First shoot of 2012 and the second savage set up I've encountered here in recent weeks. /wp-content/forum-smileys/sf-frown.gif I described the last one as massively overcooked and this was little different unfortunately. I met Fuzrat, his partner and Jonskeet for a ShootClay get together and apart from the excellent company the day proved less than ideal. Unfortunately as with Horne this shoot appears to be falling into the same old trap/wp-content/forum-smileys/sf-laugh.gif, of treading a well worn path of chucking samey birds often off the same stand and their idea of making things testing is distance and edge on presentations. /wp-content/forum-smileys/sf-embarassed.gif We had already had a going away pair close together from the front in a previous shoot but that didn't stop them from doing the same again/wp-content/forum-smileys/sf-yell.gif, personally I do not think such pairs belong on a registered shoot, I mean they weren't even good when Kajagoogoo was in the charts /wp-content/forum-smileys/sf-confused.gif/wp-content/forum-smileys/sf-smile.gif. Then we had this utterly silly report single teal starting at 50 yards with a break point at approx 80 and you guessed it, nobody could hit it. It wasn't testing, clever or exciting, just a waste of shells. Our squad had two blanks, a single hit and I managed 3x8/wp-content/forum-smileys/sf-yell.gif. I spoke to Kevin Howland at this shoot and he told me he had shot a 3x8 on his reg round and a 1x8 on his re-entry. /wp-content/forum-smileys/sf-surprised.gif Stand 1 by the valley was another silly set up, a pair (recurring theme of the day by the way) starting 80 yards in front right and curling in towards the stand, the only trouble being that one was being shot at 65 yards, the other at a mere 40 whilst almost touching the ground, again not clever at all but merely using distance and edge on targets to nick birds off you by force. Jon and Fuzrat managed a single bird each and I broke 5x8 out of anger more than anything. If you have shooters blanking stand after stand then I'm afraid it looks like you've lost the plot. The trouble I think is that they have a lot of space on the long lane towards the end and they can't stop themselves from using it all! They had the same curling pair of high crossers on another stand that they seem to always have/wp-content/forum-smileys/sf-confused.gif. It's almost as if they are reluctant to bring the traps closer in as that would mean stopping things in order to fill them, whereas they can be filled beyond the trees where they are presently??!! Don't misunderstand me, many of the stands were very very good, testing but fair, such as the 45 yard rabbit/looper but it's the use of distance and edge ons that spoils it. One man had admittedly shot a mental 92 but then again somebody always shoots out of their skin out of a big car park full. C. Childerhouse and another AAA were joint 2nd on 86 as we left, I shot rather well for a 79 but will have to shoot one more time here to decide wether it's worth a 3 hour return drive in future.
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I may go back in the spring when the ground is dry so it's not so slippy underfoot, the burger van having disappeared by the time we got back was also slightly annoying as I had promised myself a sandwich for a 40, basic burger for 45 and anything on the menu for 50+ Just happy to achieve my first 2012 target of hitting 50 reg birds, bar now raised to 55 but as Fuzrat said with a 0 and a 1 on my card I feel it's a good result. Well shot everyone 
