hello from a complete newbie

[psych4shooting]

Hi All,

I spent a number of years during my youth hunting with a .22 air rifle and always head to a range when I am in the USA to get some target shooting in with whatever guns I can get my hands on.

I have now decided to get into clay shooting. Having some Italian heritage, I have always wanted a nice Italian gun. At the moment I am thinking about either a Beretta DT10 or DT11. I have had one lesson at Ian Coley, during which I took out a second hand DT10. It felt very comfortable, but I don't really have anything to compare it to at the moment.

I was very impressed with the facilities at Ian Coley, and my instructor was a very nice chap, but my experiences were not flawless. Having paid for a 1 hour lesson, we were only out for 45 minutes. In this time we went through 75 clays. I got very little (practically no) instruction on correct form, foot position etc. I was instructed on lead, told where I was missing and given some advice on smooth swinging of the gun, but that was about it. Including clays and carts, this 1hr (really 45 minute) lesson cost me £139 pounds. Appart from lots of encouragement, I just didn't feel like I got value for money. They suggested I sign up for a course of 6 lessons, which including clays and carts (75 per lesson) will cost me in the region of £700. At the moment, I am just not sure I am getting value out of that investment, especially when I compare what I was taught with the level of technical coaching is available through clay coah online (youtube). On the plus side, the gun shop is happy for me to take out the demo DT11 so I can try and decide which gun to go for.

I heard that the Dt10 can have problems with fibre wads. I also have no idea whether I should go for a 30" or 32" barrel length. The DT10 I used was a 30", but I don't really know what the difference would be. There seems to be so much to get to grips with as a complete newbie to the sport, and I don't want to make an expensive mistake on my gun choice.

I would be happy to hear peoples thoughts on my experiences outlined above and how I could best bridge the gap while waiting for my SGC. My certificate application will be submitted in the next week or so, but as I am in Gloucestershire, I have been told it can take 3+ months to process. I can't wait to get properly stuck in.

Having read through your post, I am more than happy to discuss the points you have made with you, having a first lesson is always an open experience and the aims and objectives need to be clearly stated. However I am very proud of what we offer at the shooting school, both from facilities and also the instructors we have. Our aim is to always work with the client and aim to give them the right advice in the right time and have clear points going forward. Instruction is more than just time, it is the advice and looking at it for the individual. Anyway clearly you are looking for a bit more and I think most would vouch for my openess and honesty towards everyone - so here is my offer - please contact me and I will take you for a 1 hour lesson at our ground Ian Coley Shooting School, for free, and I will provide you with cartridges and clays - we have been voted the best ground in the UK because we value our customers new and old alike and I for one encourage everyone into the sport. Please PM me through the site or simply email me [email protected] or [email protected]. 

 

[teepee1234]

Having read through your post, I am more than happy to discuss the points you have made with you, having a first lesson is always an open experience and the aims and objectives need to be clearly stated. However I am very proud of what we offer at the shooting school, both from facilities and also the instructors we have. Our aim is to always work with the client and aim to give them the right advice in the right time and have clear points going forward. Instruction is more than just time, it is the advice and looking at it for the individual. Anyway clearly you are looking for a bit more and I think most would vouch for my openess and honesty towards everyone - so here is my offer - please contact me and I will take you for a 1 hour lesson at our ground Ian Coley Shooting School, for free, and I will provide you with cartridges and clays - we have been voted the best ground in the UK because we value our customers new and old alike and I for one encourage everyone into the sport. Please PM me through the site or simply email me [email protected] or [email protected]. 

Fair play Phil, can't say fairer than that!

 

[PhilS]

Here here, a fantastic offer.  In a world that seems full of crap service, it is nice to see someone go "the extra mile" for someone he doesn't even know.

Well done Phil.

 

[Will Hewland]

Having read through your post, I am more than happy to discuss the points you have made with you, having a first lesson is always an open experience and the aims and objectives need to be clearly stated. However I am very proud of what we offer at the shooting school, both from facilities and also the instructors we have. Our aim is to always work with the client and aim to give them the right advice in the right time and have clear points going forward. Instruction is more than just time, it is the advice and looking at it for the individual. Anyway clearly you are looking for a bit more and I think most would vouch for my openess and honesty towards everyone - so here is my offer - please contact me and I will take you for a 1 hour lesson at our ground Ian Coley Shooting School, for free, and I will provide you with cartridges and clays - we have been voted the best ground in the UK because we value our customers new and old alike and I for one encourage everyone into the sport. Please PM me through the site or simply email me [email protected] or [email protected]. 

No business gets it right every time. It is the mark of a business the quality of their approach to making a situation right. Superb.

 

[Mark Jones]

Hi and welcome,

You are luckey as there are loads of shoots near you. Look on the listings here, try as many guns as you can before buying one, choosing one by a name prob won't work for you.

good luck and have fun!

