be fair there were still a few that needed full attention and were a pleasure to shoot. I shot well above my average missing 7 simple birds due to my own lack of concentration rather than being beaten by cunningly devised targets.
All in all it makes up for some of the tougher shoots I have done recently and was not a bad day.

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80 scores of 90 plus must be some sort of record, maybe its what a lot of people want?

An enjoyable round again at Barrow despite the drizzle, clever target setting and a respectable course average of 72, I just crept past it.

Charliedog said:

80 scores of 90 plus must be some sort of record, maybe its what a lot of people want?

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It’s not normally like that at Westfield’s I can assure you!

donna said:

It’s not normally like that at Westfield’s I can assure you!

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It is a strange one, I did venture that way last year and shot a very well balanced course. Not really sure how you can set up a course where nearly half the entries score 90 plus, I think if I was to shoot the same 50 pairs of what I classed for me as easy targets then I would still struggle to hit 90 of them!

With regard to Westfield and also gunsite the previous week. It's a very high quality entry with 113 A class and above at Westfield. And 120 A class and above at gunsite. Out of around the 180 entry at both . This is a massive amount of very good shooters to drag up the average. And with the greatest of respect , not too many scrubbers to drag it down. As previously stated that average for the shoot is not just based on percieved target difficulty.....

Orston for me yesterday - early start.

69 which was just about Ok for a first round on a ground I had only been to twice before for practise.

Still recovering from a frozen shoulder which doesn't normally bother me too much but did yesterday.

I found it quite hard - it's quite flat so hard (for me) to judge the distances without experience. I made a few stupid errors as well.

Martinj said:

Westfields today. Discovered that the A419 Swindon to Cirencester was closed so travelled through just about every little Cotswold village doing the scenic route. Parking was a bit hairy as the far field had an inch layer of liquid clay in places making it like an ice rink. (4x4 a distinct advantage.)
Oh the shoot? just about the softest I've done for many a moon, the stats say the average was 85% so that speaks volumes, I wasn't just having a good day (sadly.) To be fair there were still a few that needed full attention and were a pleasure to shoot. I shot well above my average missing 7 simple birds due to my own lack of concentration rather than being beaten by cunningly devised targets.
All in all it makes up for some of the tougher shoots I have done recently and was not a bad day.

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75+ in the 90s
Not really what we want,
Inflated egos
Westfield was always one of my favourite grounds.
Remember shooting 50s and 60s in my early days.

jasper said:

With regard to Westfield and also gunsite the previous week. It's a very high quality entry with 113 A class and above at Westfield. And 120 A class and above at gunsite. Out of around the 180 entry at both . This is a massive amount of very good shooters to drag up the average. And with the greatest of respect , not too many scrubbers to drag it down. As previously stated that average for the shoot is not just based on percieved target difficulty.....

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C class shooting in the 90s not likely to drag the average down too much, I hear what you are trying to say but that spread of top shots is not much different to others I attend as percentages of total, let's be fair and say it must have been a tad soft?

Macc Ladd said:

75+ in the 90s
Not really what we want,
Inflated egos
Westfield was always one of my favourite grounds.
Remember shooting 50s and 60s in my early days.

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Isn't it?.... Lots of wannabees on Instagram, Snapchat and fb. Practice the targets midweek . Then whack in a score on the same targets at the weekend reg. And loads inflate their egos. Including themselves. Yet this is blatantly outside of cpsa rules. Nobody's moaning. Yet when we get a scratch set shoot which nobody's practiced and some big scores go in everyone's up in arms.
Too soft.
Love it.
Most weren’t even there.

And as previously. The system for sporting averages needs an absolute complete overhaul.There's folk in A should be in AAA etc. So just because a c class puts in a good score it maybe not all it seems.

jasper said:

Isn't it?.... Lots of wannabees on Instagram, Snapchat and fb. Practice the targets midweek . Then whack in a score on the same targets at the weekend reg. And loads inflate their egos. Including themselves. Yet this is blatantly outside of cpsa rules. Nobody's moaning. Yet when we get a scratch set shoot which nobody's practiced and some big scores go in everyone's up in arms.
Too soft.
Love it.
Most weren’t even there.

And as previously. The system for sporting averages needs an absolute complete overhaul.There's folk in A should be in AAA etc. So just because a c class puts in a good score it maybe not all it seems.

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Probably just a one off, the next Westfields shoot might be interesting to see what changes they make

jasper said:

Isn't it?.... Lots of wannabees on Instagram, Snapchat and fb. Practice the targets midweek . Then whack in a score on the same targets at the weekend reg. And loads inflate their egos. Including themselves. Yet this is blatantly outside of cpsa rules. Nobody's moaning. Yet when we get a scratch set shoot which nobody's practiced and some big scores go in everyone's up in arms.
Too soft.
Love it.
Most weren’t even there.

