Innholdsfortegnelse for March 2020 i Clay Shooting

The popular DryFire target simulation system has got a refresh, with an update that provides new target options, better realism and an improved user interface. In recent years the DryFire target system has achieved international success with more than 20,000 users including Australia’s Aislin Jones, junior world Skeet champion. The company behind DryFire, Wordcraft International, has now launched Version 5, which adds support for Apple Mac computers and offers targets as laser dots on a wall or as images of clays projected onto a screen in front of the shooter. There’s a wide variety of optional backgrounds to add realism to practice. There is also improved animation for broken clays and shot patterns. The standard screen view shows a score card which is updated after every shot, while still allowing…

The Clay Shooting Classic is firmly established as one of the highlights of the clay shooting calendar, with a long history of exciting targets, stiff competition and a terrific atmosphere. Last year’s event, run by Steve Lovatt at Garlands SG, raised the bar, and this year the Classic moves to the fabulous Orston Shooting Ground in Nottinghamshire – where Dan and Emily Martin and their team are promising to host a memorable competition with plenty of new challenges as they break out beyond the usual boundaries to take in ground that visitors to Orston have never seen before. This year’s event also sees the return of the Services Day, which is back due to popular demand. There will be a massive prize pot, with generous cash prizes for classes and…

There’s a huge range of shooting glasses available, but most shooters are looking for something that will give good performance at an affordable price – which is exactly what these new Riley Edge Spotlight glasses are promising, so I was keen to give them a try. For £200, you get an impressive looking package, containing five entire sets of glasses, not just one frame and multiple lenses. They all come in a tough, zippered clamshell case with a foam insert to keep everything protected and in place. Also inside the case is a neck lanyard and soft pouch for carrying a single set in your pocket or range bag. Mysteriously the package also includes four AAA batteries which have no use with the glasses. Still, they will work in my…

In last month’s issue I described how my aunt and uncle came over from Canada in 2018 for a shooting tour of the Cotswolds. Over nine days we visited ten grounds, travelling 1,600 miles and firing 3,600 shells. We enjoyed it so much that we were eager to do it all over again. So in September 2019 we revisited five grounds from our 2018 trip and visited five new grounds. This time we went a bit further afield so the mileage was a little higher, at 2,000, and we fired the same number of cartridges, 1,200 each. The grounds we revisited were Ian Coley’s, EJ Churchill, Oxford Gun Company, Barbury and Royal Berkshire. Here’s how we got on at the new ones. Lains Shooting School Lains, near Andover in Hampshire,…

I ’ve shot mostly with O/Us ever since I bought a Winchester 101 in the 1970s, but I still have a soft spot for semi-autos. My first semi-auto was a Breda copy of probably the most famous semi-auto of them all, the Auto 5 designed by gun genius John Moses Browning. That Breda replaced my Greener GP single barrel, which I had moved on to from the hammer .410 I had as a youth. That was back when your gun licence was bought over the counter at the local Post Office – those were the days! Fast forward a few years and I was using the newly acquired Winchester 101 for everything – some pigeon shooting, but increasingly clays, as I joined my first club. Skeet was a key aspect…

Ten miles west of Wrexham, through the bracken-speckled hills and sleepy villages of North Wales, lies one of the UK’s greatest clay shooting competition shooting grounds, Fauxdegla. Its owner, Mike Faux, was originally a close protection officer, and spent many years watching over the rich and famous. Eventually the stress of the job caught up with him, and he suffered a devastating heart attack in 2006. “I was advised to take up a sport to try to relax,” explains Mike. “Around 2007 I was introduced to clay shooting. Soon after that the bug had bitten and I was a keen Sporting shot.” He travelled the country searching for challenging Sporting grounds – but he was still running a close protection business with over 80 full time staff. “It was very…

What better way to celebrate the festive season than South Wales 2000’s Olympic Skeet team Christmas shoot! I’ve been extremely busy these last few months, what with the European Championship in Lonato, then the British Shooting Grand Final and preparation for my first GSCE exam. The Christmas shoot was something I had been looking forward to throughout the whole year; it’s nice to get together with people from your discipline whose company you really enjoy and just spend the day blasting clays – or at least, those clays that don’t get driven into the ground by the ferocious Welsh mountain wind! I hadn’t been doing much training beforehand, partly because of my other commitments but also because I generally felt that I wanted to take a break and relax before…

