Grange Farm - 27th Nov

[ExSCA]

Full review of the SG will go on the main site soon - but just wanted to capture some thoughts here. Ventured a little further afield today - JonSkeet and myself braved the M1 and headed up to Leicestershire to join EdSolomons and Adamantine for the 100reg Sporting Grange Farm.The SG is about 10/15 minutes from the M1, and set in some nice farmland with plenty of trees and nice features to lay a sporting course around.  Decent car parking with plenty of space, and a welcoming club house with good value food (£2 for a bacon roll, 50p for a coffee) - plenty of stuff to read and a scoreboard being updated quickly as scorecards arrived back.On the way out to the sporting we had a go at the teal challenge - which Ed currently leads at 135 yards - I didn't measure it out, but it is a MIGHTY LONG WAY. I had a couple of pops from 100yds, but even with 32g/6's I don't think I was anywhere near it. Even full use you need a decent combination of luck and skill to get close.Then onto the sporting... Weather today was bright but very windy - which affected a lot of the targets, we had 12 stands to make up to the 100, with some very decent stands, and couple of heartbreakers along the way. I liked the opening stand, 1 driven, and one standard looper sim pair, and there was a lovely stand with low incomer through trees followed by a tasty rabbit at distance. There were a couple of screaming targets pushed on by the wind and making us all move the gun around at speed.All-in-all - lovely shoot, shame about the weather.... I scored a 55 (which I'm pleased took 2nd place in a small c-class field) - others in our squad had different days (i'll let them comment).Really like the ground, thanks for showing us round Adam. Good targets, nice clubhouse - and well organised to have the scores online quickly. Full review to follow

 

[EdSolomons]

Yes was good to meet up with Matt again and to meet John for the first time. Had a good laugh as usual, and although wasn't expecting to shoot great at this time of year was rather disappointed to end on 85. Not quite bad enough yo get dropped off the averages sadly! Think 87 won, it was a 94 shoot if the weather was reasonable, but think today in the howling wind a 90 would have been the right score. I had a disastrous start dropping birds all over the shop but still enjoyed getting out and having a catch up.Think my plan is to now shoot the winter FItASC series that I have already started, and only do sporting if it's a nice day! Roll on summer!

 

[Will Hewland]

I went to Horne Gatton Bottom today. Nearly decided against due to the wind, which was severe at home. It was far better at Horne but still had plenty of effect on the targets. Looked like a smaller entry than usual. Maybe the wind put the wise folk off..It was tricky for Horne and would have been even without the wind. Despite being sunny a lot of targets were edge on and fairly tough to see well. Three clumsy stands took too many off me as I finished on 81. When I left an 86 was leading, although somebody decent will have hit a 93 perhaps?Windy days are crap for clay shooting..CSC3

 

[JonSkeet2]

I really have to concur on Matt's report. We had a great run up and arrived by 10:45ish then rudely interrupted Ed's breakfast, I went for a sausage and egg barm and a cup of tea which was £3, great quality and a great cup of tea. Very friendly staff and a nice place to be on a Sunday morning. We got our gear together then headed to the "Teal Challenge" and had a look at it from ~140 YDS, I'm guesstimating here but the 135YD pin is measured and we were stood behind it then took the walk down to the 100YD mark where Matt and I fired 5 or 6 32g 6's at it and blanked it, I seem to remember Ed hitting it   Not surprising as he set the new goal at a MEASURED 135YDS awesome shooting!! Then we ventured to the 100 bird sporting, Adam decided that we would do it the easy way and we were driven to the far end of the shoot on the John Deere 4x4 shoot truck which was awesome, brought back memories of sitting on the back of a tractor in the 80's, anyway we then started on the birds despite the wind and the sun the layout had been well designed, there wasn't anything stupid, challenging yes but stupid no. Overall I shot a low score of 33 which I'm not happy with and have a plan in place, I dropped some banker birds that I should have mullered but on the plus side have started hitting the rabbits, some of them anyway.This was only my 4th registered sporting shoot and to be fair you only have to look at the quality of the shooters turning up which is testament in itself to the quality of the birds, food etc.  Summary: I had a great day, would I go back?  Absolutely, just wish Grange Farm was closer.  It' s a 2 hour trek from here and was great to head up, really enjoyed it and would recommend it to anyone  Cheers, Jon.

 

[EdSolomons]

I don't remember hitting it ;-)

 

[Hamster]

Nice to hear about your scores chaps /wp-content/forum-smileys/sf-smile.gif, I could have gone to Horne, JJ's or maybe even Keston today but just out of the blue decided to score brownie points so took the family to Lakeside./wp-content/forum-smileys/sf-smile.gif

 

[katiep]

Hi all Glad to hear you enjoyed your trip to Grange Farm, Its always nice to meet new shooters and be able to put faces to names!I'll make sure I pass on the comments about the food, I'm sure the ladies in the kitchen will be pleased./wp-content/forum-smileys/sf-laugh.gifShame the weather didn't help with your scores, thats one thing we can't control I'm afraid /wp-content/forum-smileys/sf-wink.gif