Innholdsfortegnelse for Summer 2019 i Clay Shooting

It’s been another month full of highlights – and for us the standout event must be our own Clay Shooting Classic at Garlands. There’s a full report starting on page 14. It was a full six days of great targets, fantastic shooting and a wonderful festival-like atmosphere. Our tent in the trade village was buzzing as shooters stopped by for a chat on their way to and from the layouts, and I’m grateful for all the compliments and constructive feedback about the event and the magazine. You’ll see that I have, perhaps rashly, printed my email and phone number in the column on the right – that’s because I really do want to hear from readers with news stories, ideas and suggestions. The more you participate, the better this magazine…

British Shooting have announced the team that will represent GBR at the ISSF Shotgun World Championships in Lonato from 30 June to 11 July. The competition is a key event in the ISSF calendar, featuring Olympic Trap and Olympic Skeet – with plenty of valuable chances for British athletes to secure all-important Tokyo 2020 quota places. As this issue goes on sale, GBR is competing in the Minsk 2019 European Games, the last senior multi-sport event prior to next summer’s Olympic Games. It will provide invaluable experience for the British athletes hoping to travel to Tokyo as part of Team GB – including defending Women’s Skeet champion Amber Hill who said: “The last Games in Baku was a special event for me as it was where I secured my place…

Richard Atkins Clay Shooting’s resident technical expert, Richard has decades of experience reviewing guns, cartridges and accessories. He’s well equipped to solve problems on everything from shot sizes to stock dimensions. Stuart Farr A lawyer specialising in the shooting sports, Stuart has extensive experience in all things legal – from solving civil disputes relating to firearms ownership, to helping a governing body draft its code of ethics. Ed Lyons Director of Flint & Partners, Ed’s optometry work has helped top-level athletes reach their goals on domestic and international level. Countless shooters rely on him to keep their vision in top shape.…

Round 1 of the British Shooting shotgun series, kindly hosted by the National Clay Shooting Centre, Bisley took place on 27-28 April. This was going to be a different season compared to 2018. Two team selections were being crammed into one competition: the CPSA’s England team selection and British Shootings’ Great Britain team selection! This format would also apply to round 2 of the shotgun series. The Friday before the competition my family and I traveled to Bisley for the pre-event training. When we arrived, the sun was just above the horizon, bathing the landscape with the perfect amount of light for breaking targets. As a bonus there was no wind whatsoever, so the targets flew straight and at the perfect height. As the morning progressed, I managed to shoot…

NEED TO KNOW Where: Hatfield House, Hertfordshire When: Friday 26 July to Sunday 28 July (6am to 6pm, open till 7:30pm on the Friday. Stands and attractions open at 9am). Gun storage: Storage is available from 8.30am to 5pm on Friday, Saturday and Sunday. There is no overnight storage. This service costs £10 per gun per day. Cartridges: If you are bringing your own cartridges for the Subaru shooting line, note that it is fibre wad only. Tickets: Early bird tickets are on sale now via www.thegamefair.org or 0844 776 7777. Ticket prices: Adult One day advance £27 One day gate price £34 Three days advance £75 Child aged 8 to 16 One day £10 Three days £30 Family (two adults and up to three children) One day advance £67…

The number refers to the percentage of light allowed through the lens, hence the 10ED filters 90 per cent of visible light, while the 94HC filters only six per cent. The letters are usually an acronym for the lens effect and colour shift, so for example the new 16CRHC is a 84 per cent filter with Chromashift Red: High Contrast effect. Progressive lenses have no number, as the light transmittance varies across the lens. Instead they are simply given an acronym for their colour. PC is Progressive Cherry, and PLM is Progressive Lime, for instance.…