What a muddle we’ve seen over shooting’s inclusion, or not, in the Birmingham 2022 Commonwealth Games! We were told it might be in, then it wasn’t, then it might be, then it wasn’t... and now, as you’ll see in our news pages this month, the latest suggestion is that the shooting and archery events could be held 4,000 miles away in India, months before the Games kick off in Birmingham in July 2022. And they said that Bisley was too far! So what is actually happening with shooting at the Commonwealth Games – and why are the Games so important for shooting anyway? You need to understand that shooting has been a part of the Commonwealth Games since Kingston in 1966, with the single exception of Edinburgh in 1970 –…

British shooting has some remarkable talent in the para shooting events, who rarely get the attention they deserve – people like Allan Ritchie, one of our most recent success stories from Scotland. Allan got into shooting as a mature shooter after a long period of working abroad in the oil industry, but in 2012, with a firm UK base he decided to give the sport a try. He met up with some new friends at Auchterhouse Country Sports, Dundee, who took him under their wing. Allan loved all aspects of shooting, but felt strongest in the Trap disciplines, managing to shoot a 294/300 within a very short time, as well as being able to shoot low 90’s at Skeet as a near novice. He was considering trying to shoot for…

Are you one of those lucky folks with naturally 20/20 vision, with no need of glasses or contact lenses? Well bully for you, long may it continue. You may want to flip the page and read something else, because this article is for the rest of us, we less than perfect specimens who need a little help to focus further than we can reach with an outstretched arm. Still reading? OK, I take it that, like me, you wouldn’t stand a chance of hitting a target without glasses, or perhaps contact lenses. That’s fine, because we can go to an optician and get the gear we need to see perfectly well. In my case that’s varifocal glasses, with bands of different strength so I can see properly at distance, middle…

Lea Marston Shooting Club welcomed the Aston Villa Women Football Club for a friendly day of competition on a chilly but sunny 4 January. The day was organised by CPSA Coach Paul Dancer, who was inspired after recognising that the two sports shared transferable skills. With the team arranged into three squads – Forwards, Midfield and Defenders – four stands were shot, with five clays at each. Conditions were very bright, with the low winter sun making visibility tricky. Wind was light. The stands were set up for novices, but two of them provided a real challenge. Stand two, an incomer, rose quickly and dropped equally fast, with little dwell time. Stand four quartered away quickly with a nasty curve. Even Lizzie Williams, ambassador for the day, was caught out.…

See you at the British Shooting Show! Clay Shooting magazine will be at the British Shooting Show, at the NEC in Birmingham from 14 to 16 February. We’ll be sharing a stand with our colleagues from Sporting Rifle, Airgun Shooter and Gun Trade News – and we’d love to meet readers, so drop in for a chat! Also at the show, we’ll be announcing the winners of our Great British Shooting Awards. Look out for a full report in our next issue. CPSA major events booking up fast Entries are filling up fast for the major CPSA championships of 2020, including the World English Sporting and World Sportrap at EJ Churchill in June, and World DTL Championship at Bywell in July. Entries opened on the CPSA website in December, and…

Older shooters will fondly remember Maionchi AZ20 cartridges – well, they’re back! The AZ20 was a popular clay load in the 1980s, and some shooters swore by them for pigeon shooting too. Now Garlands, based near Tamworth in Staffordshire, are distributing the Italian cartridges in the UK, offering them in 21, 24 and 28 gram loads with plastic or fibre wads. The bold blue and yellow boxes will look familiar too. Maionchi say that their shells are “loaded with high quality components, assembled with care and passion, from the plastic case, identified by the Maionchi metal head, to the best primers, powders and wads.” They add “after detailed research, development and awareness of the market’s new needs, time has finally come to bring back this prestigious brand to consumers who…

The British Schools & Young Shots Championship is the big one for individual young shots and school teams from around the country. It’s the UK’s national championships for under-18s, and will see the country’s finest young talent competing over three courses of varying difficulty – Red, Blue and Black – at Orston Shooting Ground in Nottinghamshire on Saturday 25 April. The competition has become renowned for highlighting emerging talent in the world of clay shooting, with previous winners including Brody Woollard, Ronnie Green and Alfie Tibbles. Last year the trophy went to Joshua Bennion, who shot a perfect 50-straight around the course at Atkin Grant & Lang. In the team categories, Bloxham School put in a tremendous performance, winning the Red and Black course prizes and scooping first and second…

