Another shooting ground closes.

[7iain7]

I used to love shooting at Kinver it's been my main shooting ground for the last 8 years. Very sad to find out the last shoot was on the 20th of December. I believe it started some time in the early 1970's. Thank you Terry Hale for running such a great shoot.  "With much regret, our last clay shoot will be Sunday 20th December 2020" 

https://www.corporateclayshooting.com/latest-news

 

[ColinD]

Not sure if it means they are closing down or suspending shooting due to covid when looking on their website

 

[Salopian]

Terry has been very ill with a heart attack and then contracted Covid whilst in a care home after being put there due to bed shortages at the hospital that was treating him. In true fashion Country folk gathered round in his time of need and stole his traps whilst the ground was unattended. 

Not sure but I think he may be continuing to hold shots . No doubt his traps will never be seen again.

 

[7iain7]

Not sure if it means they are closing down or suspending shooting due to covid when looking on their website

A friend went there this morning, as I understand it from the conversation they had it’s closed permanently. 

Terry has been very ill with a heart attack and then contracted Covid whilst in a care home after being put there due to bed shortages at the hospital that was treating him. In true fashion Country folk gathered round in his time of need and stole his traps whilst the ground was unattended. 

Not sure but I think he may be continuing to hold shots . No doubt his traps will never be seen again.

That's such a shame. Wishing him a speedy recovery.

 

[Doctor Lecter]

Terry has been very ill with a heart attack and then contracted Covid whilst in a care home after being put there due to bed shortages at the hospital that was treating him. In true fashion Country folk gathered round in his time of need and stole his traps whilst the ground was unattended. 

Not sure but I think he may be continuing to hold shots . No doubt his traps will never be seen again.

my god what a society we live in , thieving scumbags         honest people are outnumbered these days !!! 

 

[westley]

my god what a society we live in , thieving scumbags         honest people are outnumbered these days !!! 

No, due to a dire lack of custodial sentences, there are a lot of scumbags on the loose  !

 

[donna]

Hope he has a speedy recovery and that the scumbags that stole his traps get what they truly deserve.

 

[Nimbusgb]

Terry has been very ill with a heart attack and then contracted Covid whilst in a care home after being put there due to bed shortages at the hospital that was treating him. In true fashion Country folk gathered round in his time of need and stole his traps whilst the ground was unattended. 

Not sure but I think he may be continuing to hold shots . No doubt his traps will never be seen again.

The surprising thing is traps are never seen again. This has been going on for years and Promatic is aware of the problem and has modified its marking so that the serial number is embedded into the frame of the trap.

And we simply never see them.

Frequently the nature of the thefts ring of 'internal' knowledge which is really, really unpleasant to consider.

They are never seen at ports of exit in spite of putting out calls to the authorities.

We never see them returned for service and our service staff never trip over an unaccounted for trap.

It's bloody strange and smacks of either stuff being stolen to order for shoots that are off the radar, possibly in far flung corners of the EU and shipped on false papers

or, perhaps more galling, disappearing into domestic, private shoots. 

One day we'll find one and it's going to be interesting clearing up where the hardware's been going!

Just as a matter of interest all of our newer electronics have embedded, fixed at manufacture electronic serial numbers that are irrevocable and can be traced back to the original manufacturing run, test results and sales invoice. There are even ways for us to tell the serial numbers without having to take the back off the boxes. 

 

[Salopian]

I spoke to Terry & Jenny earlier today, Cross Gun Kinver  no longer do a Sunday shoot , but are open for the sale of cartridges and clays if you contact Terry.

 

[Lloyd]

The surprising thing is traps are never seen again. This has been going on for years and Promatic is aware of the problem and has modified its marking so that the serial number is embedded into the frame of the trap.

And we simply never see them.

Frequently the nature of the thefts ring of 'internal' knowledge which is really, really unpleasant to consider.

They are never seen at ports of exit in spite of putting out calls to the authorities.

We never see them returned for service and our service staff never trip over an unaccounted for trap.

It's bloody strange and smacks of either stuff being stolen to order for shoots that are off the radar, possibly in far flung corners of the EU and shipped on false papers

or, perhaps more galling, disappearing into domestic, private shoots. 

One day we'll find one and it's going to be interesting clearing up where the hardware's been going!

Just as a matter of interest all of our newer electronics have embedded, fixed at manufacture electronic serial numbers that are irrevocable and can be traced back to the original manufacturing run, test results and sales invoice. There are even ways for us to tell the serial numbers without having to take the back off the boxes. 

I wonder if customers would be willing to pay for GPS tracking, or possibly RFID passive tags for a lower cost option.

Maybe it would cost the average shooter an extra penny a target, but a price increase I’d be willing to accept if it helped reduce theft and helped prevent grounds from closing or at least being severely disrupted, to to mention the morality of it.

 

[Paul120]

I suspect that they are cut up and sold to a metal merchant. It means nothing to them that a grands worth of equipment gets a couple  of quid when weighed in. 

