North Cornwall Shooting Ground 13/1/24

You know, there are times when I wonder if some of us DTL shooters are a bit mad. It didn't get above 2 degrees C all day, yet there were still three full squads that turned up at North Cornwall to make some noise and break some targets.

Actually, the only thing wrong with the conditions was the cold. Otherwise we had pretty much the best combination you can have at North Cornwall for shooting - still air and a grey sky.

Cold, but otherwise perfect conditions for North Cornwall SG.

This was my first outing of 2024, and after a pretty quiet second half of 2023 (which was largely enforced by some big expenses meaning I had to be mindful of the bank balance), I knew I needed to get some trigger time in and see if I could improve on the scores I have for the England Team selection process coming up.

Up until today I had four 291s and a 294 which, while not amazing, would probably get me into the qualifiers. But momentum is an important thing, and I like to go into the selections knowing that I'm in a good position and shooting fairly well.

On top of that, my goal of qualifying in a top 5 England team spot is yet to be achieved, and the World DTL Championships are looming. Performing well enough to secure the first thing and make an impact at the second is going to take a lot more than run-of-the-mill mid 290s scores.

So, today was an ideal opportunity to put myself under a bit of pressure and see where I'm at before things get serious. And just to make it even more interesting, I took my second K80 (the one with the multi-choke barrels) to give it a proper go - though not with the titanium chokes I made.

The patterns they throw are not as tight or as uniform as I would like, and I want to make some more with some tweaks to the internal sizes and profile when I have a chance. That can't happen in time for this year's season, so the factory number 2 and 2+ steel chokes went in the gun (effectively 1/2 and 5/8).

When I got to North Cornwall I was glad to see two things. The first was that there are a few names on the score cards that could really push me, and give me just the sort of competition I'm looking for. And the second was the lit wood burner in the clubhouse! The only problem with that, once you were nice and warm, you didn't want to go back outside!

If only this would heat the layouts as well!

But we did, and the competition got under way. I discovered three more things very quickly. First, Lyalvale Express Power Golds + K80 factory number 2 choke = seriously good pattern (there were no pieces of my first target left whatsoever). Second, the spare K80 is REALLY nice to shoot (it handles smooth and steady and doesn't recoil much at all). And third, someone else had also turned up with a mission in mind.

I wanted a challenge - Ben Keightley gave me one. I shot a perfect 25/75 in round 1, so did he. In round 2, he dropped a single point, so did I. Round 3 was a repeat of round 2, and 75 targets in we were inseperable, both on 75/223.

While this was going on, Chris Smyth recovered from a less than perfect start (a 24/70) and got into his stride, reeling off a perfect middle 50/150. Simon Ede was also doing a good job with a middle 50 straight of his own, and both of them were lurking on 74/220, ready to pounce if either me or Ben made a costly error.

Going into round 4, I'm actually in the best position I could possibly be in as far as competition training is concerned - absolutely no room for error, someone shooting as well as me with no signs of giving way, two very seasoned competitors bearing down on us, and the very cold conditions testing my resolve and mental strength.

Unfortunately for Ben, he second-barrelled his 5th target which was just what I needed. Feeling like I'd won the psychological battle, I forged ahead with another perfect 25/75 to end up top of the board on 100/298.

Ben went on to barrel two more targets, but kept the form he'd shown all day and finished on a very strong 100/295, which won him A class.

Chris also showed his class by shooting another 25/75 in his last round (and also meant he'd smashed a perfect 75 targets straight), giving him a score of 99/295 and tieing with Ben in overall 2nd place.

Simon finished just behind them on a very respectable 99/293.

Al Dungey won C class with a 94/273, and Rob Northey picked up second in C with a 93/269.

So all in all it was an almost perfect start to my year. My form is still good despite the quiet few months after my epic weekend at Bywell last year, and I now have a very good score to use for England.

There's still a very long way to go though.

Thank you to Simon, Andy and Albert at North Cornwall for the shoot today, and maybe next time you can do something about the thermostat chaps. Or perhaps get some underfloor heating put in...