Sporting shoots 2023. How was it?

[Jonny English]

Grimsthorpe yesterday for a round on the practise course and half an hour on the high tower arena. Brilliant day out, targets on the sporting course we're quite testing in places and the high tower arena never disappoints. Always worth a visit. Just such a shame they don't run any fitasc or sporting registered competitions any more, a great setting and clubhouse.

 

[donna]

Grimsthorpe yesterday for a round on the practise course and half an hour on the high tower arena. Brilliant day out, targets on the sporting course we're quite testing in places and the high tower arena never disappoints. Always worth a visit. Just such a shame they don't run any fitasc or sporting registered competitions any more, a great setting and clubhouse.

We used to shoot Fitasc at Grimsthorpe many years ago and it was always an excellent course.  Really good targets, it is a shame they don’t do registered anymore as I’m sure they’d get a good attendance.

 

[chesterse]

We used to shoot Fitasc at Grimsthorpe many years ago and it was always an excellent course.  Really good targets, it is a shame they don’t do registered anymore as I’m sure they’d get a good attendance.

It’s only about 14 miles up the road from me and we used to love it when they did competitions. The Fitasc was superb but Mark is adamant he won’t be going back to doing comps.

 

[Richard59]

Coleys today, its the sort of place / shoot where some make it look easy, others hard, am very much in the latter. Bright and sunny, no issues with the targets, no eyesight tests, yes a few coloured clays, all visible, no silly short windows so yes lots of them got broken, sadly not enough of them by me. One of the two rabbit targets had a tendency to bounce, a good enough shot wouldnt have a problem with it mind. HG was 98, I was quite a few behind. Next shoot I will be closer

 

[donna]

Coleys for us today. We only decided late last night to book and it turned out to be a lovely warm day.  Only a 4 man squad but shot with these same guys last month and it’s a good squad.  Shot an 88 which equalled my PB and as always, missed a few silly ones so could’ve/should’ve had a 90 which I would’ve been over the moon with but a few lessons learnt today that I didn’t do on Sunday at Westfields where I shot a very mediocre score of 73. Won ladies and third in B but went targets only  

Again an excellent course and a right mixture of targets with a few nice long/fast battues thrown in.  Average for shoot was 78.

 

[Bebo]

Very well shot Donna.

I shot Sporting Targets on Monday.  I was mediocre at best.  Whenever I've shot there in the past they have had quite a lot of longer, more challenging targets.  This time there was loads on the end of the gun.  I hit the long ones, missed far too many of the close ones.  Seem to be having a problem with close right to left targets at the moment, not sure why.  Anyway, a very meh 70, when there was actually the opportunity for quite a big score.

Got a few booked in over the next few days, first one being EJC tomorrow.  Will try to remember to post about them.

 

[Will Hewland]

Churchills was a step up today. Groundsman said it was deliberate. Some interesting stands to be fair, but if you weren’t on your game it did bite you. A very shabby few stands in the middle of the course left my scorecard looking like old roadkill. I was trying to be deliberate on some long edgey crossers that I just needed to attack more. Shame as I shot a few tough stands OK, but my 83 was a good 5 clays shy of where I feel I should have been. 

 

[Charliedog]

Barrow and High lodge with great weather both days, both enjoyable shoots and appeared very busy and were slow getting round but fortunately not in any particular hurry as unwanted jobs were awaiting at home. High Lodge proved trickier than expected, only 2 superstars cracked 90, with a 91 winning and 1 other score of 90, overall average 64% which I did manage to exceed, good food both days.

 

[Bebo]

Churchills on Thursday - I started well, finished well, but was decidedly wobbly through the middle.  Nasty sim pair with a dropping target that I just couldn't hit and struggled on a 70mm target on 7, whilst hitting 3 from 4 on the other target (a long range curling crosser). I completely spat the dummy on 9, overleading a soft right to left target (this will become a theme) and dropping 5 on that stand.  Finished on 76.

Kibworth Friday - started well, 8 stands in and 9 targets away.  Dropping target off the bank of Stand 9 completely did for me (another theme for the weekend). Wheels fell off from there onwards really, dropping lots of stuff that I shouldn't have been.  Mainly as a result of trying too hard.  Finished on 72.

Redricks Saturday - four biggest targets of the day - three left to right crosser / battues and a right to left midi - 4/4, 2/4, 4/5 and 4/4. Close low quartering away from the right 1/5 (see the theme emerging?).  Also managed to screw up a sim pair of teal. Attacked the first pair and smashed them.  Slowed the gun on the rest.  Another 72.

