Tuesday 26 February 2008

Feeling Rusty

Having been away for a couple of weeks I feel like I can't remember how to shoot. I am hoping that I won't have forgotten that quickly.

I was also hoping that my shoulder injuries, or maybe they are tricep injuries would have started to fix themselves but the opposite is true. They both still hurt in equal measure which is disappointing as it might mean less shooting in the short term until they have improved. I am going to go shooting at the weekend and see how it goes. It seems like ages since I last went.

Roll on Saturday......

Tuesday 12 February 2008

Sunday Competition

I am going away for ten days so I am going to miss the monthly competition at Targets. I am really going to miss my Clay Pigeon Shooting while I am away. I will be shooting a lot when I get back from Indonesia.

I am certain that my next competition score will be in the 60's..... that is my goal, and on the up side I suppose that at least my shoulder will get a chance to heal up a bit.

I shoot at Sporting Targets Corporate Entertainment and Clay Pigeon Shooting ground in Bedfordshire.

Sunday 10 February 2008

Practice on Saturday

All things considered I think practice went quite well. I was with Randall which I find works well as we are quite similar skill level at Clay Pigeon shooting so we push each other to do better.

We started with a round of skeet. I scored a 14 which isn't very good, but I was trying to shoot everything above the DTL trap house. I struggle to shoot early so it didn't come easy and I found that I was stopping my gun over the DTL which was causing me to miss. Some helpful comments from some of the more experienced skeet shooters who were waiting their turn would help me out when we returned for the second round. Incidently Randall scored 23..... his best ever skeet score...... very impressive.

We next tried the compac in the basin. I scored 13 and Randall scored 12.... I was glad to beat him, but our low scores reflected the difficulty of the targets. The F bird comong overhead from behind is now a mini.. 2 inch clay which is a bit of a swine, but very satisfying when you hit it!

We headed back to the skeet again and I tried my best to put into practice everything I had learnt in the first round. It seems to have had some effect as I scored a 19 which I was very happy with..... Randall on the other hand was disappointed with his 18 as he normally gets in the 20's...... I think that I can put him under pressure when I go first..... he doesn't seem to shoot as well as when he goes first........

I was very pleased with the skeet so we headed back to the compac in the 122. A bird was not available so we returned to the basin for another compac, both doing slightly better with a 15 for Randall and a 16 for me. The basin is currently quite a challenge using the top board....... we have yet to be brave enough to try the bottom board which has some very tricky targets on it.

All in all a good practice and I feel that I am improving at skeet at a reasonable rate. In addition my shoulders don't seem to be suffering as much as they did last week so with a couple of weeks off they might recover completely.

I shoot at Sporting Targets Corporate Entertainment and Clay Pigeon Shooting ground in Bedfordshire.

Saturday 9 February 2008

Saturday Morning

I have decided to shoot 100 today, 50 skeet and 50 sporting compac. This will give me some practice before I go away.

I am going to try to shoot everything on the skeet above the DTL trap house rather than wait for it.

I shoot at Sporting Targets Corporate Entertainment and Clay Pigeon Shooting ground in Bedfordshire.

Friday 8 February 2008

Practice on Saturday

The big question I am asking myself is whether I should practice on Saturday bearing in mind that I will then miss the next weekend and possibly the one after that?

I will see how my shoulders feel in the morning and take it from there I think.

I shoot at Sporting Targets Corporate Entertainment and Clay Pigeon Shooting ground in Bedfordshire.

Thursday 7 February 2008

Unidentified shooting injury

I have now developed what I can only describe as a USI or Unidentified Shooting Injury! It began as a little niggle in my right shoulder and is now severe pain in both shoulders. I am a little concerned that it is getting worse not better, and it seems to be focused in my triceps so I am working on the theory that it will get better in time once my arms get used to shooting. It must just be that I am using different muscles and they are not used to the forces etc.

The question is do I rest them as much as possible of weight train as much as possible??

The last thing I want to do is cut back on my shooting unless it as absolutely necessary.

I shoot at Sporting Targets Corporate Entertainment and Clay Pigeon Shooting ground in Bedfordshire.

Monday 4 February 2008

Saturdays practice continued.......

The compac in the basin at Sporting targets was a different proposition to the last time I shot it. It was different as it so often is and was much more challenging than I found it before. I shot a 13 and Randall shot a 12 which gives you some idea of how tough we found it.

It was however great practice and I felt I was learning lots trying to work out some targets that I was less used to.

I finished off with another round of skeet shooting. This went slightly better than the earlier go and I scored 17 which is acceptable I think. I let myself down by hanging on the targets too long which I am addressing. The targets that I took on early were a moderate success, and the practice of pairs is very good for me as it is speeding me up.

Overall I think I achieved lots as I have sorted my gun mount issues and am more aware of the need to shoot earlier where possible.

I shoot at Sporting Targets Corporate Entertainment and Clay Pigeon Shooting ground in Bedfordshire.

Beretta Trick Shooting Video



I shoot at Sporting Targets Corporate Entertainment and Clay Pigeon Shooting ground in Bedfordshire.

Sunday 3 February 2008

Saturday Practice

It all went ok yesterday. I structured my shooting practice so that I shot 25 skeet first which was ok as I scored 16/25. While this isn't a brilliant score it was only the second time I have shot skeet properly so I was happy enough. We then went into the 122 and shot a round of compac. Considering that only a few months ago I had a dislike for the 122 in its entirity I shot 17 which while being 4 off my best is still ok I think.

I spent the day trying to concentrate on a couple of areas of my shooting. Firstly I paid attention to my gun mount as I have recently shown a tendency to shoot "over" targets. By making sure that I am mounting the gun correctly I should cure that problem and then be looking down the rib of the gun rather than down onto the rib as I think may have happened at times in the past.

The other area that I tried to improve was the speed of my shooting. I have a tendency to hang on a clay until it is dropping and shoot it late. I am determined to get in the habit of shooting clays earlier so that they are still under power. It is a skill that I need in my armoury and it is missing currently.

We then shot a second sporting compac in the Basin.

I shoot at Sporting Targets Corporate Entertainment and Clay Pigeon Shooting ground in Bedfordshire.

Saturday 2 February 2008

Its cold but I'm going anyway

It may be an ice cold February Saturday morning but my eagerness to practice has overcome my eagerness to stay in the warm!

I intent to concentrate on;
1/ My gun mount
2/ Quartering birds
3/ Speed of gun and shooting using instinct rather than conscious thought process's.

I shoot at Sporting Targets Corporate Entertainment and Clay Pigeon Shooting ground in Bedfordshire.