I meant to write and post this last week, but completely ran out of time - but I thought a few of you might like to hear about the Euro Cash event at Sologne Shooting Club. (http://www.sologne-shooting-club.com/default.asp)
The ground is in the Northern part of the Loire valley, about 90 minutes south of Paris…five of us (including GavB, MaddMatt) rallied up in two cars and found ourselves having coffee at the Shuttle Terminal in Folkestone at about 10.30. Quick trip under the tunnel, and a lazy lunch near Abbeville, we finally reached the ground about 5.30pm local time, to register for the shoot and collect our back numbers. For those that know, the ground is about 15/20 mins drive from Le Rabot.
We booked into a Novotel south of Orleans and about 25 mins from the ground - and wandered back to the hotel for dinner and beers after the drive.
Shooting was really well organised - with our group spread across multiple squads, but we were all on the same rotation so reached the ground for a 9.30 ish start on day one.
The eight parcours were spread across a massive piece of land, with every kind of terrain and topology to shoot over. From neatly prepared paddocks reminiscent of EJC to forested areas with water features like Hodnet - we had everything to shoot over. I started out on the now infamous Platforme layout where the first peg was shot from the third storey of a four storey tower with all the targets below you - apart from one climbing crosser which stalled at about eye level. The shoot format was completely new system, so each parcours had three pegs - with either 4 or 5 singles and 1 or 2 doubles - a key feature was the introduction of a new bird for some of the doubles. Other rules were as FITASC - gun down with 28g limit on loads.
(I have attached some pictures below for those that like a visual take on what we saw)
Fifty targets in the morning, and fifty in the afternoon - wrapped around a decent break - about an hour both days, so we could take advantage of some great catering - steak frites, burgers, chicken kebabs all served up with a massive marquee next to the club house for seating.
It rained almost for the entirety of the two days, and the ground was pretty marshy - so very wet underfoot, keeping kit and shooters dry was tricky - but luckily we all seemed to show up with enough changes of kit to stop getting too miserable!
Saturday evening was back at the hotel - few drinks in the bar and a decent dinner prepped us up well for day two.
Sunday was the same format - 50 in the morning, 50 in the afternoon and the news was that George Digweed was going very well - I was squadded a couple behind him and watched him shoot a really tricky Peg on Laporte 1, where he looked relaxed and in control - turned out he finished 10 ahead for a big win.
We finished up about 4.45 and left the ground about 5ish for the trek back to Calais for the 10.30 shuttle back - very quick trip by diverting around Paris and sticking to the costal motorway, I haven't heard of any speeding tickets arriving home yet!
Overall - this was an amazing event - every kind of target, but nothing easy at all. I shot horrifically, forgetting how to mount my gun for 5 layouts - but found a little form for an 18 on one layout on day two - definitely a score to forget overall. Targets were pretty tough across the board, which makes the 186 from GD a very decent score.
The organisation and hospitality was excellent throughout and the ground is breathtaking, I have never seen a ground with as much scope as this. Nearly every area that we shot in had a permanent layout in place, quite often the hoop we were in was 10 meters behind permanent stands that had 4 or 5 traps around them, all labelled up for use. According to the literature for the ground, they have 22 parcours permanently setup - with 65 shooting positions and 130 machines in play - there is a lot of scope for shooting here and I will be very surprised if we don't see a major event here very soon.
The work put in by the team at Sologne was excellent, and I would definitely put this on my list for a visit again.
The ground is in the Northern part of the Loire valley, about 90 minutes south of Paris…five of us (including GavB, MaddMatt) rallied up in two cars and found ourselves having coffee at the Shuttle Terminal in Folkestone at about 10.30. Quick trip under the tunnel, and a lazy lunch near Abbeville, we finally reached the ground about 5.30pm local time, to register for the shoot and collect our back numbers. For those that know, the ground is about 15/20 mins drive from Le Rabot.
We booked into a Novotel south of Orleans and about 25 mins from the ground - and wandered back to the hotel for dinner and beers after the drive.
Shooting was really well organised - with our group spread across multiple squads, but we were all on the same rotation so reached the ground for a 9.30 ish start on day one.
The eight parcours were spread across a massive piece of land, with every kind of terrain and topology to shoot over. From neatly prepared paddocks reminiscent of EJC to forested areas with water features like Hodnet - we had everything to shoot over. I started out on the now infamous Platforme layout where the first peg was shot from the third storey of a four storey tower with all the targets below you - apart from one climbing crosser which stalled at about eye level. The shoot format was completely new system, so each parcours had three pegs - with either 4 or 5 singles and 1 or 2 doubles - a key feature was the introduction of a new bird for some of the doubles. Other rules were as FITASC - gun down with 28g limit on loads.
(I have attached some pictures below for those that like a visual take on what we saw)
Fifty targets in the morning, and fifty in the afternoon - wrapped around a decent break - about an hour both days, so we could take advantage of some great catering - steak frites, burgers, chicken kebabs all served up with a massive marquee next to the club house for seating.
It rained almost for the entirety of the two days, and the ground was pretty marshy - so very wet underfoot, keeping kit and shooters dry was tricky - but luckily we all seemed to show up with enough changes of kit to stop getting too miserable!
Saturday evening was back at the hotel - few drinks in the bar and a decent dinner prepped us up well for day two.
Sunday was the same format - 50 in the morning, 50 in the afternoon and the news was that George Digweed was going very well - I was squadded a couple behind him and watched him shoot a really tricky Peg on Laporte 1, where he looked relaxed and in control - turned out he finished 10 ahead for a big win.
We finished up about 4.45 and left the ground about 5ish for the trek back to Calais for the 10.30 shuttle back - very quick trip by diverting around Paris and sticking to the costal motorway, I haven't heard of any speeding tickets arriving home yet!
Overall - this was an amazing event - every kind of target, but nothing easy at all. I shot horrifically, forgetting how to mount my gun for 5 layouts - but found a little form for an 18 on one layout on day two - definitely a score to forget overall. Targets were pretty tough across the board, which makes the 186 from GD a very decent score.
The organisation and hospitality was excellent throughout and the ground is breathtaking, I have never seen a ground with as much scope as this. Nearly every area that we shot in had a permanent layout in place, quite often the hoop we were in was 10 meters behind permanent stands that had 4 or 5 traps around them, all labelled up for use. According to the literature for the ground, they have 22 parcours permanently setup - with 65 shooting positions and 130 machines in play - there is a lot of scope for shooting here and I will be very surprised if we don't see a major event here very soon.
The work put in by the team at Sologne was excellent, and I would definitely put this on my list for a visit again.
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