I got called to a derelict building to chec why the power had hone off. Thieves had cut out 2 meters of 415v live  cable.  The risk involved was unbeliveable. All for less than £20 worth of copper.  

Metal merchants should have  a list and pictures of the usual type of equipment and  stuff stolen to look out for and will call the police who will in turn ask someone from the industry to identify it.  If it  is identifed then the payments can be traced and the culprit found and questioned. 

I suggest if not already done the manufacturers should ask  traps to be put on the list. 

 

[ColinD]

Some people tried that trick with a 25000volt substaion, it didn't end well.

No sympathy here

 

[SIMON-B]

Thieving *******s broke into an underground car park at work and cut out the main earth cable from the transformer to the switch room, about 70mtrs. We replaced it and added more security cameras, they tried again this time only to get caught red handed, I did enjoy the look on their faces when they saw 4 pissed off engineers and a couple of policeman.  

 

[Luke_(NL)]

Around here several grounds had batteries stolen from traps, which are both heavy and not high-dollar as S/H, but obviously a pain to replace for the owners. For a few euros that’s heaps of bad karma and I really hope that comes around to the culprits. Other than that there’s the odd vandal getting caught on camera, including young kids triggering traps and trying to “baseball” a clay by standing in front of the trap swinging a big stick. Amazing that no one got hurt, but certainly a demonstration of the intellectual capacities of the hoodlems involved. My sympathies to the owners! 

 

[Jan Powell]

Sadly, ground closures are a sign of the times and, as far as I see it, will only become more frequent in years to come. I said several years ago that organised clay shooting in the UK probably has 10-15 years left at most. I’ve seen nothing recently to change my mind.

The sport’s caught in a perfect storm of rising costs, environmental pressures, an ageing demographic and an almost complete lack of mainstream media coverage.

In this country most trap grounds are run as a profit making concern making them extremely vulnerable to financial pressures. The truth is many grounds only just about manage to break even. I spoke to one owner a while ago that reckons he makes little more than minimum wage despite working 60 hour weeks. The temptation of selling up when a property developer offers a big cheque must surely be tempting.

Perhaps we should follow the Northern Ireland example where grounds are member run for the members? The facilities may not be plush but the running costs are vastly reduced and the need to constantly turn a profit a lot less pressing.

 

[TRINITY]

Perhaps we should follow the Northern Ireland example where grounds are member run for the members. The facilities may not be plush but the running costs are vastly reduced and the need to constantly turn a profit a lot less pressing.

Is Spennymoor  a members ground ? Not been there myself but I have heard good reports about it and their facilities are on par with many of the privately owned grounds I believe

 

[Jan Powell]

Is Spennymoor  a members ground ? Not been there myself but I have heard good reports about it and their facilities are on par with many of the privately owned grounds I believe

I’m not absolutely sure but yes, I believe it is.

 

[Nimbusgb]

I wonder if customers would be willing to pay for GPS tracking, or possibly RFID passive tags for a lower cost option.

Maybe it would cost the average shooter an extra penny a target, but a price increase I’d be willing to accept if it helped reduce theft and helped prevent grounds from closing or at least being severely disrupted, to to mention the morality of it.

That path has been explored. A GPS needs several things. Power, an antenna to 'see' the GPS birds and another one to transmit an 'I'm being stolen' alert. 

Now if you are a scrote stealing traps ...... 1 - you disconnect the battery and 2 - you smash/remove or disable any antennas you see on the trap! Even if you load a trap into a van the GPS signal is masked so is pretty unreliable. In the back of a van your scrote has all the time he wants to remove/destroy any cover screws and 'remove' any tracking device. Sadly GPS and SMS jammers are ten a penny these days ......... illegal they may be but so's thieving other peoples property.

Consequently your ground owner knows exactly where he left the trap before it was stolen which is a bit pointless because unless he was really forgetful he knows that already!  

An internal battery you say ....... more expense and maintenance problems and it doesn't get round the smashed antenna challenge. Remember you cant 'hide' the antenna as it needs to see the sky and most of the 'secure' part of the trap is beneath the casting plate which acts as a lovely rf shield!

On top of this you need an SMS or LoRaWan capable device to communicate with some sort of monitoring facility or the mobile network. Cost price is around £40 so add £150 to the cost of a trap, plus  the cost of a sim card and monitor service AND the hassle of maintaining all of it, Say a fiver a month ........... 20 traps on a ground that's £100 a month for a tiny ground for a system that probably doesn't offer as much as a padlock with a chain to the nearest tree.

We HAVE solved the problem by approaching the domain from a completely different angle ( but I can't tell you how  ) and expect to be showing the solution to the market shortly ...... was going to be at IWA 2021 but that has now been cancelled and we are stuck behind this lockdown! 

 

[Salopian]

I think the way forward for clayshooting is more member involvement , but sadly that is very thin on the ground. I help at a ground on a Sunday, it often has an entry of 60 plus , run by half a dozen club members, despite advertising and asking for help none is forthcoming .

All they get from the customers is 'that was too hard I couldn't hit them'.