New Blood required in Trap shooting

Help Support :

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.
Phil,

i have read the rules in the FITASC website and i certainly an grateful to yourself and DT for being friendly and welcoming. The problem today was caused by exactly what you suggest doing. After my second layout it was time for me to ref/score. One bloke jumped on the abacus and another grabbed the score sheet leaving me with the buzzer. I said "im new and haven't done this before, could you please help and explain". The quickest explanation was given and off we went, only to have gun malfunction's and no birds etc. Then just before stepping on the line to shoot my 4th layout, one of the shooters on my squad said "you are on the abacus after this because the other squad were complaining about you cause you don't know what you are doing". That is all i could think of whilst shooting my last line and why i wont bother coming back.
Ian,

We spoke after you'd finished shooting and it's a pity you didn't tell me this at the time as I'd have found your two r effing compatriots and had a quiet word with them.  It annoys me no end when certain shooters scuttle off to do the abacus or scorecard.  

For GB team selection shoots there's a BICTSF rule which requires the most experienced to do the refereeing. Top down it's a qualified referee, international team member, national team member, then lettered classes A to D, and then U/C.  Having said that there's plenty of GB team members who are better left to do the other jobs than be let loose with the buzzer.  

UT is a fairly close knit circle of shooters and a newcomer is usually easily spotted and the last thing anyone wants is a line disrupted because of refereeing issues, and the simple way is to put someone on the buzzer who is familiar with the discipline.

Please don't knock it on the head because of one incident.  

Phil

 
Well for the record I had a great first trip to BDGC on Sunday there were 2 complete trap novices shooting who were welcomed, and no one shouted, to say they were ill prepared is an understatement! Perhaps it would have better to give them a line on their own first, but after that would they have stayed? Don't know, don't know they will be back, I've been shooting DTL for a while and while I could score it I would be nervous of reffing intact at brookbank I was told don't worry we'll ask another member to take your stint. It helps that I have been practising at a local ground that operates in a very reg shoot type method unlike others where practise is a total free for all and comps are fierce

 
Is Trap shooting dying on its feet?
Well Pete, all I can say is that at times I get the same feeling!  When I cam into trap shooting back in the 1980's we would sometimes have to wait a couple of hours to get onto the ABT or DTL layouts. It does seem that sporting has become the in thing these days. I would guess that about 70% of the shooters at my first club were trap shooters, sporting shooters were in a minority, but that all changed within a few years. When it comes to things like OT, well it's such a minority game that I'm not surprised that so few grounds offer it. As for DTL, well most areas had a DTL layout or two, however even those seem to be in decline these days. We do at least have a few young trap shooters down this way, but you could almost count them on one hand mate, maybe shooting is not viewed as being trendy?

 
Back
Top