Shoot of my life (A lockdown time filler)

[Will Hewland]

Autosport magazine used to have a great feature wherein each week a different driver was asked to tell the tale of the race of their life. Not always the obvious one that they won, but the most memorable story to them. It was always a great read.
 

I just thought in these non-shooting times that we might rack our brains and recount the shoot we most recall and why. Let’s open it up to worst shoots too

Anybody?

 

[MartynB]

Donkeys years ago one of the clay shooting magazines held a huge sporting shoot at Gurston Down in Wiltshire. To encourage people to get out early every stand had a sponsor and the first 5 straights on each stand got a prize . Pretty good really , as you’re only shooting against yourself . On arriving at the crack of dawn I could see the place was heaving with the big names of the day going pot hunting . Long story short I set off with my Mrs and plodded off into the distance . I found a quiet stand sponsored by a champagne maker  , as I went into the cage the ref said , there’s two prizes left it’s a hard one this .  Long range dropping sim pair , I fluked and chipped 5 pairs , got my voucher and  came off grinning ear to ear  to a “ well done”  from my Mrs ......... and George Digweed who’d just rocked up . If I’d known he was watching I’d have blanked . I stayed to watch him shoot , 5 pairs , 5 balls of dust all in the same place last voucher in his pocket  , but little old club shooter/ B class  me had matched the World Champ for just a few minutes  !  On the other hand he probably won the shoot and I came 974th or something . 
 
In terms of the best shoots I’ve ever attended US  Open Sporting Clays in San Antonio Texas , and object lesson of what can be achieved when money is no object ! 

 

[Will Hewland]

I guess George will feature in one or two of these. Not sure it’s the shoot of my life, but in 2013 I went to Sporting Targets in Bedfordshire for their Easter shoot. A big event over several days. I was still in A class at the time and went alone. Not very familiar with the ground, sat alone eating breakfast in their canteen and looking at the scoreboard after the first days shooting.  GD was leading on 89. At this point I’m thinking I could just make it a 160 mile round trip for breakfast and save myself a gruelling shoot and dire score. 
 

I headed out and incredibly was about two away after 8 stands. At that point I saw Ed Solomons and he told me “don’t do anything different now”. One nasty stand near the start had killed everybody on our squad but I had somehow chipped my way through it, feeling lucky. Anyway, I’m wondering how GD had missed 11 targets, then as we did the last three stands I found out. Horrible! I dropped another 10 and found that GD had done the same there. Anyway I finished on 88 beating some names I never thought I would and was one behind the big man. Somebody did an incredible 96 but next score was Myers on 91 so it beat most up. I was about 6 clear in A class so the cheque turning up was a nice bonus too. Glad I didn’t quit after breakfast. 

 

[paul b]

My first international ,world fitasc tiers france 1999 was a huge eye opener,involving a plane 2 trains 2 taxis not booking in to a hotel i didnt have funds to pay for so had to ring home for a card payment,as i didnt use cards then.

I shot a old knackered rizzini that promptly broke down on day one,thankfully ben husthwaite got the ground to lend me a replacement.

But ill never forget the opening ceremony! It was in a sports stadium and the parking was down the road but we in the handisport(disabled category) were told to park in the stadium.Having no disabled badge in the car the stewards kept waving us past until one of our group took off his false leg and drove by waving it out of the window

That was a hel of a journey and event for someone who had never gone abroad on there own before .

 

[Paul120]

Mine was years ago. My Dad and myself went to a very posh shoot on the way home after cleaning a Boat moored off shore. I wasn't in my best clothes sporting hhe odd rip or two and to say I had a bit of muck on me is a bit of an understatement. I had  decided to take a very old Breda Auto I used for Wildfowling with sling still attached. At the shoot we watched numerous people shoot a driven pool shoot. We both said they must be harder than they look with the amount they were missing.

My turn. Walked over to  the stand with Gun slung over shoulder. 

Guy in tweens walked over to my Dad and asked if I had shot before and ok to shoot the stand. 

Blotted all 10 pairs. 

Dad was nearly in tears laughing as he told me about the conversation and the Guys parting comment of;

Ever wish you'd never asked .

 

[Freddypip]

Mine was also at Sporting Targets. On the towers (Quarry) at the end about 3 years ago. Group of retired gentlemen were finishing up as the four of us arrived. They were struggling with one clay and asked if any of us were AAA, then AA, then A perhaps. No afraid not. They waited to watch as my daughter (taking a break from A level revision) shot first. She shot two singles on report and hit them both. Smooth as silk. There was some low level grumbling and they walked off. Its not really a days shooting but it was a great moment. The only problem for my daughter is that since then, when the clay looks hard the three of us now back off and 'invite' her into the cage first !!!.

