http://www.iancoleysporting.co.uk/ Went down to Ian Coley SS this morning, he has now moved his shop from Cheltenham to the ground so you can "try before you buy." A very well stocked shop it is too with row upon row of guns, plenty of clothing and a reasonable selection of cartridges from Hull, Eley and Express. Cartridge prices are quite reasonable and his price list shows a direct comparison with Just Cartridges. He is between £5 and £10 per thou cheaper/wp-content/forum-smileys/sf-laugh.gif A beautiful sunny day greeted us, and we found the ground to be reasonably busy but still quiet enough to be able to stroll round and shoot what you wanted without any waiting, more of the shooting/targets later. First stop was the cafe, they do hot food on a Saturday only and this was various combos of a breakfast variety in rolls. I had a sausage roll which was a jumbo sausage in a nice soft roll for £2.70, pretty good value. they also do cold rolls, cheese, tomato, ham etc. Choccy bars, crisps and cold drinks, tea and coffee are available with an honesty box system. Some very comfy sofas and plenty of shooting mags make it a nice relaxing place. Went and bought some shells, then signed in for a card for the Promatic clay counting setup. A quick note regarding signing in, you MUST remember your shotgun cert. as every shooter has to show it and write the number on the sheet. Their section 11 only covers non cert holders accompanied by one of their instructors. The Promatic counter is much the same as Claymate except instead of the little orange box to count, you are given a smart card. If you are on your own you can set up a delay on the release of the bird and choose either a single A or B, sim pair or report pair with either bird first. The report is not really a report as it just counts down 3 or 4 secs between releases, this means either a wait for the second bird or its released before you shoot the first one. beter than nowt if you are on your own though. I had Mrs Fuz shooting with me so no worries there. On to the targets. As I was trying out my new gun and tweaking the adjustable comb we found a nice straight away DTL type bird to start on so I could get it set up how I like it (bit of rib, bird balanced on top of the bead) this stand was paired with a nice gentle incomer so after a bit of tinkering I threw the allen key in the bag, never to be seen again else I start blaming it for my misses/wp-content/forum-smileys/sf-laugh.gif we moved down the stands alongside the carpark most being nice easy little floaters apart from a looper that had a delay between bang and break. I love those, it really shows they are out there and I shot 4ex5 on that/wp-content/forum-smileys/sf-laugh.gif. This is the part of the ground they use for have a go and newbie lessons, of which there were quite a few groups of today. It was great to see a few groups of ladies and juniors whooping and clapping when their mates smoked one/wp-content/forum-smileys/sf-laugh.gif this is the future folks! We then went down into the woods where the targets get a bit stiffer. There is not much of any range but some interesting angles and some take a lot more thought than they appear to. Enough loopers, midis and chondels to be interesting but not over the top. The most fun stands for me were the ones that used the 120ft tower. Driven standard followed by driven midi about 150+ft up, whats not to like? next stand down was a r-l crosser thrown off the tower which was way out there, 2 five bar gates and a little extra push for luck out there! minced 7 out of 10 of those so was well chuffed/wp-content/forum-smileys/sf-cool.gif They also have an acoustic release 25 bunny sport-trap, which we will have to have a crack at next time. DTL and double trap are also available but I believe this is only on special evenings, Thursday probably as they are open late then. First time I have been down there for nearly 2 years and the investment they have made has really paid off, lovely woodchipped pathways through the woods, a mesh covered walkway surrounding the 2 driven stands to deflect the bigger clay bits and only 1 no-bird in 150. Really cant grumble at that! I did ask if they had any plans to do Reg sporting there and the lovely young lady on the desk said they would have to close for the saturday and they make more from lessons/have a go's than they would Reg. Fair play to them I say, there's enough quality Reg shoots around Gloustershire/ Oxfordshire, Keep bringing those cheering ladies and juniors through the door! FuzratPs Matt, might be worth an interview with Ian for the main site, he did coach Richard to DT gold after all /wp-content/forum-smileys/sf-laugh.gif
Ian Coley Shooting School.
- Thread starter Fuzrat
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Doh! knew I would miss something/wp-content/forum-smileys/sf-yell.gif Plaswad are fine only restriction is max 28g number 6 shot due to noise issues. Not a problem for clay shooters but I think they have had some game shooters wanting to shoot what they do on game and rocking up with 34g 5s /wp-content/forum-smileys/sf-surprised.gif Oh and its 30p per clay. Just have a wander round shoot what you want and then they scan your Promatic card and it tells them how many you've had, they ask how many no-birds and deduct them. Not that you should get that many. Top tip, only take as many shells round with you as you want to shoot. We took 75 each round as that was what we had budgeted for but from past experience you will shoot a slab if you take it round /wp-content/forum-smileys/sf-yell.gif/wp-content/forum-smileys/sf-yell.gif at least if you have to go back to the car for more it makes you think twice and gives some moderation /wp-content/forum-smileys/sf-laugh.gif/wp-content/forum-smileys/sf-laugh.gif Fuzrat
optima
Well-known member
i,ve never been asked to produce my shotgun licence at Ian cooleys,they,ve always just asked if i had one, must have changed their policy,bit of a bugger if you've drove for an hour and a half and forgotton it.
psych4shooting
Well-known member
A bit late on the topic, but I am hoping to see Matt R at the ground in the coming months to do an interview with my Dad. Also we are always adding more to the ground and looking at extra stands and whatever we can do to make the ground even better. All the stands have the Promatic system in place. We want to encourage all shooters to the ground and we are certainly proud of what we do to encourage new clay shots too, ladies and young shots. As Fuzrat says there are plenty of good registered grounds for competitions, but you can certainly find your pick of practice stands with us.
AndyH
Active member
I had a lesson with Shaun last Saturday and as a newcomer to the sport, it was a great experience. He was very helpful and clear with instructions and I learnt a lot in a very short space of time. Let's say that I went and bought a course of lessons the same day based on that one session alone.