And as previously. The system for sporting averages needs an absolute complete overhaul.There's folk in A should be in AAA etc. So just because a c class puts in a good score it maybe not all it seems.

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CPSA are currently running a Q&A session online called Coffee and Clays. Questions go direct to the CEO and it's states we're not to hold back on any question. I certainly haven't!

If enough folk flag up current issues then changes may be made. Blatant cheating ie.practicing comp birds needs to be stopped.

PM.

Churchills yesterday for their 2nd Reg ESP of the month. I felt they set this one considerably tougher than the last couple, confirmed by only 3 scores of 90 or more from 120 shooters, including more than 20 AA and AAA shooters. Started innocuously enough, but they ramped it up pretty quickly. Stand 3 included a pretty nasty long curling incomer from the right, but the 80 yard left to right crosser on Stand 4 made that look tame. Out of my squad, the one before and the one before that it was hit once and the person that hit it had no idea how they did it, they just chucked the gun at it. I had an absolute mare on it and couldn't find the other target either for a blank - the first of those I've had for a while. Having dropped 15 targets in four stands I managed to dig in after that and straight 5 of the remaining 8. They were definitely easier than stand 4, but still not that many gimmes on the rest of the course. Finished on 78 and was happy enough with that considering the blank on Stand 4.

Owls for us yesterday and after 4 weeks of a persistent cough, no sleep and feeling generally s**t felt better and shot much better than last few times out!

A good course I thought, something for everyone, a few tricky sim pairs and even a few tricky on reports but I didn’t hear anyone moan about the targets! Finished on 80 which is probably my best score there so was a happy lady, 3rd in ladies and joint 2nd in B which was won on 81.

Average was 76 and it was a nice sunny day too! So nice to be shooting without the rain and windy conditions. A few things picked up on my last lesson I’ve been working on and it’s finally clicking

Sian said:

I love Fitasc but don’t shoot a lot of it. Have to admit I prefer shoot 50, 30 min break then shoot 50. I really struggle with loads of breaks as I cannot switch off. Weather plays a big factor as well.

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Fair few years back used to shoot the old style fitasc set by Steve Nutbeam at Longridge, this your 50-break-50 and all done in half day, this system restricts overall entry to 48 a day 96 weekend which is really restrictive income wise. Like you I really struggle with the long days, mentally drained before last layout would be a kind description, gibbering old fool more accurate.
Fitasc now needs bigger daily entries so get the double squadding long break longer days, the lasses & chaps that shoot fitasc these days are conditioned to it and fair play to them.

Started on the toughest stands today and in some pretty strong wind. 10 high Pheasants. First one driven over head which possibly came as close as 30 metres. Second one slightly quicker and quartering away a bit, 4-10. Next stand even worse, an extremely quick crosser at 30ish metres followed by an extreme quartering bird that I’d guess was 40 metres by the time we caught it, a dismal 2-10. After that it eased up and there was some fun to be had. Finished on 79-100 and very happy at that given the tough start.

Redricks today, ground had dried out pretty nicely, probably the best round I have shot at this ground, several testing but fair stands, again no eyesight tests. Shoot average a 71, a few superstars out and only 5 scores in the 90s, top score 93 but it all felt about right to me. I didnt struggle on any particular target but did struggle to hit anything consistently. Special mention to the ref, he was impeccable, a Dave King I think.

I shot Redricks as well, I found it tough, made worse by the wind. Sim pair on the first stand would have been ok in calm conditions, but when I shot it I found both birds very wind affected. The same applied on the other two sim pairs as well, although even in calm conditions I think the 2nd bird on 10 would have beaten me more often than not. Not a lot you can do about the weather though. Good practice for shooting quick targets though, plenty of them had the spring wound up.

I had a 2 hour lesson with Cheryl on Tuesday at Owls in the pouring rain. Hadn’t had one in a very long time due to work and as always really enjoyed it. Today went to shoot Barbury and have competition analysis with her. It was awful weather, bitterly cold, blustery and either rain or hail. Good shoot though.

Charliedog said:

Redricks today, ground had dried out pretty nicely, probably the best round I have shot at this ground, several testing but fair stands, again no eyesight tests. Shoot average a 71, a few superstars out and only 5 scores in the 90s, top score 93 but it all felt about right to me. I didnt struggle on any particular target but did struggle to hit anything consistently. Special mention to the ref, he was impeccable, a Dave King I think.

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Thanks for the feedback on Daves performance, ive made him aware

Sian said:

I had a 2 hour lesson with Cheryl on Tuesday at Owls in the pouring rain. Hadn’t had one in a very long time due to work and as always really enjoyed it. Today went to shoot Barbury and have competition analysis with her. It was awful weather, bitterly cold, blustery and either rain or hail. Good shoot though.

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I shot the CPSA comp at Barbury on Wednesday. First squad out and was hammered by rain, wind, hail and SNOW! We all wrote off any chance of making something that resembled a decent score before we had even left the top of the Deer Park!