Shoot reports and news 2024

Firm round at East of England (average was 68), very enjoyable even though it took a bit longer than normal to get round. Weather was fine, good selection of tricky targets, you had to work hard to put together a score that passed the average. A couple of very pleasing stands and not too shabby an overall score, should be more rounds like this.

Have just looked at entries, Coleys for Saturday all 31 squads full, 180+ for a first weekend in February, that's pretty impressive, far cry from the early days there when 30-40 of us was the norm. If any of you are also there I will be the tall skinny drawn out and looking totally bemused one.

Churchills yesterday for the Reg ESP. Perfect shooting weather, and they managed to avoid chucking any clays into the sun, although the last stand might have been an issue for later shooters. Enjoyed it, managed to straight the high drivens, which I was pleased with as I usually drop at least a couple when driven are thrown on the stand down near the scaffold. Was fairly happy after the first five stands, then the usual thoughts about being on for a score starting with an 8 crept in and I started counting. Fatal. Managed to randomly drop three pairs on subsequent stands just from being too careful, slowing up and missing off the back edge. Finished on 78 as a result.

Coleys today, was fully booked out, desk said 180+ which included a few non reg entries, for Saturday 1st week in February that's pretty impressive. Weather (we started at 12.30) was more than decent, crumbs Ive been there middle of summer with far worse so spoilt really. Was first up on St1 a tricky sim duck, 5 pairs too, there last two of previous squad shot them left - right, tried to do same and carded a 6/10, which given the scores I saw on board later was not disgraceful. St2 had a problematic r-l rabbit, thing regular broke or hit trees, am of the opinion that rabbits are not the best for reg, too variable and its ground gets shot to pieces in next to no time. Was doing reasonably well, yes the odd error but generally pleasing enough even on a few l-rights a norm bogey, St6 a what I found tricky pair of report crossers l-r then r-l down in valley I managed to completely mess up. St7 again first up a nasty incomer with l-r close crosser, now having caught up with squad in front many seemed to be struggling finding the incomer, I missed my first pair an remembering a tip from an old sage from a while back I closed my left eye and hit next three pairs, will admit it was a presentation Id though Id do well to hit 4 of so a win there for one eyed shooting. Wheels slightly back on until St11 which had an even more variable rabbit than St2, I missed all 4, and no two were the same, Martin Myers followed me and even he fell foul of this inconsistent rabbit target. Straighted that last stand (it was a card filler compared to St11) to put in a score of giddy heights that Ive not done for many many months so pleasing end.

A old chum, Joe Hale 97 for high gun with quite an impressive posse of stars left in his wake.
Coleys revert to Wednesday shoots from March, these Saturday reg shoots have though been most welcome.

.

I did Coleys and overall it was about right but the more I think about it, I’d have changed quite a lot if I was in charge there.

Stand 1 was awkward high speed sim trickiness which I think stand 1 should never be. The stupid rabbit on stand 2 was running through rough ground under trees so was just a no-bird joke. Move it 2 yards onto the grass FFS! There were then quite a few stands that were fine, but perhaps on the steady side. I think just a tad more challenge needed on some of them. Stand 11 rabbit was stupid. It was full spring at distance, thrown from about 4 foot above ground and didn’t touch the floor for 25 yards, instantly breaking or bouncing wildly. Too inconsistent for a competition IMO.

I would class it as nearly a good shoot, but the challenge needed spreading more evenly across all stands IMO. Clubhouse is pretty impressive though.

Coley's started with an annoyance for me as surprised myself (and the rest of the squad) by shooting 9ex10 on stand 1 - except the ref decided to score me an 8! Now I make a point of not arguing about these things but after 12 years of reffing I know when a clay is hit. I'm not a regular at Coley's but I've never seen that ref before so maybe just inexperienced.

Otherwise I didn't enjoy the shoot much as I had my usual hormone based concentration fails on about 4 of the faster stands which ruined my card. I'm used to that now after 2 years but I did do pretty well on the other 8.

