Shoot reports and news 2025

OK, I'll kick it off then. Happy New Year all.

Northampton Shooting ground for me on Sun 5th. Cold, raining, snowing and foggy. At least the wind kept down. Fortunately they'd tweaked the course to make some allowances for the weather. Possibly a bit too much. Although I thought it was a very good shoot, a couple of stands were a bit too soft IMO ( especially stand 1). Guaranteed I'll get my pants pulled down on the next one when they dial it up to compensate.

Anyway came out of the gate really well, straighted the first 3 stands. Lazy hold point of the first bird on 4 caused my first miss. Followed by one of the teals on 5. Went over the top of it. Teals are my kryptonite , so wasn't overly disappointed dropping the 1. Dropped the first big battue on 7, right forward lead, not enough drop. Straighted 8, 9 & 10. Lazy single miss on 11. Stand 12 straight through.

Went into the last stand 4 away. Pair dead, pair dead, pair dead. Then that little voice in my head "hit this last pair and you've got an cracking score". Went from trying to hit them, to trying not to miss. You can guess the rest. Missed the first by trying not to miss it, then too busy calling myself random expletives and dropped the 2nd.

Finished on a 94. Which although is a registered PB for me, the last pair on the last stand is going to be a sore point for a while.

Coleys, 8th Jan, think the cold put a few off that said have been (as have many others) when the place has been colder. thankfully no breeze but a low almost dusk sort of light so sadly no glaring sun to blame for a bit of a struggle on my part. Overall it was a pleasant enough course, a simple looking pair of close orange going aways St1 caught a few out, St2 had a fairly rapid low r-l that was more of a handful. St5 had a simo pair of crows, similar to those which have caused grief for me in the past, not so today, my downfall was St6 a fairish r-l looper followed by a slightly closer l-r looper, I had not a clue, a very rare blank, ref Jim tried to perk me up by mentioning that he had a few 0s. Another wobble on St10 which was a fairly straightforward looking r-l crosser followed by a closer slower l-r, redeemed myself slightly at the closing two stands so that I carded my age, no not overly disappointed as I shot some very well, there were some that really could have done better with and yes a few that I really did struggle with.
Squadded with a young Jacob O who carded an exceptional 95, swear if the chap had followed anyone else but me he could have won the shoot.

Just think - if you card your age - the only way is up !!

Freddypip said:

Just think - if you card your age - the only way is up !!

Click to expand...

Often thought / said that, thing is when I get to 100 what happens then?

worry about that when you get there

First Reg comp of the year for me yesterday and a 280 mile round trip to Oxfordshire Shooting School. Cold, but dry and no wind made for pretty good shooting conditions - apart from the low sun on one stand, but even that wasn't as bad as I've seen in at OSS in the past. Usual sim pair of teal on stand 1 that I usually hate - amazingly straighted it. Stand 2 was a nasty sim pair of lr loopers that I misread and didn't given enough on and a measly 2 burst any bubble of an idea that I was in for a really good score. Straight on 3, dropped a couple of the first target on 4 (a rl quartering midi) and then my brain decided to wake up and start interfering. Stands 5 and 6 were crossers, a battue and a looper, stuff I usually like much better than going away targets. hitting them early, then my brain says you better make sure you don't miss these resulting in dropped targets and a missed last pair on both stands! Gave myself a talking to, dropped 3 on Stand 7, one of which was because I stupidly looked straight at the sun rather than taking the target a little earlier. Then ran the next four stands straight before a high midi right to left caught me out on the final stand, only found it once. Finished on 78, one below my average. Not a total disaster, but definitely an under-performance and should have been into the low 80s.

Sporting Targets for me & daughter today. My daughter called it 'mean' whereas I would say '******* hard'. I was three down after the first 4 stands but stand 5 was hard (3/8) and then the last four stands really testing. I finished on 73 (daughter 49) which means 44/72 after the first four - that's a lot when your average is meant to be 81 - and that includes two 7s so 30/56 on 7 of 13 stands. High gun was 91 (Dave Ferriman who is very good and a really nice bloke, but I think it's his local) and then the next, 85, so (again for Sporting Targets) the average was quite low.

Having said the above, lots to learn & take away and they have the space to play around for each shoot - yes, some traps such as the teal on Stand 6 - are used a lot but others change. Noticed today that a lot of the stands were testing because of the transitions from high kill point to low kill point and I don't think I thought enough about my second hold point to deal with that.

Freddypip said:

Sporting Targets for me & daughter today. My daughter called it 'mean' whereas I would say '******* hard'.

Click to expand...

The last few shoots at ST would appear to have been on the really hard side and now attendance numbers are starting to show. Other nearby shoots with a 50% plus higher attendance. Looking at the scores for ST, nearly all shooters shot below the score band for their current classification.
I'm not claiming to be able to set a course, nor would I want to attempt to, as it's probably the most criticised job on a ground, but surely it only takes a couple of tough stands to sort out the superstars from the rest of us mere mortals, not 12.

Northampton for me today. As I thought a fortnight ago, this one was cranked up, and my pants got pulled down on a few. Came out of the gate quite well, only dropping 1 in the first 3 stands. Then stand 4 bit me. Didn't give the overhead enough lead, and dropped all 4. Couldn't find the full use looper on 6. Apparently the closest it came in was 72 yards. Knew it wanted a bit, and I think I actually overled it.
Dropped a few on the sim pair on st9. Hurried the first few and paid the price.

Finished on 80, 3 below my average. Tough but enjoyable round.

Had a go at skeet afterward. Never tried it before. Hit 24 which surprised me a bit. Next time I'm at Northampton I might have a go at that again as pre ESP warm up, rather than the pool shoot.