Beautiful morning for a drive down to Wiltshire for another lovely shoot at Wylye SG. Sunshine all the way, clear roads and I was booked on about 10.40 - card 58, so pretty busy out on the course.
Saw Robo + 1, Snipey in the club house and LHS and TipTop out on the ground - but I went round on my own today as I wanted to try out a few new things with my shooting and then try and get back for the football.
Usual good quality shoot from Ian - I started on Stand 11 with my traditional opening straight at Wylye, then worked my way along. There was a nice sim pair of rabbits which needed a bit of respect and a lovely stand on the bank with a close range left to right followed by a high driven midi - which I struggled with before I realised it needed a farm gate of leeeeed. A really enjoyable sim pair of left to right loopers which had everyone talking about the right way to shoot... I went the wrong option and first, then settled on the right then the left for a 5. I enjoyed stand 7 as well - a flat going away up the hill followed by a high left to right looper which needed loads as well.
FInished on the stroll back with another nice stand - left to right battue followed by a high right/left midi - which I took 9 from to finish on 63. I was pretty happy with that. All in all - lovely day of shooting - an excelent course from Wylye coupled with warm spring sunshine. Well worth the trip.
The new things I tried? Well - the new recoil pad from LHS is about a quarter of an inch thicker than the previous one - and as I've been told that my gun is too small, it made sense to see if that would improve my fit & mount at all. I have to say - it felt a bit more comfortable and I felt a bit more in touch with the gun. Secondly, I tried shooting as much as possible gun-down - that's ahead of my foray in FITASC next week - I know that I made a few mounting errors along the way - so more consistency needed there. More practice.
The final thing was trying to adjust my trigger finger a little bit - it has been pointed out to me that I 'wrap my finger' around my trigger a bit - and I could possibly benefit from using the pad of my forefinger instead. That adjustment was a bit strange and I found myself slipping back into the old way a bit more, need to develop a bit more muscle memory there.
Certainly - some dry-mounting practice and the new recoil pad has helped a bit this week - if only with confidence.