It was time to get competitive. Surgery in late 2018 had frustratingly kept me away from shooting for three months, and during my recovery I’d had time to mull over what I wanted to achieve the following year. I had progressed from lessons to caddied rounds, then to self-caddied rounds and even some coaching sessions. I was keen to attain a good standard in the sport, and the next logical step was to move up to competitive shooting. I settled on a goal of reaching B class by the end of 2019. My first shoot with a competitive element happened more by accident than design. One Saturday I pitched up at Hereford & Worcester Shooting Ground for some practice. I was told that on Saturdays the club shoot was the…

The evening of 26th April saw my local council’s youth awards being held. These recognise the achievements of 11-19 year olds in the local borough in categories ranging from volunteer work to sports. I was nominated for the sports category alongside world and European champions, and I’m pleased to say that I won! I’m so thankful that people in my area have recognised my achievements and my sport, especially as it is one that not everyone has heard of. Thank you to the people who nominated me for such a fantastic award. The month of May hasn’t been very busy for me in terms of shooting, but it has been in terms of my education. That’s right… my GCSEs have begun! Before my exams began in earnest, I drove up…

Sun 26 July Skeet Women’s Qualification – Day 1 Skeet Men’s Qualification – Day 1 Mon 27 July Skeet Women’s Qualification – Day 2 Skeet Men’s Qualification – Day 2 Skeet Women’s Finals Skeet Women’s Victory Ceremony Skeet Men’s Finals Skeet Men’s Victory Ceremony Wed 29 July Trap Women’s Qualification – Day 1 Trap Men’s Qualification – Day 1 Thu 30 July Trap Women’s Qualification – Day 2 Trap Men’s Qualification – Day 2 Trap Women’s Finals Trap Women’s Victory Ceremony Trap Men’s Finals Trap Men’s Victory Ceremony Sat 1 August Trap Mix Qualification Trap Mix Finals Trap Mix Victory Ceremony…

This column all too often becomes a bit of a moan, if not an actual rant, about something that’s got my goat – so let’s talk about something positive for once! I recently visited the Northern Shooting Show for the first time. I’d heard nothing but good things about the show, but for one reason or another had never been able to attend, so this year I jumped at the chance. I wasn’t disappointed. It was a great show with a really good atmosphere. The organisers were friendly and helpful, I got in and out with minimal delay on both days, and the show did what it said on the tin – it was a shooting show, without a load of candy floss and garden furniture stalls shoehorned in to…

Neil Parsons from the Isle of Man shot the only 100-straight in three days to win the English Open Skeet Championship at Doveridge on 10-12 May. But it was 17-year-old Becky Clarey who was the unexpected star of the competition. With several ladies tied on 98 ex-100, a crowd of spectators gathered to watch the battle for the title. “Young Becky Clarey demonstrated skill and maturity beyond her years to win not just the ladies and junior titles but also the best newcomer trophy,” comments Andy Parsons, who himself shot a 99 and won the shoot-off for the overall silver. Becky took up shooting at age 11, initially on Sporting, and switched to Skeet three years ago. She is coached at Doveridge by Dave Beardsmore, and has won a few…

Longthorne Gunmakers unveiled their first ever purpose-built clay gun at the Northern Shooting Show. Elaine Stewart explained that it is an off-the-shelf model, unlike their other guns which are bespoke – but it retains Longthorne’s patented barrel technology, with the barrels machined from a single block of steel. “That makes our barrels stronger and lighter,” Elaine explains. “We can even proof them for steel up to full choke.” The new gun is a true sidelock with an unembellished matt black finish, giving it a purposeful look, and comes with multichokes or fixed chokes. It comes in at £12,995, considerably less than the company’s beautifully engraved game models, which start at £17,400. The gun was first seen at the show, having been assembled the night before it opened. It hadn’t been…

