I was lucky enough to get invited to West Midlands Shooting Ground today to shoot part of the Benelli Sp'auto layout, with GMK, using Benelli semi-autos and Hull Cartridges. I thought I'd just jot down some thoughts.
Firstly - Hodnet - my first time there, and what a treat - I think it's my favourite ground visited so far - beautiful layout, great topology, lovely trees and wildlife. The ground is well designed, long winding path around the stands which were all well appointed and safely laid out. Gun racks at every stand, decent areas to watch from and some inventive use of the land.
The layout was superb - we shot stans of 8 and 9 targets - the 8's were 4 pairs (sim or on report) with full use of the semi-auto, the 9's sometimes had three birds in the air together or a single followed by a sim pair - there was some really inventive use of the landscape - a single driven followed by a sim pair or a stand called 'the tank' with three floppy singles in front and 20/30ft below your feet which tested your shot selection out. I started on stand 3 with some guys from a gun shop in Wigan, and another member of the press - we had three rabbits : a right/left mid distance, a left/right off the bank and then a right/left in front of your feet. Other stands that stood out were stand 1 (I think reffed by our Salopian during the competition) with a quick flat g/a target followed by a lightning fast right/left crosser on report - if you used two on the first you would definitely miss the second! I also liked one stand shot on the compak layout with three crossers in the air together - great fun to try and sort them out!
As we covered each stand - there were a differnt couple of Benelli guns waiting for us, as well as various Hull Cartridges - we shot Pro-Ones, Special Pigeons and Superfasts - through the Benelli Super Sport, the Vinci and a couple others I didn't recognise.
We shot 84 targets - I came away with a 61 - which considering I have only ever shot a handful of shots with a semi-auto before I was pretty happy with. I was just about getting familiar with the loading on all the different Benellis on the way round as we finished up! They served up an ace BBQ in the sunshine back at the club house.
I will definitely jump at any chance to get back to Hodnet - its a 2.5 hour drive for me, but worth every minute of the tedious variable speedlimit on the M42 - the coutnry side is beautiful and the shooting ground is up there with the best of the best.
So - full props to West Midlands Shooting Ground, and the guys at GMK & Hull for looking after everyone, but most of all to Martin Myers who won the Sp'Auto on a stellar 117ex120 which by my reckoning is bloody great shooting!
Firstly - Hodnet - my first time there, and what a treat - I think it's my favourite ground visited so far - beautiful layout, great topology, lovely trees and wildlife. The ground is well designed, long winding path around the stands which were all well appointed and safely laid out. Gun racks at every stand, decent areas to watch from and some inventive use of the land.
The layout was superb - we shot stans of 8 and 9 targets - the 8's were 4 pairs (sim or on report) with full use of the semi-auto, the 9's sometimes had three birds in the air together or a single followed by a sim pair - there was some really inventive use of the landscape - a single driven followed by a sim pair or a stand called 'the tank' with three floppy singles in front and 20/30ft below your feet which tested your shot selection out. I started on stand 3 with some guys from a gun shop in Wigan, and another member of the press - we had three rabbits : a right/left mid distance, a left/right off the bank and then a right/left in front of your feet. Other stands that stood out were stand 1 (I think reffed by our Salopian during the competition) with a quick flat g/a target followed by a lightning fast right/left crosser on report - if you used two on the first you would definitely miss the second! I also liked one stand shot on the compak layout with three crossers in the air together - great fun to try and sort them out!
As we covered each stand - there were a differnt couple of Benelli guns waiting for us, as well as various Hull Cartridges - we shot Pro-Ones, Special Pigeons and Superfasts - through the Benelli Super Sport, the Vinci and a couple others I didn't recognise.
We shot 84 targets - I came away with a 61 - which considering I have only ever shot a handful of shots with a semi-auto before I was pretty happy with. I was just about getting familiar with the loading on all the different Benellis on the way round as we finished up! They served up an ace BBQ in the sunshine back at the club house.
I will definitely jump at any chance to get back to Hodnet - its a 2.5 hour drive for me, but worth every minute of the tedious variable speedlimit on the M42 - the coutnry side is beautiful and the shooting ground is up there with the best of the best.
So - full props to West Midlands Shooting Ground, and the guys at GMK & Hull for looking after everyone, but most of all to Martin Myers who won the Sp'Auto on a stellar 117ex120 which by my reckoning is bloody great shooting!