 

[westley]

Several years ago I was in Dublin for the annual competition against the Garda.  We had shot and won the Team place in a DTL competition on the Saturday, I had also won the 'Pool Shoot' which was a sort of Compak shoot, using a borrowed Browning B25.  On the Sunday we were making our way back to Dublin, prior to leaving on the Monday morning. It was decided, by our hosts that we visit an open DTL shoot on our way back. We signed on as individuals and awaited our turn to shoot. On my first line, after about 15 targets my er........'Trusty'....Remmie 1100 Trap gun, finally gave up the ghost and broke. Someone thrust a Perazzi at me to finish the line. The first thing I hit was the trap house and second barreled the clay. Compared to my Remmie, those Perazzi triggers are light. The Irish guys all thought this highly amusing  !  I finished on a 23/65.  I then managed to borrow a Nikko Shadow Indy for my next line and shot 24/69. The third line and the Nikko was 'unavailable' amid a lot of 'nudge, nudge, wink,wink'  among our Irish 'friends', but that dreaded Perazzi was offered up once more. I straighted the third line. For the final line I used a Winchester Supergrade Trap, and straighted that.  As we were a bit pushed for time, we left before the competition had ended. We made our hotel in Dublin and checked in. Guns were cleaned and then locked away in the managers office. That night in the bar, we were all getting rather drunk on Guiness, when I was 'presented' with a small brown envelope, being told that it was my 'winnings' for the days shoot. It transpired that I had won B Class in the DTL competition, but the Garda Captain had returned 20 punts to the shoot organisers for the 'Damage to Trap house'   !   Oh, happy days  ! 

 

[Lloyd]

Having only been shooting  about twice a month for 18 months, I’ve hardly a back catalogue to draw from, but certainly have a handful of memories in the bank already.

After my father passed away earlier this year, @diver682 invited me down to a shoot at Kingscote.
As this was to be my first time out shooting since lockdown, a couple of days before, I went to EJC for a bit of a brush up and to try a 32” barrelled F3 whilst I was at it.

Saturday morning came along, my girlfriend drove us down to Kingscote and I met @diver682 in the car park, where he promptly lent me a gun and handed me some cartridges. We went around the stands set amongst beautiful tall trees, shooting 3 or 4 pairs per stand, 80 targets in total.

I finished up on 32ex80. I was a little disappointed at the time to be honest, everything seemed so fast and the background seemed so confusing, not knowing where to look for hold points or kill points. I’d no idea where I was on any of the targets, including the ones I’d hit. I felt lucky to have hit 32.

I look back on that fondly. It was my first shoot away from an instructor. Shooting with a right handed gun in what for me was a challenging environment. I learned from it, mostly that enjoying shooting is much more important to me than a score and that these are great opportunities to further learn and improve, a process I thoroughly enjoy.

Thanks @diver682

 

[Will Hewland]

Yeah there are many memorable moments. My second reg shoot was at Caterham Clays in 2005, now closed down. It was ‘earthy’ to say the least. As you drove in you just saw a muddy car park and a big skip. Went on my own, knew nobody, my car and clothing didn’t fit in, everybody seemed to know each other, didn’t understand the lady in the sales hut, first time handing my card in at stands, you name it. I hit 57 and was pleased as punch having seen targets I had never experienced before and about then I decided I would give this game a good go. 

 

[Charliedog]

Several years ago I was in Dublin for the annual competition against the Garda.  We had shot and won the Team place in a DTL competition on the Saturday, I had also won the 'Pool Shoot' which was a sort of Compak shoot, using a borrowed Browning B25.  On the Sunday we were making our way back to Dublin, prior to leaving on the Monday morning. It was decided, by our hosts that we visit an open DTL shoot on our way back. We signed on as individuals and awaited our turn to shoot. On my first line, after about 15 targets my er........'Trusty'....Remmie 1100 Trap gun, finally gave up the ghost and broke. Someone thrust a Perazzi at me to finish the line. The first thing I hit was the trap house and second barreled the clay. Compared to my Remmie, those Perazzi triggers are light. The Irish guys all thought this highly amusing  !  I finished on a 23/290.  I then managed to borrow a Nikko Shadow Indy for my next line and shot 24/297. The third line and the Nikko was 'unavailable' amid a lot of 'nudge, nudge, wink,wink'  among our Irish 'friends', but that dreaded Perazzi was offered up once more. I straighted the third line. For the final line I used a Winchester Supergrade Trap, and straighted that.  As we were a bit pushed for time, we left before the competition had ended. We made our hotel in Dublin and checked in. Guns were cleaned and then locked away in the managers office. That night in the bar, we were all getting rather drunk on Guiness, when I was 'presented' with a small brown envelope, being told that it was my 'winnings' for the days shoot. It transpired that I had won B Class in the DTL competition, but the Garda Captain had returned 20 punts to the shoot organisers for the 'Damage to Trap house'   !   Oh, happy days  ! 