“An admirable demonstration of the principle that good design need not be overly complex” Turkish gunmakers have clearly made considerable progress in the UK over recent years. The guns now coming out of Turkish factories are increasingly more refined and attuned to the UK market. ATA has been proactive in producing new models with features attractive to various market sectors. As we see here, the clay target market is one ATA has put considerable thought and effort into in order to bring attractive, efficient and well-priced guns to the UK market. ATA has a huge manufacturing capacity, with state-of-the-art CNC machining centres and a strong R&D capability. With their broad range of guns, which includes semi-automatic and O/U shotguns, their progress over the past five years has been remarkable. At…

Clay shooting actually involves more of the senses than people may think. You’re holding the gun (touch), watching for the clay (sight) and listening for the sound of the trap (hearing). If you count the smell of victory and taste of defeat, you have the big five of bodily senses. Combine this with having to judge distance and height, speed and terrain, and accounting for wind and rain, and clay shooting ends up being an incredibly complex sport. All of these are then dependent on the exact time you pull that trigger. A particular area of sports science covers this complex list well: Hand-eye coordination. “The faster your eyes and brain work, the quicker you can decide how to move your torso, arms and trigger finger” This is like any…

Clay Shooting has teamed up with The Game Fair to give away one pair of adult tickets (worth £68 per pair) to one day of the countryside festival and a Have-A-Go attempt on the Clay Pigeon Shooting Association (CPSA) stand (worth £12 per person) to five lucky readers. To enter, simply answer this question: Where will The Game Fair 2019 be held? (a) Ragley Hall (b) Blenheim Palace (c) Hatfield House. To enter just go to www.clay-shooting. com/competitions and submit your answer by 10/07/2019. Good luck!…

Pilla’s frame design, with its distinctive ‘hands around your head’ forked arms, was pioneered on the company’s Outlaw series and is engineered to reduce the felt weight on the nose. This design will get a new version this year with the release of the Copa Mundial (World Cup) frame. The Copa Mundial frame is a new concept in frame design with a vertical hinge in the arm that allows the user to set the angle of the lens on their face to optimise its panoscopic angle. Don’t worry, I’ve looked that up so you don’t have to – it’s the horizontal angle of the lens in relation to your gaze. In simple terms, the closer to perfectly perpendicular your gaze is to a transparent medium that you are looking through,…

About 10 years ago, I was at a competition at Southern Counties Shooting Ground, chatting to my friend David Beattie from Northern Ireland. David was very excited. “We’ve got a great woman shooter for Olympic Trap in Northern Ireland,” he said. “She’s going to do great things. She’s a grand lass, and you’d better look after her – be nice to her – you’ll like her!” The lady concerned was Kirsty Barr (now Kirsty Hegarty), and she is certainly doing great things. For those that don’t know, Kirsty was the first clay shooter to secure a quota place for Great Britain in the Tokyo Olympics next year. She did this by winning Silver in the Olympic Trap competition at the ISSF World Cup in Al Ain, UAE. Kirsty’s success story…

‘Be honest with yourself. It’s very easy to have a bad day, we all have them. The temptation to blame it on external factors such as hard targets, poor light or injury is very tempting. You can learn a lot from a bad day, such as how to prevent them in the future.’ – Allan Ritchie ‘Shoot for yourself. A round of 25 is 25 individual competitions of one target at a time. Don’t think about scores or worry about what anyone else has hit. Just focus on what is in front of you at that moment. If you are relaxed and happy then the scores will follow.’ – Maddie Purser ‘Learn to shoot technically correct before you have a gun fitted. Otherwise you will have a gun fitted to…

We began this month with the England Sporting selection shoot at Barbury. A windy Saturday was forecast, so it was a busy shoot on the Sunday. There were some big targets and tough sim pairs, exactly as there should be at a Sporting shoot, but there was also a good balance, including some easier stuff. Cheryl and I didn’t start well, dropping most of our targets on the easier stuff, but we improved as the day went on. Cheryl ended up on 80 and I managed 84. Meanwhile, Billy Baughan put in a truly exceptional 95 to finish two clear of the field. That was the last of our English Sporting shoots for a while; we switched to Fitasc for the England Selection Shoot at Westfield. We started on the…

