Bradford Shooting Ground 9/7/22

Bradford had two competitions running today – the first Devon Single Barrel selection shoot for 2022, and a 100 DTL Registered. We couldn’t shoot both, so a choice had to be made!

I elected to shoot DTL to flush out and deal with the gremlins that have plagued my away campaign so far this year, and it didn’t take long for them to appear.

This time though, I was looking for them!

About halfway through round one, I missed a straight-away target through a lapse in concentration. After the inevitable ounce of frustration had been thrown in the bin, I turned the focus dial up a couple of notches. My next few clays that left the trap didn’t know what hit them.

Then we got to round 2, and had a similar scenario with the 5th target out - another one left for breeding. Lack of focus is not the whole story then. A few moments of thought later, and I set about getting my mental discipline sorted, which paid immediate dividends.

I needed all I could get too as I was now 6 points down at half way, and others were taking advantage of the very close to perfect shooting conditions.

Not a cloud overhead!

Leading the field and locked together on 50/149 were Steve Parker and Alan Reece. I didn’t see any of Steve’s shooting, but Alan’s was something to watch. His timing was beautiful, and nearly every target was hit right in the middle. It was the kind of shooting that has “stonkin’ high score” written all over it!

Also going well were two of my squad mates, Malcolm Brown (50/147) and John Bradnam (49/147). Another 2 points behind them, and battling away in overall 3rd, were Keith Woolcock (49/145) and Andy Hill (50/145).

The way things were going, my 48/144 was looking a little off the pace, but I was finding my groove and gaining momentum rapidly.

My 3rd round – a 25/75 hit hard, and just as well! Steve kept hammering away, and though he had a couple of second barrels, he was still outright leader after 3 rounds on 75/222.

Alan had some bad misfortune in his 3rd round with misfires. After 3, the rules say that the shooter is offered the chance to change gun or cartridges, and if there are any more after that, it’s a lost target each time.

In all, he had 4, and is adamant he won’t be using those particular cartridges ever again! He went through the rest of the round and competition with different ones, but the damage had been done.

The disruption and failures cost him 7 points and the possible 100 straight. We tried all the duds in another gun, and none of them would fire. He was still in touch though on 74/218.

Malcolm had difficulties of his own, but not equipment related. An old injury to his hand means that sometimes he struggles to pull the trigger. It chose his third round to play up, and cost him 2 targets and 3 second barrels, ending his hopes for a high scoring day.

John however was shooting tidy. A 25/74 moved him up to 2nd with 74/221, and only 1 point behind Steve.

Andy was being Mr Consistent with another 25/73 to join Alan on 218, and he along with Steve were the only ones now who could finish up with a 100 straight.

I was now gaining ground on 73/219. My 3rd round had edged me past Alan and Andy, and the ones in front of me didn’t have as much room as the scoreboard might suggest, because by now, it was full steam ahead.

My last round was almost clinical. 24 balls of soot, and one second barrel that I was fortunate to crack in half, but as Malcolm says, “you can’t tell how hard they’re hit on the scorecard!”

That gave me a final score of 98/293 which was a very strong finish considering where I was at half way.

It also turned out to be the highest score of the day, though I had company in the top spot. One got away from John who had to settle for a 24/72 in his last round, and also finished on 98/293 and 1st in A class.

At this point, Alan and Andy could match us if they ran the last round straight. Unfortunately for Alan, another one got away from him and his final score was a respectable 98/290, though that was definitely not what could have been.

Steve faltered just a little bit, and dropped 5 points on the way to the finish line, ending up just behind John and I with 99/292.

That just left Andy as the only one who could hit them all and get the 100. He needed his second barrel twice more, but he got the job done with another 25/73, finishing with 100/291. Well shot Andy, that 100 was long overdue!

Someone else shooting well with his new Kreighoff was Frank Reynolds. The first outing for the gun in anger, and after a decent opening round of 24/70, he shot the next 75 straight with 5 second barrels, winning B class with a 99/290. I’ll have to keep half an eye on him in the future!

Jason Dyer stomped all over C class yet again with a 96/281, and with scores like that, it won’t be long before he’s moving up into B!

Meanwhile...

Over on the Single Barrel, there were 7 shooters for this selection. It would have been nice to have more, but Single Barrel tends to be less popular because of the lack of a second cartridge. My decision to shoot DTL this time didn’t help that, but I made the right decision.

This way, I can go into the Devon SB Championship is at Two Counties in a couple of weeks time in a much better frame of mind.

The two men to watch today were Nick Shadrick and Richard Ryan.

Nick had the dream start, a nice 25 straight, and Richard was only 1 behind him on 24. The two of them were very close all day, with Richard just edging ahead with a 25 of his own in the third round and finishing top of the scoreboard on 96. Nick finished 2nd on 95.

3rd place was shared between Richard Chapple and Ollie Durovic, both on 92. Chapple didn’t have the best start or end, but a well shot 50 straight in rounds 2 and 3 kept him in touch. Ollie had a dip in round 2, but built his way up to a strong 25 straight to finish with.

Stuart Taylor also got over a disappointing first half of his day, and carded back to back 24s to end up on 90.

Well shot to all class winners, and thank you to Matt at Bradford for another enjoyable day out on the range.

We’ll all be back at Bradford next week for the Bill Horne Memorial, and I’ll have a good bash at wresting that trophy away from Chris Smyth...