What does 23/290 mean?

 

[westley]

What does 23/290 mean?

Sorry, in DTL you get 3 points for a first barrel kill and 2 for a second barrel kill. A perfect score would be 100/300 or all first barrel kills. So, 23/65 depicts 23 kills. 6 points deducted for 2 total losses PLUS 4 second barrel kills (deduct 4 points in total) therefore a total of 10 points lost, equals  23/65

 

[Charliedog]

Sorry, in DTL you get 3 points for a first barrel kill and 2 for a second barrel kill. A perfect score would be 100/300 or all first barrel kills. So, 23/290 depicts 23 kills. 6 points deducted for 2 total losses PLUS 4 second barrel kills (deduct 4 points in total) therefore a total of 10 points lost, equals 290.

hmmmmmm, so the 23 represents first barrel kills (maybe), second thoughts thats a mad scoring system, way beyond me, why not 300/300? Are you shooting 100 individual single targets?

 

[Lloyd]

Sorry, in DTL you get 3 points for a first barrel kill and 2 for a second barrel kill. A perfect score would be 100/300 or all first barrel kills. So, 23/290 depicts 23 kills. 6 points deducted for 2 total losses PLUS 4 second barrel kills (deduct 4 points in total) therefore a total of 10 points lost, equals 290.

Now I maybe an engineer and I do like maths somewhat, but really? I want to relax of a weekend of shooting 

 

[Luke_(NL)]

I joined the club operating the nearest clay ground together with two mates. We had just signed up, and were still "probies" shooting club guns. If I recall correctly, we weren't even allowed to carry ammunition without an instructor present. (Despite a good half century of triggertime between us, but rules are rules.) We had yet to figure out that compared to rifles and the like, shooting clays is akin to aiming to miss, but in a controlled fashion.

Yet on our third visit to the club, we were asked whether we would like to sign up for that days competition. We figured, why not. We weren't going to impress anyone, but were going to have a good time trying. We were squadded up, and a fourth shooter was to join the three of us. This turned out to be a gentleman of a very respectable age, in fact twice our age (and we're not in our teens either). So, in jest, we were nudging each other saying things like 'at least we'll beat him', but that was not how things turned out. At all. 

We received an excellent display of decades of experience in action and left the stands feeling impressed but sheepish. We actually "won" commendation prizes for coming in dead last, whilst our senior squad member came in one clay short of the day's high gun. Thoroughly enjoyable, educational and inspiring. At the very least we came away comforted, knowing we can still take decades to learn   

 

[perazman]

I think Westley is getting his layout score mixed in with his total score.

3 points for a first barrel kill

2 points for a second barrel.

Each layout is scored out of a maximum 25/75.

A 100 bird comp (4x25 birds) is therefore scored out of a possible 100/300.

Hope this helps.

PM.

 

[Jan Powell]

Funnily enough, my best event was just a few weeks ago, the British Open Single Barrel. It was held at a ground that really suits me, not necessarily because the targets are easier than elsewhere (although they are) but it's just somewhere I feel completely relaxed shooting. Even though it's not the smartest of grounds it does have that sort of homely feeling. 

The event itself went OK although I dropped a target on the first line to finish on a 99. Given the weather was decent, most of the UK's best DTL competitors were there and I'd shot first thing I didn't expect this to put me anywhere the top of the pile but, as it was, nobody bettered it and at 3pm there were half a dozen on the same score. So came the shoot off, four of the six were eliminated in the first 25, then myself and one other went on, and on, and on...

138 targets later he missed one and I won the title. What makes it the best day was not necessarily the score but my state of mind. Professionals talk about being in 'the zone' and this was one of those very rare days when I was. Normally I fight a battle to control the thoughts in my mind, often they lead to dropped points but this time nothing. I never felt I'd miss anything. It could have run to 1000 targets.

