Practice,practice,practice

I spent Saturday afternoon at Sporting Targets clay pigeon shooting club. Having spent the pass few weeks shooting in windy conditions with different people.

I would at this time like to wish Fletch good luck for his forthcoming bypass operation and wish him a speedy recovery......... I will be somewhat lost until he returns.

I decided to go out on my own and try a variety of targets to see how I could fare on my own. I have to say the one thing that is difficult about going alone is that you can't have birds on report. Otherwise it is an opportunity to refresh yourself with just where you are in terms of progress.

I had a mixed bag, killing more than is normal for me in the "Bay of Pigs" even the long distance B bird that is far from easy.

My biggest disappointment of the day was at the high tower. On my last visit with Johnny T I had killed most of my tower birds and in a strong wind too.......... and yet today with no wind I missed all of the A birds off the tower apart from one, and most B & C birds. The only difference was that previously I had stood in front of the cage when being instructed and this time I was in the cage which is maybe more claustrophobic. It is something that I am going to have to work on in the future.

I did ok shooting into the sun on the platform though, and excelled myself just up from the grouse on a stand with two very tricky birds. The first goes away at waist height and hits a bank 40 ft away, the second is a left right crosser at waist height that hits a bank just to the right of the cage. I had previously missed both these birds when I had been out with Steve Leonard, but this time the going away bird I killed 4 out of 5 whereas last time I never caught up with it before it hit the bank.

The crosser I hit once out of 8 shots, but I was pleased that I worked out how to hit it, and that in spite of how close it is it needs more lead than I had given it before. I got a real sense of achievement from solving this clay and am looking forward to getting back to it next time.