I shot the red course Thursday. I never went back for the blue course the following day-thought that I would be better cutting my losses on hotel fees etc.
As far as the red course went,I thought the target presentation and variety was very thin gruel. 90% of the targets were edge on and either quartering or going away. Apart from anything else,when a firm like Promatic are generous enough to sponsor the event, I would have thought the least they could expect in return was a demonstration of how versatile and adaptable their traps were. Most of the targets thrown on red could be thrown by a 50 year old hand trap-it takes a matter of seconds to tilt a trap base,to allow belly or dome to show
The stand that stands out in my mind on red,was the long rabbit looper. That target would have been plenty hard enough if a standard clay was thrown. To throw a rabbit clay at that distance,is nothing short of insanity. After one of my shoots,whilst tidying up,it is pretty normal to see rabbit clays with 2-3 holes in them,and still be intact-and that would be from shooting around the 30 metre mark-not 60 plus!
There has been several references already made regarding the cpsa-I would wonder what the wider financial ramifications will be? How many people,that shot this shoot will say "sod it" when next year comes around? I would hazard a guess that well in excess of 50%-probably 70-80% of the cpsa annual income is generated by the sporting discipline alone. I think that it is high time that this should be recognised,and subsequently treated with the respect and importance the sporting discipline deserves.
One final comment,and I don't want it to sound like its any form of personal abuse,but if I paid a builder to build a wall,and it was wonky or it fell down,I would complain. I just wonder how much sporting the course setters for both this event,and the equally dire Berretta World actually shoot? Do they enter any run of the mill 100 registered shoots,,let alone any of the majors? I would say that Steve Lovatt and John Dyson are the 2 most prominent and proven course setters in most peoples minds at present. Both of whom actively shoot the competition circuit.