Cornwall ABT Selection Shoot - Bradford Shooting Ground 29/4/23
Good afternoon all!
It’s been a while since I posted something, so what better way to rectify that than to cover what happened at the Cornwall ABT Selection Shoot held at Bradford yesterday.
Yes, I stepped on to the bottom rung of the fast trap ladder, and more than one person asked me if I’d made a mistake and got the date wrong – all in good spirits of course!
I was there because this year is all about enjoying my shooting - I am genuinely concerned about how long our sport has left – and after grinding away at DTL for so long, I feel like I need to shoot some more disciplines as well before the opportunities disappear.
On top of that, I said at the start of the year that I would try to vary the content a bit, except that as this is a personal blog written from my own experience, and it doesn’t support me financially in any way (it actually costs around £50 a month for Mighty Networks), there’s a limit to how much shooting I can do.
You’ll get what you get I’m afraid, so here we go!
The plan for yesterday was simple – shoot my targets as well as I can, and leave the heavy hitters to do what they do and tussle with each other.
Conditions were pretty much perfect, overcast with no wind, and targets that looked pretty straightforward at first glance.
That said, when I called for my first target of the day, a lowish hard left-hander came out, and I swung the gun through it so fast I ended up miles in front, never touching it – the usual response when all I see is an orange streak that looks like it’s doing 100 mph!
Well aware of what I’d done, and after some swift evaluation of setup and technique, I steadied down a bit and chipped my way through the next 14, missed a couple more, then hacked through the rest until the last one.
As I brought my gun up, something sat on the side of my barrels grabbed my attention (probably a fly), and I made schoolboy error number 1 – not resetting and calling for the target anyway – and left that one for breeding as well, giving me a 21 to start my day with.
The next couple of rounds were rather similar.
Sometimes I would be in front and have to put the brakes on to get them with the second barrel.
Other times I would never get to them and miss behind, or underneath if they were heading for the moon.
Mid way through round 3 I decided to experiment a little, trying my old DTL shooting style with a higher gun hold, and looking through the gun to see the target leave the trap, the aim being to reduce the speed and amount of gun movement – but that didn’t go so well (see if you can spot this part on the scorecard!).
It wasn’t until round 4 that I finally settled and felt like I had the measure of them, chomping my way through a solid 24, and finishing with a score of 86 for the day.
While I think that’s not too bad considering my very limited experience with ABT, the CPSA classification somehow says that I’m in A class (the top one) for it, and there was no hope of me taking home any prize money with that score!
Top of the board, and taking A Class and High Gun honours was Colin Chidley.
Colin pounded his way through the first 50 targets straight, and only missed 3 in the last 50 to finish with an excellent 97.
2nd in A, and 3 targets behind him was Duane McCulloch with a 94.
That turned out to be a popular score as Richard Chapple and Mr M Dalzell also scored 94 each to share the B Class win.
3rd in B (1st and 2nd prizes are added together and divided equally in the event of a tie) was Stuart Taylor, who had a perfect start with a 25 straight, but couldn’t sustain the momentum, finishing with a 90.
Who should stamp his mark on C Class and win it with a 91 but Paul Gorrett, who told Ian Moore before we started that he’d shoot 85 plus - and delivered it in fine style.
2nd in C saw another tie between Phil Caunter and Roger Hill who both shot 88.
D Class was won by Al Dungey with 82.
Well shot everyone, and thanks to Matt and Ian at Bradford for putting on the shoot for us.
I’ve said before that I tend to feel a little bored with ABT, but I enjoyed my day, and found it a refreshing change of scenery.
The boredom probably comes from not having a big enough reason to shoot the discipline, or something significant that I’m aiming for to keep me interested.
That’s certainly the case with my DTL – I lost something when Mid Wales and the Krieghoff competition as it was disappeared - but I still love grinding targets into clouds of soot, and there’s the matter of the DTL World Championship coming to Bywell in 2024.
I will be shooting that competition without fail, especially as Covid robbed me of the opportunity in 2020, but I’m having thoughts of pushing the boat out a little further and having a crack at an England ABT team place as well – although either thing will be very tough to achieve, and not exactly kind to the bank balance!
All I’ll say is, watch this space...