I haven't shot at Cheddar since it was the old Cheddar Gun Club. I just wish Axminster was open on a more regular basis, being limited to Saturday only and just once every two weeks is a pain! Even now, nobody seems to know what will happen at SC, it's all very odd Ian!!!Years since I shot at cheddar (as it was then) 1 hour is the ideal cut off for me anything more than that is becoming a chore not because of the expence just because of the driving.
Just spoke to mike at degla and he is starting a 100 reg ABT in October .... yippee
PS- not sure how often hopefully its every month from oct.
Clay shooting - The future
- Thread starter Jan Powell
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The biggest problem we have has been highlighted by Nicola many times - shooter apathy. 23,000 members who only want to shoot, and that's all they want to do, less than 100 who do give a damn about what happens down at HQ around the Directors table. .... Only saying.
Phil*
Phil*
S.Deaville
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Im not so sure. Being a young is shooter myself (26) i think the sport is going to grow. Im not sure if all disciplines will but time will tell.
Gun sales seem to keep going up every year. People need places to shoot them. Since i started last year some of my fiends have got a
licence and now shoot.
Gun sales seem to keep going up every year. People need places to shoot them. Since i started last year some of my fiends have got a
licence and now shoot.
OK as a young shooter, what discipline do you and your mates shoot? Is it one particular discipline, if so what made you choose it above the others? I'm just curious!
S.Deaville
Well-known member
Sporting. Only dipped our feet into a couple of other disciplines but we have enjoyed everything we have shot.
Looking yesterday at Kegworth there were a number of younger shooters there.
Looking yesterday at Kegworth there were a number of younger shooters there.
ips
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When i started in 86 at the ripe age of 22 there was one other shooter similar age think he was a year possibly two years older that was it apart from the odd junior. Now there are many more younger shooters. No point to this tale just saying.
S.Deaville
Well-known member
Just the variety. We all enjoy a challenge and sporting attracted me due to every stand being different every time.
Nice to have a social on the way to different stands etc. But i am not saying by any means other disciplines wont
interest me and friends at some point.
Really hooked. :hunter:
Nice to have a social on the way to different stands etc. But i am not saying by any means other disciplines wont
interest me and friends at some point.
Really hooked. :hunter:
You know I find it odd that the discipline down here is trap. Yes some do shoot sporting, compak and boar but its trap that's the main discipline. I say I find it odd because the hunting community is so big and you would have thought that simulated game shooting would be the major but no. Last weekend, the week before the hunting season opened, there were about twenty people practicing trap and two doing sporting!
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I would have liked to been able to afford to shoot at the age of 22 but I just did not have enough money. I bought my first bike when I was 21 and by the time I paid for it and all the other stuff that goes with it I had no dosh left to spend. Another thing was that shooting was and still is an expensive pastime my friends were not into it so although I had an interest I went with the flow and took up biking, which I still do
Its funny but life is soo unfair when you are young fit and have the world at your feet there are loads of things you want to do but can't afford to. Then when you get old and past it you have the time and plenty of dosh to do it all, more or less , but the old body is starting to give up a bit with aches pains and the old peepers starting to squint. Still love being retired though... easy life!
ips
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Yes I was lucky I spose I started my first business when I was 21 but was still living with my parents so had some cash.
You are right on the other which is why I never put off doing tomorrow what I can do today as long as I can afford it. Like you I am falling to bits .. so get it done now I say.
PS - I had a great time shooting at that age a very nice older gentlemen called Albert took me under his wing and he took me to all the grounds that I now shoot at and took me to my first Bywell weekend ... WOW 400 + shooters in 1987 I was amazed. He became a life long friend as did his wife, to myself and the first mrs nutter. Even came to my wedding to said mrs nutter in fact most of the guests were shooters. I have met some truly lovely people through shooting when I think about it.
You are right on the other which is why I never put off doing tomorrow what I can do today as long as I can afford it. Like you I am falling to bits .. so get it done now I say.
