Sporting shoots 2023. How was it?

[Bebo]

Sportrap at Eriswell for me today. Enjoyable, but I'm even crapper at it than I am at Sporting at the moment.

 

[paul b]

Thanks for the update Will. I thought Kegworth had decided not to post my score yesterday to avoid my embarrassment.

Scores are on there web site.

Cracking set of targets and great weather.

 

[perazman]

One of the busiest clay shooting weekends of the year and no scores to look at. It's my sunday night routine!

Obviously too much to ask one of the cpsa tech bods to go in and sort it out. The staff sending those scores in all work weekends.

PM.

 

[Freddypip]

Thanks Paul. I'm never in the prize money group but it's interesting to see the top 'B' was a 75 and 'A' was 77.

It was without doubt the hardest CPSA I have shot (out of the 20 I have done) and my 59 was my lowest score against an average of 74 (I shot 73 at Kegworth the Sunday before). Seeing the other scores makes me realize I was not the only one and its good to see mine in context. I didn't shoot well and counted 15 or so 'misses' that I might have got on a better day but there were some traps I could find at all - the full use single and teal on the stand next to it and some where I was pleased walking out with 50%.

I agree with you that the targets were very good - the three off the tower in particular - and challenging in all the right ways - very technical with the need for careful gun movement. I just need to pick myself up and perhaps shoot at a few easier venues to get my confidence back.

It didn't help I was on my own and late in the afternoon so I didn't really get to see how some others were getting on at the time.

 

[paul b]

Thanks Paul. I'm never in the prize money group but it's interesting to see the top 'B' was a 75 and 'A' was 77.

It was without doubt the hardest CPSA I have shot (out of the 20 I have done) and my 59 was my lowest score against an average of 74 (I shot 73 at Kegworth the Sunday before). Seeing the other scores makes me realize I was not the only one and its good to see mine in context. I didn't shoot well and counted 15 or so 'misses' that I might have got on a better day but there were some traps I could find at all - the full use single and teal on the stand next to it and some where I was pleased walking out with 50%.

I agree with you that the targets were very good - the three off the tower in particular - and challenging in all the right ways - very technical with the need for careful gun movement. I just need to pick myself up and perhaps shoot at a few easier venues to get my confidence back.

It didn't help I was on my own and late in the afternoon so I didn't really get to see how some others were getting on at the time.

To be fair its only the 5th esp reg in 3 or so years ive done and should be in A class realy(if i did enough) as the ones ive done in the past have been harder shoots than the norm.I thought my 75 was way off winning B as i made a mess of the tower birds in a big way.Every stand needed thought and i was lucky following a grouo of 4 so had plenty of time to work out what to do but even then realised i had the wrong plan after a pair or two on quite a few stands.

 

[Freddypip]

Paul - Well done. No matter the amount of ESP you shoot you did very well indeed.

 

[Will Hewland]

The imploded CPSA server has been fixed it would seem. 

 

[leighH]

Don't shoot a lot these days but had an itch to retire my 40 year old 30'' 3800 that has been my main gun since I sold a DT10 several years ago. I came upon an MK 38 sporter multichoke 32'' at a good price, 15'' inch stock, super steel ready and although not as well balanced as the fixed choke model, I bought it. It was quite nose heavy so I put 4oz of lead in the stock and found a 5/8 ebonite spacer that more or less fitted to get the stock a better length for me. I was hoping the extra weight of the gun would reduce my terrible habit of throwing the gun through every target.

So off I went to Owls Lodge on Saturday for the County Champs. I was last entry just before 3 and the weather was absolutely perfect, warm sunshine. I put the 1/4 & 1/2 teague extended chokes in that came with the gun.

So first the good. The gun shot lovely, seemed to shoot where I was looking with no recoil.
I really concentrated on just shooting steadily through the nose of the slower/closer targets and not opening out any real lead and it worked only loosing a couple due to poor concentration.

Then the bad. What I would call the mid range targets, again I was overleading. These were mainly R to L that I gave 3 -4 feet to (in my head) yet after several misses I cut back to 18'' - 24"' and broke the target.
There was one exception an orange looping midi, that was quite close so I gave 18'' to and only smashed the last with 3' of lead.

End result was a 69 which although a poor score for most I was reasonably happy with. The new gun fitted and shot well. I did not make a complete mess of the last few stands where a lot of the targets are usually short windows into the banks. There were no real long targets on the shoot, most difficult was probably the trap report bird on stand 6 speeding into the distance and I managed to hit once. Indeed I hit at least one of every target, which in itself has been a rarity for me in last few years.
So need to work on reading targets better, keep the gun steady and concentrate and I might get some confidence back.

Regards

Leigh

 

[donna]

Westfields for us today and we started out early and had no problems with traffic, in fact the roads were nice and steady getting there.  

Started on stands 1,3 and 4 dropping 3 on each stand .  Not shot for over 3 weeks and felt rusty and slow.  Picked myself up and straightened 5,6 and 7 then messed up stand 8, the small platform dropping 2 of each.  Dropped last pair on 9, straightened the sim driven , dropped last pair on 11, 1 on 12 then went to stand 4 to finish, big rangy r-l chondel, o/r teal which I straightened. All in all fairly pleased, once I got first 3 stands out the way!  Disappointed to drop last pairs on 2 stands but hey ho, ended on an 82 which I’m pleased with, well above my average and 4 above the average for the shoot.  3rd in ladies behind 2 excellent shots and I met Wynno from the forum so all in all a pleasant day. 

