Left the house at 8 for the drive over to Sporting Targets, arrived plenty early for my 11am squad time. settled down in the rather well appointed clubhouse and enjoyed an excellent bacon sanger with a glass of fresh orange juice (how bloody sophisticated for a SG) had a mooch round the shop and managed to refrain from buying anything this time :.:
I met up with my squad and was told that unfortunately we had a half hour delay due to earlier trap breakdowns, unfortunate but not the end of the world as it was a gorgeous day and it gave the squad a chance for a blether before the off.
We got on the tractor/trailer and made our way down to the "plantation" end of the ground (where the Jack Pyke started for those that shot it) looking at the targets as we drove past it was evident that you needed to make hay early as it was gonna get harder. I shot the first 3 stands with only 1 away so a bit of a dream start for me.
We made our way back toward the clubhouse, stopping off in the "grouse" section where we were presented with a r-l mini followed by a teal. Nice to see a bumble bee as you dont tend to see many.
After a quick comfort break passing the clubhouse (due to the excellent water dispensers on most stands) we made our way into the main practice stand area. A nice long rabbit shot off a platform and a cracking long curling r-l were the highlights here for me.
Then on to 2 stands from the infamous high towers, a report r-l pair of high crossers and saving the best for last a report pair of long r-l crossers one about 45yrds out and one about 55 odd. Really needed some good gaps
Finished on 72 which I thought was 5 or 6 light but was winning when I got back to the clubhouse.
All in all a good shoot but a bit of a round of 2 halves, started off very easy and got harder from there. Not really a problem when its squadded but it kind of made me feel like "is this all they've got" at the beginning but it sure got better.
On to Northampton next.
Booked on, had my lunch burger and met up with the squad, started on a report r-l pair off a small tower made a bit of a hash of this dropping 2 after mincing the first pair out. This was a bit of a recurring theme for me here, I think the heat really started to get to me and the concentration levels were flagging.
Some really good stands at Northampton, mixing long stuff that needed a steady gun and close quick stuff. Only real gripe was the r-l simo pair 1 fast midi and 1 slower standard, the midi was too flying pencil like for me, would have liked to have seen a bit more face earlier (it did turn over at the end) There was nothing silly here but a lot of tricky angles and reading lines was really important. I shot under so many birds that looked like they were reasonably flat but were still rising.
Finished up with a 65 which was about 7th I think with 78 leading C, which was some tremendous shooting IMO
Overall I enjoyed the targets at Northampton more by a hair even though my score was lower, should have probably had 7 or 8 more.
However I won C at Sporting Targets with my 72 so all I can say is its far to close to call my favourite shoot of the day and being out from 8am to 6pm I'm absolutely shattered but boy what a great fun days shooting!
I met up with my squad and was told that unfortunately we had a half hour delay due to earlier trap breakdowns, unfortunate but not the end of the world as it was a gorgeous day and it gave the squad a chance for a blether before the off.
We got on the tractor/trailer and made our way down to the "plantation" end of the ground (where the Jack Pyke started for those that shot it) looking at the targets as we drove past it was evident that you needed to make hay early as it was gonna get harder. I shot the first 3 stands with only 1 away so a bit of a dream start for me.
We made our way back toward the clubhouse, stopping off in the "grouse" section where we were presented with a r-l mini followed by a teal. Nice to see a bumble bee as you dont tend to see many.
After a quick comfort break passing the clubhouse (due to the excellent water dispensers on most stands) we made our way into the main practice stand area. A nice long rabbit shot off a platform and a cracking long curling r-l were the highlights here for me.
Then on to 2 stands from the infamous high towers, a report r-l pair of high crossers and saving the best for last a report pair of long r-l crossers one about 45yrds out and one about 55 odd. Really needed some good gaps
Finished on 72 which I thought was 5 or 6 light but was winning when I got back to the clubhouse.
All in all a good shoot but a bit of a round of 2 halves, started off very easy and got harder from there. Not really a problem when its squadded but it kind of made me feel like "is this all they've got" at the beginning but it sure got better.
On to Northampton next.
Booked on, had my lunch burger and met up with the squad, started on a report r-l pair off a small tower made a bit of a hash of this dropping 2 after mincing the first pair out. This was a bit of a recurring theme for me here, I think the heat really started to get to me and the concentration levels were flagging.
Some really good stands at Northampton, mixing long stuff that needed a steady gun and close quick stuff. Only real gripe was the r-l simo pair 1 fast midi and 1 slower standard, the midi was too flying pencil like for me, would have liked to have seen a bit more face earlier (it did turn over at the end) There was nothing silly here but a lot of tricky angles and reading lines was really important. I shot under so many birds that looked like they were reasonably flat but were still rising.
Finished up with a 65 which was about 7th I think with 78 leading C, which was some tremendous shooting IMO
Overall I enjoyed the targets at Northampton more by a hair even though my score was lower, should have probably had 7 or 8 more.
However I won C at Sporting Targets with my 72
so all I can say is its far to close to call my favourite shoot of the day and being out from 8am to 6pm I'm absolutely shattered but boy what a great fun days shooting!