PS - I had a great time shooting at that age a very nice older gentlemen called Albert took me under his wing and he took me to all the grounds that I now shoot at and took me to my first Bywell weekend ... WOW 400 + shooters in 1987 I was amazed. He became a life long friend as did his wife, to myself and the first mrs nutter. Even came to my wedding to said mrs nutter in fact most of the guests were shooters. I have met some truly lovely people through shooting when I think about it.
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God you know all this talk has actually got me thinking about life and how short it is for an individual. I lost my mate and his wife over the last four years, 52 and 56 both cancer knew him from primary school ! You are right though Ian get it done pronto the sand is running out! Now less of this morose chat I'm going to do it now ... right through to the kitchen for another cup of tea!
Yes I know what you mean John! Mind you Ball Trap has always been VERY popular in France. I've been to France many times and it almost seemed as though every village had a Ball Trap layout. I think the British invented sporting and it seems to have become the main discipline over here these days, it's a shame really, but that's life I guess!!!!
I suppose shooting sports are driven by what is the most popular discipline full stop. For example I don't know if I am over generalising but I heard on here that OT set ups a few and far between in the UK I don't know really? Over here I can drive to any one of about a half dozen clubs that have an OT set up in about an hour or so and UT is ubiquitous, cost of clays is cheap too because they are not commercial shooting grounds. And you are right about the small single trap village clubs.
ips
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You are spot on friend, Italy I believe is the same seems to me that OT layouts on the continent are like bowling greens in UK... every village seems to have one. Think we have about 6 OT grounds in GB but 40up would be able to confirm as he is the oracle on such matters.
Ian me old mate, as we have said before, OT over here is thought of as something of an elitist game in a way. This is mainly due to there being few grounds that offer it and hence few shooters who shoot it. It is not, as we know, the shooters who think they are elite , far from it, it's purely down to shooting a minority game within a minority discipline, within a minority sport. Yes OT is without doubt the hardest of all the clay disciplines, but I still fail to understand why in the UK we have so few grounds that offer it and so few guys that shoot it, many will not even TRY to shoot it and I have met plenty of them over ther years!
Les, in what context do you say "it's the hardest of all clay disciplines"? I would argue that ABT is "harder", as in it is compleatly random without a computer program to give everyone the same 100 clays, each peg has a different hold point requirment, unlike OT where the hold point is the same each peg...
OSK is another candidate for being harder...some people can just never adjust to shooting gun down at very fast crossing targets, with doubles thrown into the mix, with only one shot per clay...how many OT pairs do you get per round?
The mixture of skills, memory bank of angles/leed pictures/wind affected calculations and mental stamina required to win at a shoot like the GB FITASC shoot held at Westfield, with 136 different target presentations is far,far more complex than 5 pegs of fast, going away clays, all with a centeral hold point, repeated over and over?!?!
I'm not a "trap" shooter, I have shot very little registered DTL or ABT only shot 'competitive' OT once at a charity A/R shoot, 21 ex 25, I have shot 25 DTL, 25 ABT and 25 OT as practice a few times on a wednesday night @ North Ayrshire practice (usualy because it's wet and the trap ranges at NA are covered!) I always find ABT to be the harder of the trap disciplines!!! I've shot a round of OSK or two with the boys who shoot it...there is no second barrel, the 3 second delay takes some getting used to, not easy, less so with a 32" sporter, esp if you've got 1/2 1/2 choke in (was too lazy to change).
ips
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I have to agree with Darkside statistically ot prob is the hardest but in theoretically abt for the reasons Darkside states should be. In fact you will recall i have been saying this for some time. Ot i believe is currently proving to be harder because its wound up to silly angles and speeds at selections and majors for the benefit of our top internationals also of course the 24g rule if indeed that makes any difference which i suspect not. This could become a very interesting topic but i suspect we have touched upon it before.