 

[Will Hewland]

Good to see you before the shoot Donna. Well shot.

An enjoyable course I thought with a good mix. Massive entry in part thanks to Honesberie cancelled so took a while to go round especially for the folk who started early. 
 

I shot ok round most of it but had an inexplicably bad moment on stand 3, dropping 5 including last two pairs!!! Simple crossers. I think I just went careful and got behind them but trashed any chance of a great card. Finished 89 after a good last half. 

 

[Martinj]

I shot Westfield for the first time so it was a reconnaissance mission more than anything, It's a bit of a stretch for me but having looked at the scores and counties people come from it puts me to shame. 

I arrived a bit flustered as my satnav gave up somewhere near the shoot and had to find it by ear . I started on stand 12 as I was parked right nearby, dropped a few there, I should have left it until later. Worked my way up the hill on the right hand side 1,2, etc, missed 4 longer crossers on the top right stand. Not knowing the layout I came back down the hill and did the teal and crosser on the left, missed three of the crossers until I reduced the lead on the last one, decided over-leading had been the issue on both stands.

Started enjoying it although I got into a cycle of having to wait for 15 people to shoot in front of me for a few stands, I think I dropped one or none per stand across the top and down the LH side until stand 11 where I shot 4 pairs straight then missed the last pair!!

I really enjoyed the layout, I like to think I'd do better than 81 next time if I start off in a more relaxed frame of mind. OH! and I have never been hit by so many bits of shot raining down and broken clays ever! It started as I drove in and ended as I drove out, I know it's harmless, just first impressions.

 

[wynno]

Westfield for me as well today, suffice to say I shot like Stevie Wonder, long birds no problem anything close and I struggled over leading them

Still the day did have a bright side, in that I finally met Donna and Phil 

 

[Jonny English]

Borders Wood at Owthorpe for us today on the leic' Notts border just off the A46. Non registered but great round in a really good setting. £35 for the round, trap and mark yourself as effectively its only practise, odd check here and there that your filling your card out and only shooting what you should be. Bacon buns and coffees available. Some really good targets with some stuff that wouldn't be out of place at a major championship, well worth a visit.

 

[chippy]

After an absolute disaster at East of England on good Friday with a 68 just couldn't find so many targets. I shot Northampton today hit 91 on quite a stiff round. The difference a week makes is amazing.

 

[donna]

shot Westfield for the first time so it was a reconnaissance mission morethan anything, It's a bit of a stretch for me but having looked at the scores and counties people come from it puts me to shame. 

Martin, it really is worth the effort.  We started about 12.30/12.45 and tbh we always  start at 1 and work our way round, we did jump a few stands and as stand 2 was mobbed we done that last.  Didn’t have to wait too long on each stand though BUT because it’s such a good shoot it does get busy.  Don’t think I’ve ever come away from Westfields thinking that was a waste of money and Ive always come away learning something.  Well done on an 81 though, good result for your first time.

 

[Charliedog]

Barrow on a sunny day, short sleeves for a change, another well balanced round, again fell into the trap of straighting a couple of stands from outside the cage only to come undone in the actual execution, overall average for the shoot was 72 which felt about right, good number of entries again but flowed ok, great cake.

 

[donna]

Coleys for the super sporting yesterday.  Really good shoot, a right mixture of targets,  some high, some low but nothing too stupid.  Got a bit confused at times but so did many people!  Only shot a 71 but thoroughly enjoyed myself. Hopefully will shoot EJC super sporting on Tuesday a bit better. 

 

[Will Hewland]

AGL today. All ran smoothly and almost avoided getting wet, so a pleasant round. I feel it really needed two more firm stands though. The thing is, 3 of my 6 misses were on really easy targets which makes me feel daft. I wouldn’t have minded missing harder ones.. The toughest stand by far was the grouse, where I just missed one on the last pair so happy with that. Somebody really should do a 98 round there. Turns out 96 was HG

 

[donna]

EJC for the super sporting.  Fair round but I do wish we didn’t have to shoot in the high wooden stands.  Stand 2, an overhead diving down, driven and a flattish teal.  Only managed to get 1 shot at the overhead, shot the teal and couldn’t see it, just caught a sight of it and shot the ivy climbing over the wood panel! Quite dangerous really.  Could only get 1 shot at it so the ref took pity on me and allowed me to stand further back so I could see it a bit more. A fair few fast targets but nothing really needed loads of lead and everything I missed I was in front of. 
Had a group of 2 behind us and a group of 3 behind them.  The group of 3 kept jumping in front of us and the twosome which was a bit annoying. Finished on a 77 but there was so much more to be had! 

 

[Will Hewland]

College Farm (Hornet) yesterday. A nice course, really not too tough but a few stands to stop you filling your boots. A reasonable 92 with a couple of daft misses as per. 
 

Barbury today was another level. As we started, the ref reckoned 90 would be HG. RF popped in a 94 and as I left he was the only straight on stand 11 which had an almost invisible distant quartering edge on orange.

It was a good tough course but a few stands didn’t need to be sim, the targets were good enough already. Just my opinion. Enjoyable nonetheless but perhaps doesn’t need to be any tougher next time.. Managed 84 which could have been worse considering.