I agree both the rabbits were poorly set. I hit 3 on stand 2 but only 1 of the crazy things on 11.

Hats off to old pal Joe Hale though. His super smooth shooting style was just perfect for that course.

Hi John, the ref on stand 1 has been there before, though like many of the other refs they DO NOT call out the hits and misses, and to be honest that does piss me off, if you know it’s been hit then you have a chance to argue while still in the stand, and as you know once you step out…….

The general procedure around us is for the Ref to be quite on pair hit and then call the misses - e.g. hit & miss, miss & hit and pair missed.

Freddypip said:

The general procedure around us is for the Ref to be quite on pair hit and then call the misses - e.g. hit & miss, miss & hit and pair missed.

Click to expand...

That's reasonable in sporting, not so much with Fitasc, but either way it needs the shoot organisers to make sure all the refs follow the same protocol.

Westfield today,
1 x 100 straight
50 scores in the 90s
Not like Steve Lovatt to go to the soft side!

Macc Ladd said:

Westfield today,
1 x 100 straight
50 scores in the 90s
Not like Steve Lovatt to go to the soft side!

Click to expand...

You shot a 100 straight Paul ?

Macc Ladd said:

Westfield today,
1 x 100 straight
50 scores in the 90s
Not like Steve Lovatt to go to the soft side!

Click to expand...

TBH I liked the course, not too hard, not too easy, just a few stands that seemed to have caught a few people out. A right mixture of targets, hardly any broken clays but for some reason stand 7 I think it was just seemed to be really slow. We started on 1, got to 7 and there was 27/28 people waiting to shoot so we moved on, shot the others then went back and there was still 23 other shooters waiting! It was a tad windy on that stand of 5 pairs and the last pair I could hardly hold my gun still and dropped the pair but ended up with a fairly decent score (for me anyway).

Nightmare journey home, left Westfields just after 3 and got home 6.15

Great to see Sian and Tony as always

wynno said:

You shot a 100 straight Paul ?

Click to expand...

Wrong Paul, MrPaul Cooper being the centurion, very nice fellow the chap is too.

donna said:

TBH I liked the course, not too hard, not too easy, just a few stands that seemed to have caught a few people out. A right mixture of targets, hardly any broken clays but for some reason stand 7 I think it was just seemed to be really slow. We started on 1, got to 7 and there was 27/28 people waiting to shoot so we moved on, shot the others then went back and there was still 23 other shooters waiting! It was a tad windy on that stand of 5 pairs and the last pair I could hardly hold my gun still and dropped the pair but ended up with a fairly decent score (for me anyway).

Nightmare journey home, left Westfields just after 3 and got home 6.15

Great to see Sian and Tony as always

Click to expand...

Always lovely to see you Donna. Long old day and thankful it didn’t rain. I enjoyed it too. Even got 3/4 low driven and you know how much I hate driven.

wynno said:

You shot a 100 straight Paul ?

Click to expand...

No mate Paul Cooper did

Got talked into doing SKD today at Bisley in the 40mph winds. Character building! Actually managed a 94 having missed a few early on then sussed a method to cope with the gusts. All without any units of lead employed either.

Managed a 44/50 in todays sporting round. Highest since I returned to shooting so quite happy.

Redricks today. A decent round of clays for sure. After stand 8 I was 3 away and wondered if perhaps going Comp had been a reasonable investment. After stands 9,10 and 11 I quickly realised it hadn’t been. Ho hum. That’s Sporting for you.

I shot the monthly Quattro Lodge 100 sporting yesterday. Very few long targets with probably 15 of 20 presentations being short to medium technical targets with a few being wind affected changing the target with every shot. 8 & 9/10s and straights for nearly every stand but fell over on a super sporting stand with a 4/10 and couldn't find a quartering away long crosser on stand 10. A very enjoyable shoot nonetheless. I finished on 81/100 with high gun being 91/100. I made the top 10 scoreboard at least..