Where now for OSK

[RobertBeard]

Devon (Target Shooting) have had their own medals cast in coloured metals of gold, silver and bronze with the County/Exeter's heraldic shield and with a nice ribbon in the county colours and the cost is something like £2 a pop providing that you buy the medals in sufficient quantity.  Much better than the cheap and nasty medals available from trophy shops.  I can probably get details if anyone is interested.

 

[** Pending Removal **]

That is what we have now done. We give a nice quality medal with no date on them , so that any left can be used for the next year. Some regions have used China for cheap medals that look great....but you have to order several year's worth :smile:

 

[Salopian]

Devon (Target Shooting) have had their own medals cast in coloured metals of gold, silver and bronze with the County/Exeter's heraldic shield and with a nice ribbon in the county colours and the cost is something like £2 a pop providing that you buy the medals in sufficient quantity.  Much better than the cheap and nasty medals available from trophy shops.  I can probably get details if anyone is interested.

No thanks Robert, WE are not interested in doing any thing for the sport or it's members, 'WE' just want to shoot and have our scores registered. If HQ want to waste our money let them get on with it 'WE' aren't bothered.

Until we are in the mire, then watch 'WE' squeal.

 

[RobertBeard]

This was a county initiative as opposed to a national one!

 

[Blackstar Ninja]

Getting back to the point if shooting in general and the proprietors of localised shooting grounds do nothing to encourage the next generation there will be more and more cloth badges and crap medals going in the bin. But how can you encourage youth if there is no choice or variety in what to shoot. Having spoken to more of the shooters from Fyfield there was no promotion of the discipline at Fyfield by the proprietor and it was completely down to the efforts of one of the regulars Mr Phil Butcher who regularly encouraged people to try OSK and in fact was the person that got me started with it. I'm a firm believer in supporting your Local Gunshop.and supporting your local shooting ground but if they are not willing to stock what you want to buy...!

 

[dyosk]

It is a frustrating situation. I was a really keen osk shooter for some time, but struggled to find places to practise and people to practise with.
I'm sure if we ran grounds we would be very tempted to put on DTL and Esk.They will put on what sells.
If we really want to encourage new shooters of all ages into OSK we should the support the discipline with access at grounds and perhaps a national league ?
This might encourage participation through the knowledge that OSK would be on regularly at a ground and that you could put your practise towards competition.
I'm presuming we would have to turn to suppliers to sponsor the campaign for a year to see if we could turn up the next peter w in OSK.
Any interested cartridge companies or gun makers out there who want to make OSK there own..? Please form an orderly queue with your marketing budgets.

 

[Blackstar Ninja]

Dyosk thank you for that contribution!

 

[Hotshot100]

It is a frustrating situation. I was a really keen osk shooter for some time, but struggled to find places to practise and people to practise with. I'm sure if we ran grounds we would be very tempted to put on DTL and Esk.They will put on what sells. If we really want to encourage new shooters of all ages into OSK we should the support the discipline with access at grounds and perhaps a national league ? This might encourage participation through the knowledge that OSK would be on regularly at a ground and that you could put your practise towards competition. I'm presuming we would have to turn to suppliers to sponsor the campaign for a year to see if we could turn up the next peter w in OSK. Any interested cartridge companies or gun makers out there who want to make OSK there own..? Please form an orderly queue with your marketing budgets.

I think that it lost it's popularity with ground owners when the format was changed many years ago. I can remember when English skeet and O.S. used the same sequence of targets. It was very easy then to switch between the 2 disciplines as all that was necessary when switching from E.S to O.S. was to wind the trap springs up .hoop the targets and flick on the timer switch. Simples!!

 

[blaser f3]

As i posted in an earlier thread,  Dartford will change  the skeet layouts over to OSK , but they would like notice and obviously it should be worth their time i.e a  few rounds being shot , it has been done  a few times for instructors binging pupils/squads down , all it takes is a phone call. What OSK shooters  cant expect is a layout to be set up full time dedicated to OSK as there are just not enough OSK shooters out there to make it financially viable to the ground . In fact a couple of years back Dartford set up OSK (lights ,nets ,delay timers ect.) at whatever the cost was , if my memory serves me well (no guarantee ) it was used for a major and selection shoot plus the odd bit of training and that was the end of it (probably a total loss ). The same as any discipline money can only be put into it if its worthwhile or the ground can support it .    