Beverley ground reopens The former Beverley Clay Target Centre has reopened as The East Yorkshire Clay Shooting Ground, and scheduled its first CPSA registered 100 Olympic Trap shoot on 16 June. The popular ground was used as a training venue for Team GB and held numerous competitions over the years, but its lease was not renewed last summer and the ground closed. Now the Hall family, Rob, Gill and Lucy, have taken it on and say: “Thank you all for your support and patience over the last few months. Please like the ground’s Facebook page to receive further updates and we look forward to seeing you at the ground.” North Downs English Sporting Horne CPC are holding the North Downs English Sporting Championships at their Gatton Bottom Shooting Ground near…

Optilabs are proud to be sponsoring clay shooting champion Becky McKenzie with their performance eyewear for the fourth year running. Becky struggled with her prescription lenses before discovering Optilabs in 2015. “Optilabs explained the differences between my old lenses and theirs, and they made me a pair of their ProVision shooting glasses,” she says. “My vision when shooting improved 100 per cent.” For the 2019 season, Optilabs are sponsoring Becky with two sets of their FLOW frames with prescription lenses – yellow lenses for low light, and Transitions Drivewear lenses for sunshine and brighter conditions. “I’ve been using this frame and lens combination for several months now,” she comments. “Wearing them I recently became English Open Compak Ladies Champion, which I’m thrilled about.” Becky maintains that Optilabs lenses are the…

“Phil Pilla is a perfectionist, and after speaking with him for only a few minutes it becomes obvious that he is genuinely passionate about his product” Pilla eyewear is certainly an extravagance, and as such is viewed by some in the shooting fraternity as only being for people with more money than sense. Yet there are others for who these glasses are essential kit, which they would no more leave behind than their cartridges or ear defenders. Having tried all manner of eyewear over the years, I am unapologetically in the latter camp. While interviewing Phil and researching this article, I gained some insight into why the Pilla product line-up is made to such an exacting standard. Phil Pilla is a perfectionist, and after speaking with him for only a…

The 2019 English Open Sporting took place on 22-26 May at West Midlands Shooting Ground, Hodnet. More than 1200 shooters entered the five day event, enjoying the twists and turns of the course, designed by ground owner Tom Jones, as it meandered through the wooded banks of the ground. The highlight of the 120 target 15 stand layout was the final station which featured a unique target presentation. This was the fruition of a long standing ambition of Tom’s. He has been hoping to put on a vertical “reverse teal” driven downwards into the ground so Promatic built him a one-off trap that allowed him to do exactly that. With both gravity and a tightly wound spring working together the speed of the clay was quick enough to ensure that…

Shotgun shooting may not look like an active sport but it involves the whole body from your head to your toes. Much like swinging a golf club or hitting a tennis ball, you need a smooth, controlled movement, and that starts from the ground up. The position of your feet, your stance and balance, provide the foundation for a good swing on the target and a successful shot. In clay shooting you have the advantage of knowing in advance where your target will be. You can watch the squad ahead of you, or call to see the targets when you arrive at the stand. Make sure you pay close attention to each target of the pair – where do you first see the clay, what flight path does it follow,…

KOFS BLACK DIAMOND One of the real breakthrough guns of 2018 and, for the price, certainly looks the part, with black action and oil finished woodwork. The Kofs action is lightweight and reliable, and the price point is ideal for those on a budget or just starting out in the sport. Available in 28” or 30” barrels and complete with multichokes. ATA NICKEL ADJUSTABLE The ATA Nickel Adjustable is another superb-value gun from the ATA stable. With an adjustable stock, it is ideal for those wanting precision gun fit without the price tag. Matte-finish oiled walnut, matte finish barrels and minimalist nickel-colour action make for an attractive, contemporary-looking gun. Multi choke barrels. ATA SILVER LINE Where do we start with the ATA Silver Line? A very pretty gun, with scroll-engraved…