Shot this today and am still sitting at home wondering why other major events are not run or have a course set like today's shoot. We started on Stand 2, nice little incomer on report a quick ish left to right crosser. Stand 3 a left to right battue on report a straight low ish driven target. Up the platform to stand 3 crossing pink target followed by a green going away bird. So 3 stands shot, 2 were straight, ref's were incredibly friendly, no queues - honest to god not one queue until the last 2 stands.
Carried on to stand 5 which was the first of the 'flush' stands. As soon as you closed the gun the birds were released, couple of report pairs couple of sim pairs using a combination of 3 traps, loved it, exactly what sporting should be. Dropped one but we were still smiling. Walked to the top of the hill in to stand 7, watched someone shoot and it was then my turn. Again 3 traps and a menu of what pairs you shoot. I missed the first 3 pairs!! WTF was going on, managed to hit the rest but was left looking at the targets and thinking er what just happened! Watched my shooting partner almost do exactly the same thing, very clever presentation which totally caught us unprepared.
Wandered off to stand 6, nice climbing standard right to left off a cherry picker, followed by a mide doing the same thing ish, back to hitting clays thank god! Off to stand 8, another 'flush' stand with 3 traps, this time they were all teal targets, again very enjoyable although dropped 3 thanks to getting complacent!! Hey ho round to stand 9 and 2 relatively straight forward rabbits, sort of... First rabbit was a right to left crosser about 25 to 30 yards out, shot in front of the little bugger! Second rabbit was a left to right orange clay about 15 yards out, quickly realised I needed to be really steady to kill both and managed to drop 1!
Off we went to stand 10, interesting simo pair, both going left to right, a low orange looper and a higher faster standard, very tricky, you had IMO shoot the orange (lower) target first, this then meant the higher looper was quite a distance to your right and needed a chuck of lead to kill it. Dropped a couple here but was happy not to have come unstuck.
So to stand 11, quirky dropping incomer that fell in to the pond followed by a quartering incomer again dropping in to the bank, be careful not to overlead or shoot over the top! Managed to straight the stand!!
Stand 12 was another 'flush' stand but this time using 2 traps. Left to right crosser from the cherry picker followed by a driven target, Birds released as soon as the gun shut, managed to straight it so on to stand 13. Simo pair of high crossing loopers, right to left looper first, needed a bit of lead then the second looper could be shot as a crow, another straight!!
Stand 14, mmmm do we have to talk about this one! Quick ish left to right crosser, never gave it the respect it needed followed by a chondelle that looked like it was further out then it really was, so had a mare here, so thats stand 7 and 14, thankfully there wasn't a stand 21!!
Stand 15, 3 targets in the air at once!! Where's me camo auto when I need it!! No fear, you get to pick the 2 you want to shoot at and leave the other clay to fly its course, hahaha well sounds easy, managed to drop a complete pair! Donut!!
Stand 1 (no we haven't missed stand 16!!) nice right to left crosser, slightly quartering away followed by a high ish going away bird, saw a few peeps from here and said hello, then missed 2 going aways targets!!! ARGH!!
Right stand 16, this IMO was the best stand of the shoot, 4 traps, A left to right battue, with attitude, a right to left crossing midi with attitude, a quartering away right to left stand in a mood and a teal about 18 yards in front of you. You start shooting singles, so get to use both barrels, you might need them, battue wants a lot of respect, I mean a lot, midi crosser needs even more respect, teal should be fine and the quartering away stand needs respect but only to keep you online. All of these are killable and none of them are ridiculous, you just need to know where to shoot them, and no I didn't straight this stand.
All in all I thought the course was fantastic, loved the 'flush' stands and hope we see those again in the future, can't think of a target we didn't get. Ground had a great atmosphere and Steve and Allison even made sure it didn't rain...!!