Sporting targets 100 Birder 17th July 2011

It turns out it isn't easy to shoot with a sore knee. Had a bit of a nightmare, only getting 67/100. Very difficult to move freely when every other word you say is Ouch!

Summer time at last

Now that spring is finally here, or the clocks have moved at any rate, it is the time to be thinking about getting out and doing more clay pigeon shooting. It seems to have been a long winter and just feeling the sun on your back is enough to put a spring in your step.

Master class day at sporting targets

I am al prepared for a full day's Master Class at Sporting Targets with Carl Bloxham, Micky Rouse and Stuart Clark. It is going to be a big day for learning new things!

Back shooting with avengance

Spring is in the air and although I have spent the winter shooting I have not been blogging about it as it has been cold, wet and mostly uneventful.

I have however been steadily progressing and in the last five competitions I have scored 66, 70,70, 73 and 73. These have been around the country, not just at sporting targets so I feel like I am definately improving.

A few weeks ago I had a lesson with Ed Solomons and I think I learnt lots from it. He had me attacking the clay a lot more and refined everything from my pick up point and where I start my gun through to how I actually perceive each target. The same afternoon I shot the winter series at Sporting Targets and did well, followed by two 100 birders on Sunday and three rounds of something quite tricky at the Royal Berkshire shooting ground, that included a 20 target flurrey which was a new experience for me!

In all I shot a 61, 65 and 66 during my three attempts which I was not too displeased with. It was a handicap competition and I was given a 20 handicap so my best score was 86, not far off the 93 needed to qualify for the finals!!

Westfield 100 bird registered competition

By Next month I will have to admit to having been a shooter for 12 months. This said I do believe that I should be able to shoot a 70/100 by now, which is what I set out to do at Westfield on Sunday.

It is never an easy shoot by all accounts but I felt it went ok. I didn't have any complete disaster stands and by the end thought I would be close to my target. As it is I shot a 64 which as we left the grount put me third in C class. Quite respectable for the first time at the ground, so I shouldn't be so hard on myself. I am still trying to find out the final results. It is easy to be spoilt at Sporting Targets, especially as they now have their Clay Pigeon Shooting live competition scoreboard on their website. You can even see the updated results on a mobile phone! This is technology being used for a practical purpose.

Sporting Targets 100 Bird Registered Competition August

I was certain that I could pull out a personal best and, inspired by the olympics shoot a 70+ for the first time. How wrong can you be?? The Sporting targets clay pigeon shoot was harder than anything I have shot recently. Having said that, I excelled myself on a couple of stands that I was not expecting to do well on, and I did feel I had improved a lot over where I was a few months ago.

I ended up with a 52.... my worst score for ages, and almost my lowest ever! I only really had one nightmare stand, which was a simo pair driven off the tower. The stand was set behind a tree so you only had limited time to aquire both targets...... not enough time as it transpires! I hit 1/8 which at least negated blanking the stand. I seemed to just drop one or two more than I should on each stand which was frustrating.

I will get my 70 on the next one.

Sporting Targets 100 Bird Registered Competition August

I was certain that I could pull out a personal best and, inspired by the olympics shoot a 70+ for the first time.

How wrong can you be?? The Sporting targets clay pigeon shoot was harder than anything I have shot recently. Having said that, I excelled myself on a couple of stands that I was not expecting to do well on, and I did feel I had improved a lot over where I was a few months ago.

I ended up with a 52.... my worst score for ages, and almost my lowest ever! I only really had one nightmare stand, which was a simo pair driven off the tower. The stand was set behind a tree so you only had limited time to aquire both targets...... not enough time as it transpires! I hit 1/8 which at least negated blanking the stand. I seemed to just drop one or two more than I should on each stand which was frustrating.

I will get my 70 on the next one.

Good Weather for Ducks!

It's the middle of August and the weather is shocking. If like me you prefer to shoot without having rain running down your back or covering your glasses blurring your vision, then you will be as depressed as I am with the summer so far. It used to be that you could guarantee the weather in August, but it seems that that is the case no more.

Lets keep our fingers crossed for an Indian Summer,..... or maybe just a summer of some description!

Sporting Targets Members Fitasc Competition

I thought I would have a go at a Fitasc competition as I usually shoot gun up to guarantee my gun mount is good. In Fitasc you have to shoot gun down and can only mount the gun when you see the clay, not when you hear the trap release.