Do barrels need a licence? Q I’ve been using the same shotgun for clay shooting for the last the few stock years fully . I spent fitted some and money it works having increase very well the for gun me ’s . I flexibility now want by to adding tighter another chokes set of longer – I’d rather barrels do with that than then buy a need whole fitting new gun and might which never would feel should the same be . Getting fairly straightforward hold of the barrels but barrels what is need the legal to be situation added to ? my Do the Shotgun they Certificate simply , as count a new as gun a spare would part , or for do the existing gun? A Shotgun barrels are…

This month I would like to give you some inspiration about strengthening your shooting. With spring in the air, the major competitions will soon be here, so how is your preparation going? I hope that you have a plan to ensure that you are fully ready for the big occasions. How strong and well thought-out is your plan? Know your strengths To help you plan, you should know what your strengths are, and how you use them in shooting. Then, to help with your direction of development, you should decide what strengths you will need in order to get where you want to go with your shooting. Knowing all of this will help you develop a strong game plan. There are many things that you could think of as strengths.…

I had an early morning start and a six-hour round trip on 1 December, when I shot the 3rd Winter Series at East Yorkshire Clay Shooting Ground. It was bitterly cold throughout the day, but overall a good shoot. I started off strong shooting a 25/75, but then a stupid mistake on my third line cost me a good score. However, I still managed to shoot a 97/284 which I was quite happy with. Yet again, I shot with a great squad, and all being well I will be shooting with them for the rest of the Winter Series. The official CPSA rankings were released on 12 December, and I am pleased to say that I have placed 7th in both Ladies and Juniors in the country. Considering I only…

Quite apart from being compulsory on shooting grounds, hearing protection is essential if you want to retain full use of your ears. All of us will suffer from a little degradation in our hearing as we grow older, and this mild loss can prompt us to have a rather laissez faire attitude toward hearing protection. Standard passive muffs or plugs can seem a pain when wearing them means you can’t hear anything at all, never mind hold a conversation. This is where a set of active ear defenders really start to make sense. Speaking from personal experience, I suffer from a mild form of hearing loss where I find it difficult to pick conversation out from background noise. Wearing passive muffs or plugs effectively renders me deaf to shooting mates…

Every gun could tell a story or two, but some have more to tell than others. The very first Perazzi MT6, serial number 100,000, pictured here has a fascinating history, starting with its creation by the Italian 1964 Olympic gold medallist Ennio Mattarelli, and finishing up in the hands of Alex King, a keen shooter and reader of this magazine, who lives in Dorset. Along the way, the gun travelled to New Zealand and Papua New Guinea, and was reunited with Ennio’s tobacco pipe which had inspired the design of the action. It is thanks to Alex, and his friend ‘Mike the Gun’, that the gun’s history has been unearthed and is now recorded for posterity. Alex bought the gun from Mike a few years ago and set about researching…

India will host a Commonwealth shooting event during 2022, the year of the XXII Commonwealth Games in Birmingham. The shooting won’t be part of the Games, but medals won will count in the standings, and world records will be recorded in both qualifications and finals. The ISSF will provide technical support and guarantee compliance with rules and regulations. The competition program is likely to include four Mixed Team events, three of which are included in the program for Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games. The arrangement is a compromise reached after months of negotiations – Birmingham 2022 did not include shooting in its programme. The announcement came after a meeting in Munich in December 2019 between ISSF President Vladimir Lisin and Commonwealth Games Federation president Dame Louise Martin. The decision was supported…

If you want to take on the world and win, you need two things. A natural disposition to destroy every clay that flies out of the trap, and an excellent coach to guide you all the way to the podium. Luckily for Ed Ling, his own father was able to provide both of these vital ingredients. “It all started on the family farm with my dad, Steve,” says Ed. “He would launch the odd target with a manual trap for me to hit. Soon enough I was addicted.” A simple enough beginning and one that I’m sure many of us are familiar with. However, as a world-class shot and coach, Ed’s father knew how to turn that new found addiction into an Olympic medal winning career. “My father supported me…

