Wednesday 30 April 2008

Bitten by the bug!

All my spare moments seem to be filled with how I can clay shoot better. I feel like I am on the edge of a breakthrough at the moment, just needing to put it all together in order to make a big leap forward. After last weekend when I almost got 23/25 on the skeet ..... but for choking on the last bird it seems! So I can't help but think that more practice will push me forwards faster.

With that in mind I will be at Sporting Targets this evening for 100 birds practice.......

Sunday 27 April 2008

Sunday Practice at Sporting targets

I decided to spend the day practicing the main targets on my shit list. Heading up the range to the quarry to Shoot the climbing quartering arking bird that I have struggled with. Unfortunately it has been changed slightly this week and is now less arking, crosses more to the right and drops within my shooting zone. This made the target easier as I could kill it by just shooting below it, although Randy hit the first three he took on as report pairs and then missed 6 or 8 after that... which we both found very strange. He gave up and walked away from it, but I took on the competition pair of the right left along the top of the bank followed by the quartering bird..... I managed ok killing most of them.

I was disappointed that the bogey bird had been reset, but such is life. I will get more practice on similar birds in due course. On the upside I can't fixate on practicing a bird that no longer exists!

We moved on to skeet and with my first round of 16 against Randys 22 I wasn't optimistic, but relaxed and we shot a second round. I dropped the low in the pair on stand 1 and the repeat too which pissed me off. After that I concentrated as best as I could and straighted stand 2, 3, 4, 5, and 6 which has been my bogey stand in the past. Moving onto the last stand, I missed the very last bird, the high from the pair....... a great shame as a 23 would have been fantastic. Still, a 22 is a new personal best and 2 better than before.

We moved onto the embankment to practice the low fast quartering birds. Making our own stand to get the angles right I ended up killing them as a simo pair which almost blew my mind as they are very quick and there is half the time I would have liked!

Randy practiced the pair as singles and then together, which he did ok considering that he doesn't shoot much sporting and these are some of the toughest in my opinion.

I had two cartridges left so took on the simo pair again..... and killed them which was great. I think that I have taken a step forward and think that it might be related to Seans Wednesday assistance. I have spent the day ignoring the gun barrel and looking to the target. I have also felt that I have been less analytical than before.

Time will tell

Friday 25 April 2008

The learning process continues

I have spent all week trying to work out in my mind how to hit the bogey targets that I always miss.

I shot Sporting Targets Clay Pigeon Shoot last Sunday and thought I was on for a new personal best until the wheels fell off!

It is always the same birds that I miss, so drop a whole stand when I do. It is the quartering bird that rises and curls as well as fast low quartering birds.

On Wednesday evening I took 100 cartridges and headed for the last stand n the previous competition in order to sort the problem out. I had Sean from Targets along as he offered his help, so I was optimistic of success.

I finished the evening as frustrated as I was at the outset, I only hit the target 3 or four times out of 20+ shots, and when I hit it is was because Sean told me to aim behind it and to the right (5 o'clock ish) My brain can't work out why this target needs to be shot somewhere that it doesn't even travel to..... but having shot it I can only say that it does. I would naturally be in front of the target, at about 2 o'clock and giving the bird a foot or two of lead, shooting well before the bird reached its peak. That is how I read the target, based on how I read other targets that I can hit. It seems totally wrong though as I didn't hit a single one using my own talent!

Being told where to hit it is one thing, but I want to know why it needs to be shot there as it makes no sense to me at all. I keep getting told that it will fall into place, but no one seems capable of explaining why this bird needs something totally different to any other bird.

I am stumped and intend to throw hundreds of cartridges at the problem on Sunday morning in order to sort it out in my head.

I feel like everyone is hiding some important fact from me........ otherwise they would explain it to me... surely??

Thursday 10 April 2008

Wednesday evening Practice (Sporting Targets)

Now that winter is out of the way...(almost) and spring is moving in, late night opening offers the chance to get out midweek and practice everything that I thing I have learned recently.

I started with some practice shooting in the 122 bay at Targets. Last time I was in here it was wet and windy and I had all sorts of issues so it was nice to be back on a calm dry evening. I practiced shooting the teal on the way up rather than on the drop as I would naturally prefer to do.

I also practiced the various crossers, trying to shoot them as early as possible. This was helped by the sun being low in the sky, as I tried to shoot each target before it raeched the sun.

I then headed up to the skeet range.

I shot two rounds with a couple of chaps who didn't mind me joining them. The first round I shot a 17 which is ok, then on the second round I concentrated on Steve Leonards advice for each stand which is to shoot at the first, give the second a foot, the third two feet same for the forth and fifth. Give the sixth one foot and aim at the seventh. It worked really well. I arrived at the sixth stand having only dropped one shot. However it was at this point that the wheels fell off! I don't quite know how, but I missed three out of four on the sixth stand... and although I would like to blame the sun which was in a bad place for the stand, one of the chaps I was with managed ok so I should be able to as well. I ended the round with a 20 which is a PB. I think it was more a case of not cutting back my lead for the sixth. I was so pleased with progress up until that point that I didn't prep myself correctly which led to the errors. What is worse is that I didn't fix it for the secont and third clays.

I headed down to the basin and again practiced on the c and d bird trying to shoot them as they left the trap and well before they reached the sun which was before their apex.
I was hitting over 50% really early and picking up 50% of the remainder on the drop so it was ok for me as I historically struggle with these birds.

I am looking forward to another competition at the weekend.

Sunday 6 April 2008

100 registered somewhere in a wood near Oxford

Even though I am not totally sure where I went (near Bicester I think) I had a great experience shooting in the trees of a wood. I surpassed my expectations with a 64 whichwas the best I have ever shot (by quite a margin). There were a few stands that I struggled with , one in the trees that I failed to pick up until after the spot where Johnny T had shot it! No wonder then that I missed it alot! I had a few issues with some rising 1/4 ing birds, but also got 10/10 on one stand and a 7/8 on another. Over all I was very pleased with progress and am looking forward to a competition every weekend this month. I had hoped to score a 65 by the end of the month, now, I might push it and aim for a 70.... which would be unbelievable if I could do it.

Saturday 5 April 2008

Shooting practice

Is the spring ever going to arrive? I need some decent weather in order to get some quality shooting practice in.
The past few weeks has been really difficult as with lots of wind and rain, it is hard to learn anything.

Hopefully I will be going to a 100 registered competition in the morning, I am looking forward to getting some practice at some new grounds