 

[psych4shooting]

No business gets it right every time. It is the mark of a business the quality of their approach to making a situation right. Superb.

It is always hard to please all the people all of the time, but equally you should always react to help a customer and to go the extra mile for anyone. Our business has only grown through the loyalty of customers and in turn us wanting to provide a level of service and quality to customers. Like any business you are always remembered for what you didn`t do for a customer as much as what you did do for a customer.

 

[Hayter]

Welcome P13 .. 

All business is good business i say free lessons for everyone .. What an offer phil, top man and top service from coley's yet again, that it why i return time after time ..

 

[Guerini Guy]

Welcome to the forum, and to the sport.

Its a shame you appear to have had a disappointing starting experience, but you've been made a great offer. Top bloke - 'nuff said !

Hope you continue forward and start to really enjoy this great sport. 

 

[P13td0]

Sorry for the delay in replying to this, it's all rather hectic at the moment, what with the end of the year cascading down on us and all (Happy Christmas All). First of all, I want to say thank you for your offer Phil. This is something that I would very much like to take you up on and I am sure it will help me better understand why Ian Coley's is the right choice.  Your response here already helps me feel like I will get the sort of personal experience I was looking for from the outset.

I appreciate it can be difficult to judge a customers needs at times and I expect that may have been where the disconnect was. I actually visited the gun shop a week prior to taking my lesson to discuss gun choice and get a feel for the place. I was and still am very impressed with the facilities and the fact that the gun shop was happy to let me try the DT10 I am considering. Living just down the road, I was looking forward to making this my shooting ground and gun shop of choice.

The instructor who took me out, was a great guy. I don't want to cast any judgment over his abilities as a coach (I am sure he is very good), I can only comment on what came  out during my relatively short time with him. Perhaps this is the preferred approach for a complete novice, but I think a bit of pre-qualification could help considerably (maybe I am not the average customer?). When I decide to get into something new, I tend to go balls deep, so I guess what I needed was the "balls deep" starter lesson to help me feel comfortable. As with most things, value is more important to me than cost.

Things are quite hectic at the moment with work and family etc, but I hope it would be OK if I contacted you early in the new year to arrange a convenient time for me to come and meet you.

Thanks again,

Pietro

 

[P13td0]

thanks for all the warm welcomes. It isn't easy to get up and running in this sport. None of my local friends are into it, which doesn't help. This forum is a great resource for us newbies and I look forward to contributing more as I get myself sorted out.

 

[psych4shooting]

Sorry for the delay in replying to this, it's all rather hectic at the moment, what with the end of the year cascading down on us and all (Happy Christmas All). First of all, I want to say thank you for your offer Phil. This is something that I would very much like to take you up on and I am sure it will help me better understand why Ian Coley's is the right choice.  Your response here already helps me feel like I will get the sort of personal experience I was looking for from the outset.

I appreciate it can be difficult to judge a customers needs at times and I expect that may have been where the disconnect was. I actually visited the gun shop a week prior to taking my lesson to discuss gun choice and get a feel for the place. I was and still am very impressed with the facilities and the fact that the gun shop was happy to let me try the DT10 I am considering. Living just down the road, I was looking forward to making this my shooting ground and gun shop of choice.

The instructor who took me out, was a great guy. I don't want to cast any judgment over his abilities as a coach (I am sure he is very good), I can only comment on what came  out during my relatively short time with him. Perhaps this is the preferred approach for a complete novice, but I think a bit of pre-qualification could help considerably (maybe I am not the average customer?). When I decide to get into something new, I tend to go balls deep, so I guess what I needed was the "balls deep" starter lesson to help me feel comfortable. As with most things, value is more important to me than cost.

Things are quite hectic at the moment with work and family etc, but I hope it would be OK if I contacted you early in the new year to arrange a convenient time for me to come and meet you.

Thanks again,

Pietro

Hi Pietro, absolutely not a problem, just email me or call the ground on 01242 870391, if I am not in then please leave a message. I look forward to taking you around for a lesson and for you to make Ian Coley`s your local ground. There are many who come to Ian Coley`s on the Forum and I am sure they will make themselves known, we also have our regulars and I would be more than happy to introduce you to them and welcome you into the sport and the ground. Many regulars shoot at club grounds such as Westfield, Weston Wood, Stoke Orchard (local Cheltenham ground) and others - dependant on what you are looking for we can point your towards the places and people to go with. Kind Regards Phil

 

[Andy]

Hi All,

I spent a number of years during my youth hunting with a .22 air rifle and always head to a range when I am in the USA to get some target shooting in with whatever guns I can get my hands on.