Last month we looked at how you might take your very first shots with a shotgun at a have-a-go day, follow up with a few lessons, and reach the point where you’ve decided yes, shooting is something you’d like to pursue. If you missed that article, go back and take a look – there’s plenty of useful advice on getting started. Once you’ve taken a few lessons and are making progress, it won’t be long before you want to get your own gun instead of borrowing one from the shooting ground. Of course we all love shiny new kit, but there are good reasons why you should get your own gun rather than carry on using a ‘school’ gun. Most importantly, you can choose a shotgun specifically to fit you,…

Shooting psychology is a subject which has attracted much more interest in recent years. I have seen more articles on it, and many more people offering their services as sports psychologists, mind trainers and the like. I don’t decry what they do; on the contrary, I have seen a lot of interesting stuff. My own ideas and methods have been broadened by it too. As a long-time shooting instructor I do find that many people seem to have an issue with the mental game – or at least they come to believe that they do, and perhaps that is the key point. So I am truly interested in the field of sports psychology, but let’s cut to the chase. I don’t want to offend anyone, but I think there is…

Regular readers will have seen the report on The Schools Challenge Grand Final in the last edition of this magazine. I made it to the final shoot-off, but had to be content with the runner-up position as Ron Chipman pipped me to the big prize of the MG car. For me, the day itself was a great experience, and although the events didn’t wholly go my way, it has taken a few days for me to realise the lessons and the positives that can be taken from the Grand Final. I now know, more clearly than ever, what I must practise to improve my chances in the future. Fortunately for me, I don’t get nervous in a shoot, but the Grand Final shoot off was completely different. Going into the…

• Push button on-off • Push button volume control • Low battery warning • Two-year warranty • WaterShield coating • Size 13 Zinc Air battery • 33 colour options for moulded plug • Six colour options for module battery cover • EN352-2 & & SNR 25dB • Deluxe packaging including: the modules and earpieces, 36 batteries, air puffer, cleaning gel, cleaning wipes, CENS patch, CENS cap, small case, caribiner, 2 power magnets, large carry case, CENS wallet, user guide, feedback card, warranty cards, presentation box, quick start guide…

Ennio Mattarelli is a legend in the world of Trap shooting. He won the Olympic Trap World Championship in 1961 and the Grand Italia and European Championship in 1964, then went on to win the Olympic gold medal in Trap shooting at the Tokyo Games later than year, finishing with a score of 198 ex-200. Ennio’s gold brought attention to the Perazzi name, as the gun was then new to the competitive arena. Ennio went on to represent his country again in the 1968 Mexico Olympics, this time shooting with a Perazzi MX8. Although this time his performance wasn’t his finest, he went on to win the World Championship crown for a second time in San Sebastian in 1969. He had laid the foundations for Perazzi to become synonymous with…

BEDFORDSHIRE Chicksands Clay Target Club Shefford, CPSAAffiliated Disciplines: ESP, DTL, STR Open alternate Sundays and Wednesdays over Summer. Contact for competition details. Practice and coaching available Telephone: www.facebook.com/charlelister Email: info@chicksandsclaytarget.co.uk Web: www.chicksandsclaytarget.co.uk Maulden Gun Club Clophill Road, Maulden, CPSAAffiliated Disciplines: ESP Competition alternate Sundays. Practice and coaching for members only. Fibre wad only Telephone: 07951 651051 Web: www.mauldengunclub.com Shillington Clay Club Shillington, CPSAAffiliated Disciplines: ESP Shooting every other Sunday Telephone: 07860 940362 Email carol@hcduk.com Sporting Targets Ltd Riseley, CPSA Premier Ground Disciplines: DTL, ESK, ESP, FSP, DR, SB, STR, Fitasc Open 9am-6pm weekdays and Saturdays, 9am-2pm Sundays. Regular competitions. Practice all hours. Pre-booked coaching. Telephone: 01234 708893 Email: reception@sportingtargets.co.uk Web: www.sportingtargets.co.uk Tythe Farm Gun Club Disciplines: ESK, OSK Some OSK competitions & practice. Coaching available by arrangement. Telephone: 07719 329094…