As for worst shoots, there's been occasions when I've just not been able to get it together. I find sometimes I need to build some mental momentum when shooting events over several days. I do remember a few where it's just not happened and I've never really settled. Other than that there's been days when the weathers beaten me before I've put a shell in the gun but that's about it. 

 

[Martinj]

Back in the 70's I joined RAF Odiham clay club, Sporting was always my "thing" but they rotated DTL or ABT, Sporting and English Skeet so we had to do them all or not shoot that week.  Other than Sporting, Skeet was of most interest to me and the first time I shot 25 straight was way up there for a sense of achievement in my shooting world of the time and it's one of my happy shooting memories.

Worst shoots? too many to pick just one . . .  OK, quite recently I had started shooting when I could feel my stock was coming loose (with no way of tightening it) I had to shoot with the gun up while holding the thing together. Oddly, I didn't do as badly one might imagine, I guess it worked to focus my attention. Oh yes, and for embarrassment alone, I was on a fibre only, squadded shoot and the scorer asked me if I was using plastic wads. we looked at the cartridges and there was nothing to say one way or the other. I checked the boxes and they had "Plastic" printed on them. I had brought the wrong slab . Luckily a friend had spare fibre wad ammo in his car so I hurried back and played catch up on the next stand, it probably cost me a few clays and I guess I was lucky not to have been disqualified.

 

[Robden]

Funnily enough, my best event was just a few weeks ago, the British Open Single Barrel. It was held at a ground that really suits me, not necessarily because the targets are easier than others (although they are) but it's just somewhere where I feel completely relaxed shooting. Even though it's not the smartest it has that sort of homely feeling. 

The event itself went OK although I dropped a target on the first line to finish on a 99. Given that the weather was decent, most of the UK's best DTL competitors were there and I'd shot first thing I didn't expect this to put me anywhere the top of the pile but, as it was, nobody bettered it and at 3pm there were half a dozen on the same score. So came the shoot off, four of the six were eliminated in the first 25, then myself and one other went on, and on, and on...

138 targets later he missed one and I won the title. What makes it the best day was not the score but my state of mind. Professionals talk about being in 'the zone' and this was one of those very rare days when I was. Normally I fight a battle to control the thoughts in my mind, often they lead to dropped points but this time nothing. I never felt I'd miss anything. It could have run to 1000 targets.

As for worst shoots, there's been occasions when I've just not been able to get it together. I find sometimes I need to build some mental momentum when shooting events over several days. I do remember a few where it's just not happened and I've never really settled. Other than that there's been days when the weathers beaten me before I've put a shell in the gun but that's about it. 

Was that at Rufforth? Did they end up altering the traps so that one of you would miss? If it was, I was there...........Well shot sir.

 

[diver682]

Having only been shooting  about twice a month for 18 months, I’ve hardly a back catalogue to draw from, but certainly have a handful of memories in the bank already.

After my father passed away earlier this year, @diver682 invited me down to a shoot at Kingscote.
As this was to be my first time out shooting since lockdown, a couple of days before, I went to EJC for a bit of a brush up and to try a 32” barrelled F3 whilst I was at it.

Saturday morning came along, my girlfriend drove us down to Kingscote and I met @diver682 in the car park, where he promptly lent me a gun and handed me some cartridges. We went around the stands set amongst beautiful tall trees, shooting 3 or 4 pairs per stand, 80 targets in total.

I finished up on 32ex80. I was a little disappointed at the time to be honest, everything seemed so fast and the background seemed so confusing, not knowing where to look for hold points or kill points. I’d no idea where I was on any of the targets, including the ones I’d hit. I felt lucky to have hit 32.

I look back on that fondly. It was my first shoot away from an instructor. Shooting with a right handed gun in what for me was a challenging environment. I learned from it, mostly that enjoying shooting is much more important to me than a score and that these are great opportunities to further learn and improve, a process I thoroughly enjoy.

Thanks @diver682

Your very welcome Lloyd I'm glad you enjoyed the day, one thing I did overlook was to ask you whether you where left or right handed

When you mounted the gun on the first stand I thought oh sh@t he's left handed and that's a right handed gun ! Ok well there is nothing we can do about it now I just hope he hits a few and enjoys himself 

We can do it again when you have your license as I don't know anyone with a left handed gun you could borrow 

Regards Carl