I have now decided to get into clay shooting. Having some Italian heritage, I have always wanted a nice Italian gun. At the moment I am thinking about either a Beretta DT10 or DT11. I have had one lesson at Ian Coley, during which I took out a second hand DT10. It felt very comfortable, but I don't really have anything to compare it to at the moment.

I was very impressed with the facilities at Ian Coley, and my instructor was a very nice chap, but my experiences were not flawless. Having paid for a 1 hour lesson, we were only out for 45 minutes. In this time we went through 75 clays. I got very little (practically no) instruction on correct form, foot position etc. I was instructed on lead, told where I was missing and given some advice on smooth swinging of the gun, but that was about it. Including clays and carts, this 1hr (really 45 minute) lesson cost me £139 pounds. Appart from lots of encouragement, I just didn't feel like I got value for money. They suggested I sign up for a course of 6 lessons, which including clays and carts (75 per lesson) will cost me in the region of £700. At the moment, I am just not sure I am getting value out of that investment, especially when I compare what I was taught with the level of technical coaching is available through clay coah online (youtube). On the plus side, the gun shop is happy for me to take out the demo DT11 so I can try and decide which gun to go for.

I heard that the Dt10 can have problems with fibre wads. I also have no idea whether I should go for a 30" or 32" barrel length. The DT10 I used was a 30", but I don't really know what the difference would be. There seems to be so much to get to grips with as a complete newbie to the sport, and I don't want to make an expensive mistake on my gun choice.

I would be happy to hear peoples thoughts on my experiences outlined above and how I could best bridge the gap while waiting for my SGC. My certificate application will be submitted in the next week or so, but as I am in Gloucestershire, I have been told it can take 3+ months to process. I can't wait to get properly stuck in.

How do  P13td0, welcome to shoot clays forum, I started clay shooting approximately 14 months ago and to some extent I can understand what you’re saying, I’ve been to Ian Coley’s once for a practice shoot on their high tower where I paid for the clays I used. I can’t really comment on the shooting ground or the Instructors who are employed there.

The amount of money we are prepared to pay for something boils down to one thing which is whether we think it’s worth it or not, that’s the only question you should be asking yourself at this point in your shooting. The question of DT10, DT11 shouldn’t come into your thoughts at this stage of the game.

I must admit I was really tempted but after a lot of probing questions I felt considering a new gun when starting out clay shooting was only for the foolish, after all we have no concept what we are doing or what gun fits us or even what discipline we will wonder into, the list is endless and to buy a new gun only serves to fuels the fire so to speak.

I believe there is a mass of information we need to understand before we commit our cash to something that is easy to buy but hard to sell if our choice is wrong, keep your money in your pocket or put it to well constructed lessons and by the time your shotgun certificate arrives you will have a better idea of whether you want to keep enjoying this wonderful sport of ours or throw the towel in and take up knitting.

almost lastly the gun I started with and still shooting is a 682 gold e, it cost £1,400 and it’s only five years old, it’s only been the last three months that I have starting to understand the differences between one gun/ manufacture to another and I can honestly tell you I have been lucky to have shot a lot of cartridges in this last year and I have almost decided on my next new shotgun, I will probably keep my 682 as I found out that when my gun went in for a service it was  like having my left arm chopped off.

And not quite last the instructor I can comment on is Steve Nutbeam, he sorted my attempts at flogging a dead horse to riding the bugger, and most of all whichever Instructor you choose to go with enjoy yourself because that’s what it’s all about.

Finally you may find my introduction to this forum interesting I know I did, the title is 42,000 cartridges.                

 

[Skeet UK]

The instructor who took me out, was a great guy. I don't want to cast any judgment over his abilities as a coach (I am sure he is very good), I can only comment on what came  out during my relatively short time with him. Perhaps this is the preferred approach for a complete novice, but I think a bit of pre-qualification could help considerably (maybe I am not the average customer?). When I decide to get into something new, I tend to go balls deep, so I guess what I needed was the "balls deep" starter lesson to help me feel comfortable. As with most things, value is more important to me than cost.

Thanks again,

Pietro

Hi, nice post.

I have not yet had the pleasure of visiting Ian Coley's, but they do come highly recommended.

Regarding your "balls deep" approach, this is probably why you felt a little short changed, as you noted.

The trouble with coaching a person who is "new", is that there is actually a whole "metric ass ton" of stuff to learn.  If the Coley coach had bombarded you with information, you would almost certainly not have had the chance to take it all in and would maybe have ended up learning less than you did!  And your initial post here, would have probably gone on about, how you were bombarded with this and that and felt like you were being rushed through!

It is a fine line between "enough" and "too much".  A coach won't know a new shooter as a person, so will have a plan of how they treat newcomers, so that they learn stuff, but do not feel overwhelmed; and also what will fit within the time slot available.

I imagine, that now Phil knows you are eager, he will ensure you have a fulfilling lesson with him.

Good shooting