Too many cooks.......

As I discover to my cost...... asking too many questions, listening to too many different opinions..... trying too hard will only result in a backwards step. I am very fortunate to have a rich vein of shooting knowledge to tap into. These include Andy Clifton the owner of Sporting Targets clay pigeon shooting ground and no mean shot himself, Fletch my Instructor, Sally Monday a fully certified instructor friend of mine and Steve Leonard who is about as good at shooting as you could hope to be. Between them my learning curve has been rapid, but as I said too many cooks....... even if they are individually brilliant....... will soon set you on the way to dispair!

My learning curve has been steep, but of the hundreds of new bytes of data I am currently filing away the biggest one is that you should stick to one method of learning to shoot and with one instructor.

Over the Christmas break I had the least successful days shooting I have so far experienced and two days later the best...... and it seems only because I was trying too hard to learn too fast.

My next goal is to practice shooting pairs as that is currently an area that I fall down at.

I shot three hundred cartridges on the day it all went well, starting with Fletch, a lesson and 100 skeet, which I hadn't previously done before. It is a very good discipline for beginners like me as you get to see a wide variety of birds.

After the skeet, the lesson continued on the high tower...... which isn't my favourite yet, but I am determined that I will end up loving it just as soon as I can shoot it properly.
We did another 50 there, which finished my lesson nicely and quite successfully. At that point Andy Clifton ambled past and suggested I join him. I did and had another 125 doing sporting compacs........ I think........... which under his guidance and having been dialed in to hitting things went extremely well.

My new years resolution is to shoot at least 100 cartridges per week and to aim to get into "B" class by the end of the year........ which might be interesting as I have yet to shoot a competition and the very act of having two birds in the air either on report or at the same time guarantees the survival of at least one of them.

My second resolution is to rename "The bay of bastards" as "The bay of easiness" .....but that is just for my own psychological wellbeing as I don't want it to become a negative trigger in my mind!