Barrow Sunday - felt better about this one.  Actually managed to control some of my overleading issues on right to lefts, straight on two low rl crossers and two high rl crossers, shot at them. However, a right to left quartering away rabbit did for me, didn't hit one of them. The two biggest targets on the ground - a left to right battue and a distant midi right to left high crosser I hit 4/4 and 3/4 (another theme).  Dropped a random pair on Stand 1 for no reason and three easy targets on a sim pair of crows being too far under the second target.  Should really have been an 80+, finished on 77.

High Lodge Monday - thought this one was a relentlessly tough shoot (average score of 64 from the stats confirms that). I actually felt that I was shooting pretty well.  6/8 on high, limited window driven that normally I'd struggle with, hitting the low right to left crossers well (hurrah) and even did ok on one of the sim pairs (9/10). The main card wrecker for me were the other two sim pairs, both of which forced you to take the second target on the drop - that was 9 targets away for me straight away.  Had a couple of other stands where I should have done better, taking a while to get on them but finally finding them and hitting half the targets. Finished on 69, which was the worst score of the run of five shoots.  However, it was five above the average for the shoot, sat in the middle of the A class score and five targets behind the lady currently ranked 4 in the UK, so was probably my best performance of the five.

 

[Will Hewland]

Said I wouldn’t go to Horne again, but was only thing on near me on Monday. So made a return after about 2 years.
 

Maybe there is a place for a shoot with a swamp for a car park, two stands with only one trap, no master score card, “basic” refs and no targets needing any lead, but how they have the nerve to charge more than EJ Churchill beggars belief. But it was busy so that’s supply and demand I suppose. Oh and they haven’t put scores on CPSA yet either. 
 

There is a trickiness to shooting there. Half the stands are card fillers but the other half involve edgey tight angles or mastering fast going aways and you do need your eyes wide open and lots of control. Jamie Brightman shot 100/100 which was amazing really, I would have said 97 HG. I managed 7 less than Jamie so hey ho.
 

It’s definitely a bit unique for a registered shoot in this day and age. Certainly wouldn’t be the one I’d take Jan Powell to to try and convince him about ESP. Ironically it’s the one where he would shoot the targets well though..

 

[chesterse]

Said I wouldn’t go to Horne again, but was only thing on near me on Monday. So made a return after about 2 years.
 

Maybe there is a place for a shoot with a swamp for a car park, two stands with only one trap, no master score card, “basic” refs and no targets needing any lead, but how they have the nerve to charge more than EJ Churchill beggars belief. But it was busy so that’s supply and demand I suppose. Oh and they haven’t put scores on CPSA yet either. 
 

There is a trickiness to shooting there. Half the stands are card fillers but the other half involve edgey tight angles or mastering fast going aways and you do need your eyes wide open and lots of control. Jamie Brightman shot 100/100 which was amazing really, I would have said 97 HG. I managed 7 less than Jamie so hey ho.
 

It’s definitely a bit unique for a registered shoot in this day and age. Certainly wouldn’t be the one I’d take Jan Powell to to try and convince him about ESP. Ironically it’s the one where he would shoot the targets well though..

All this talk about people cutting back due to financial difficulties, everywhere I go seems to be busier than ever. I do think though that some grounds are getting complacent as I’ve been to a couple lately and been plagued by no birds. About twenty at the last shoot and I’m seriously running out of places to go.

 

[Bebo]

Said I wouldn’t go to Horne again, but was only thing on near me on Monday. So made a return after about 2 years.
 

My average is dropping at the moment, partly because my shooting is not in the best nick at the moment and partly because I'm intentionally picking what should be harder shoots - selection shoots, county champs etc. I suppose I could do a few visits to Gatton Bottom to try to bolster it, but I won't because it's boring and I'll never get any better if I do.

 

[jasper]

There is some complacency around. Lots of very samey stuff. Lack of imagination. Lots of no birds.  But as you say the shoots are busy. I think this is down to club shooters finding out that a reg with refs is the similar money as their club. So if you can only shoot once a week........

Plus those complacent targets probably look good to them. 

Jasper

 

[Sian]

Said I wouldn’t go to Horne again, but was only thing on near me on Monday. So made a return after about 2 years.
 