 

[Blackstar Ninja]

I have passed on the details for Dartford and the other grounds that been suggested by PM. Grounds like dartford who are with notice willing to make the switch (which in my experience takes minutes) are appreciated and at least keep the option available. But it's grounds like fyfield that won't even give that option or rather have taken away that option completely is what I take issue with. Especially when it disadvantages those that are keen and those that were regular shooters there who also shoot for county and want to shoot for country. Needless to say they were shut out of Fyfield the week before the selection shoot at Doveridge with no notice or time to find another training ground (as Nicola says 'true story'). That's the bit that disappoints the most just the complete disrespect shown to the shooters that have been putting money across the counter there for years!

 

[Hawkeye]

Sound's like there's more to this story

 

[** Pending Removal **]

Claudio at A1 built a brand new Olympic skeet layout for London 2012 practise...which can be used if it is pre booked (because to shoot it they have to close some of the sporting stands in the fall out area). It is a fantastic layout......yet is it full......nope.

Might be worth having a word with him about setting up practice days.....or even competition days.

They are a very accommodating ground with good people.

 

[Will Hewland]

EJ Churchill reinvigorated their layout last year. (May have been to assist Amber)? I never see it used and I think they had about six entries to a registered OSK event.

Pretty sure it's available if anybody wants to use it though..

 

[Hawkeye]

Perhaps OS and ZZ are now dinosaur's destined for the same fate

 

[** Pending Removal **]

Perhaps OS and ZZ are now dinosaur's destined for the same fate

ZZ is growing each year....I am in the middle of doing the stats... :smile:

I forgot to say that Owls Lodge also have an OSK range. (You will catch a glimpse of Amber training there.)

 

[Hawkeye]

Sorry for my mistake Nicola , i thought your survey meant it was dying

 

[** Pending Removal **]

No Bryan ...that is ok. I put the survey up after much talk at the grounds during the long waits ......to see what Helice shooters want from their sport.

I then widened it to see what we need to do to attract more shooters to come and try Helice.

All the replies are giving great info.

 

[Les53]

What a good idea Joe, I have always wanted to shake Sebastian by the throat.

But are we not missing the point somewhere in this thread?

How many people actually shoot Olympic Skeet ? Is there enough paying customers to make a dedicated Olympic layout financially viable?

Doveridge have fabulous skeet layouts, but because of a drop in utilisation the facility is beginning to look run down. 

Businesses need customers to make it economical.

It is the same with Olympic trap layouts, use it or lose it .

That's a good point Pete!!!!! OT and OSK  are a sort of minority games in the UK. There is another thread on here about my local ground, Southern Counties, we could lose the whole ground, not just the Olympic stuff. At the end of the day, shooting grounds are there to make money whether we like it or not, and if people don't use the facilities to a level where a decent profit is made, ground owners will do things that we don't like. We may as well face it, target shooting in all it's forms, are minority sports in the UK and governments do not like guns, neither does the mass media come to that. With this in mind I doubt that target shooting in this country will ever be anything more than it is right now, no matter how many gold medals are won! The governing bodies of target shooting in all it's forms, have done almost nothing over the years to promote the shooting sports to the general, non shooting public. We have god only knows how many governing bodies repesenting shooters and even bodies representing the bodies, but there seems not to be a good marketing man employed by any of them! Contrast this with the NRA, NSSA and ATA in the USA, these bodies have massive clout and can even influence government! Will it happen here? NO, of course it won't. Why? Because the bodies over here are only interested in their own agendas and they have to bow down to various other bodies who apparently represent us and them. I am not going to say any more than that because it makes my blood boil and it always opens a can of worms!

 

[Will Hewland]

Saw Amber Hill at EJC today, I assume practicing OSK.

 

[RobertBeard]

Broadmoor Shooting Gound in Devon has a Reg OSK comp coming up so that's a surprise for those of us in the South West who didn't know that they had an OSK layout