I was expecting to do badly, but ended up with 28/50 which for a first attempt is not too bad. I thought some of the targets were a long way away and several were tricky to say the least.

I am planning to have a few more goes at the competition in order to score my goal of 35/50.

Sporting Targets Newsletter 2-August-2008

Sporting Targets have an archive of published newsletters now available

Kibworth 100 bird competition 3rd August 2008

A fine day saw a good attendance at Kibworth for a challenging shoot. I was quite pleased with my 65 considering that several great shots were overheard saying what a tricky shoot it was.

I had been hoping for a 70 as I think it is about time I got one, but it was not to be. Two stands let me down and they were both 8's rather than 6's so the punishment to my score was worse.

I am going to shoot the members fitasc at Sporting targets during the week and then The Grange 100 registered on Sunday.

The High Tower Challenge is over

So, for another year the High Tower Challenge is over. As it turns out, my repeated 23/50 wasn't quite enough to trouble the scorers! Clay Pigeon Shooting results are here for the competition.

I will aim for a 30 in next years competition.

Another attempt at the High Tower Challenge

I was convinced last time I shot the high tower challenge at Sporting Targets that I could do better than I had. The interesting thing about clay pigeon shooting is that it can it can deceive you and have you believe that anything is possible.
I had one last go at improving my score from 23 up into the high 20's. I was certain that I should be able to hit all of the close fast birds which would easily add 6 to my score.

Try as I might though it didn't happen like that. The first round I shot another 23 which I was pleased with, but then backed it up with a shocking 20 on my secnd round. It turns out that hitting those six targets isn't as easy as I had thought it would be...... oh well, there is always next year!

Sporting Targets Video 3

The third Sporting Targets video Gun Shop;

Second Clay Pigeon Shooting Video

Sporting Targets second clay pigeon shooting video is here;

Clay Pigeon Shooting

Sporting targets has just released a Corporate Entertainment new videos;

100 registered Competition at Sporting Targets

Sunday the 20th saw July's 100 bird registered Clay Shooting competition. It proved to be a tricky shoot with many challenging stands. It was dry, sunny but with a gusty breeze so it offered some clays that skipped and jumped just when you didn't want them to.

I managed to scrape a 60/100 which I was disappointed with. I dropped lots of what I consider to be easy targets. Whether that was due to concentration issues or me refining my gun mount which is still proving troublesome. On the up side at least the gun didn't kick the shit out of my cheek so things are improving once more. I did find that sometimes my gun mount costs me and I almost know before I shoot that I will miss as the mount feels wrong.

I will keep practicing to see if I can be more consistent.

How easy is it to forget the basics?

The answer to that one is simple........ remarkably so!! As I have improved my shooting and my scores have gone up, I have gained consistency. In doing so I have tried to pay attention to my set up procedure, feet, weight, gun mount head, eyes etc...... but while I have been making sure that my left eye was true to the rib of the gun, I have allowed the stock to gradually rise up my shoulder.
This has resulted in the stock kicking seven bells out of my cheek every time I shoot.

Last night I redesigned my gun mount so the stock is back where it should be in my shoulder..... and then shot really badly !!

I will get some practice in if possible before the shooting competition at Sporting Targets on Sunday

Sporting Targets High Tower Challenge Part Two

I must be a glutton for punishment, either that or I don't know when to walk away? The Summer High Tower challenge at Sporting Targets is one of the hardest clay pigeon shooting competitions there is. Last time I scored 22/50 twice but felt that with a little application that I could get 26 or 27.

It turns out I was wrong! This time I scored 22/50 backed up with a truly woeful 19/50. I would like to tell you that the second score was as a result of my trying something new in order to improve and it not working out, but in truth I just missed more!

It is a really taxing competition because it mixes targets at different ranges, you have a first bird at 65 yds with a 15yd high speed crosser on report. These second birds always seem to attract too much lead.... well.... in my case they do!

I am still convinced that I can get a high 20's score, probably just need 10 or 15 more goes at it!

Lack of practice makes imperfect

I missed two whole weeks of shooting so I was dubious as to how well I would get on. It turns out the answer is "terribly!" It was as if I had never shot before, stopping the gun, bad gun mount, bad stance and foot position etc...... it was all shocking. I ended up with 28/60 which although the shoot we were on is tricky, it is no where near that tricky!

I will be back this weekend at Sporting targets to get some proper clay pigeon shooting practice in so I can get back to where I should be.