Maybe there is a place for a shoot with a swamp for a car park, two stands with only one trap, no master score card, “basic” refs and no targets needing any lead, but how they have the nerve to charge more than EJ Churchill beggars belief. But it was busy so that’s supply and demand I suppose. Oh and they haven’t put scores on CPSA yet either. 
 

There is a trickiness to shooting there. Half the stands are card fillers but the other half involve edgey tight angles or mastering fast going aways and you do need your eyes wide open and lots of control. Jamie Brightman shot 100/100 which was amazing really, I would have said 97 HG. I managed 7 less than Jamie so hey ho.
 

It’s definitely a bit unique for a registered shoot in this day and age. Certainly wouldn’t be the one I’d take Jan Powell to to try and convince him about ESP. Ironically it’s the one where he would shoot the targets well though..

I went, I knew I shouldn’t but I did.  I shot badly as I knew I would and found quite a few hard to see and my frustration level just reached my limit.  I think it’s a good few years since I have  been and that will be it.  The few times I have  scored a decent score  there I have never taken any pleasure in it.

 

[Martinj]

Said I wouldn’t go to Horne again, but was only thing on near me on Monday. So made a return after about 2 years.
 

Maybe there is a place for a shoot with a swamp for a car park,

you should try not to hide your feelings about the place Will 

I'd been away on holiday for a couple of weeks and was itching to get out so GB for me too, there was a good turn out, there were small queues on most stands which is the way I like it, i.e. where you don't have to wait for ages but you get a chance to watch 2 or three people shoot. Stand 1 was an ideal starter for a change - one trap, 2 birds going away on report, a gift of a confidence booster! I dropped three in the woods and messed up stand 7 I think (where there was a R to L crosser and a close looper,) dropping three due to lack of concentration.

From then on things went well, tension was mounting as I got to the last 2 stands which are usually trick shooting floppy closeup shots, somehow I got through with no further losses so I went home smiling

 

[Will Hewland]

you should try not to hide your feelings about the place Will 

I'd been away on holiday for a couple of weeks and was itching to get out so GB for me too, there was a good turn out, there were small queues on most stands which is the way I like it, i.e. where you don't have to wait for ages but you get a chance to watch 2 or three people shoot. Stand 1 was an ideal starter for a change - one trap, 2 birds going away on report, a gift of a confidence booster! I dropped three in the woods and messed up stand 7 I think (where there was a R to L crosser and a close looper,) dropping three due to lack of concentration.

From then on things went well, tension was mounting as I got to the last 2 stands which are usually trick shooting floppy closeup shots, somehow I got through with no further losses so I went home smiling

Well done! And if you straighted stand 12, very good as that had most peoples card messed up a bit. 

 

[Martinj]

I think that was the one with two going away targets on report, the first from a nearby trap, fairly straightforward. The second from a further out trap, quite tricky as it was only visible between the trees. Muscle memory said a foot to the left and luckily that was the answer.

stand 11 (or 12 ?) had a very dodgy L to R looper through the trees which I just blagged my way through somehow.

 

[Defender90]

Express Masters at AGL yesterday. Great course although somewhat wind-affected, making an already tough stand 6 much longer-distance as targets stalling out in the headwind.

Struggled on stand 1 without a warmup but rest of the woods section friendly, stand 6 and 12 tough, as well as an evil midi crosser come down from a tower to the floor with full spring on 7. At least 15 was a nice friendly finish! Will be back next year

 

[Sian]

Express Masters at AGL yesterday. Great course although somewhat wind-affected, making an already tough stand 6 much longer-distance as targets stalling out in the headwind.

Struggled on stand 1 without a warmup but rest of the woods section friendly, stand 6 and 12 tough, as well as an evil midi crosser come down from a tower to the floor with full spring on 7. At least 15 was a nice friendly finish! Will be back next year

Good shoot, stand 6 my gun was resting on the fence to shoot the second target and even standing back I felt like I was going to shoot the fence.  Stand 7 I could only see that fist target as it went through towards its end whereas my husband and taller people could see it over the fence panel.  Highly frustrating.  

 

[donna]

Good shoot, stand 6 my gun was resting on the fence to shoot the second target and even standing back I felt like I was going to shoot the fence.  Stand 7 I could only see that fist target as it went through towards its end whereas my husband and taller people could see it over the fence panel.  Highly frustrating.  

Drives me/you and all short people mad!  Cannot be that hard surely?  Well shot though xx