South West Single Barrel Inter-counties 2023 + 100 DTL - North Cornwall Shooting Ground 9/9/23

There's nothing quite like shooting under clear blue skies and wall to wall sunshine - except when it's hot enough to make you leak from places you forgot you could leak from!

We had 7 squads in total at North Cornwall, and I don't think any of us were really prepared for just how roasting it was going to be - my car thermometer said 25 degrees at 9 am!

Perfect conditions - just far too hot!

Luckily, there was just the hint of a breeze to keep the air moving, but not much else, so as well as being a shooting competition it was also an endurance test!

The ones who seemed to cope with it best were myself and Brian Prettejohn (using his spare gun that he only shoots every now and then).

Both of us shot 97, and we had the option of shooting off for the High Gun cash prize put up by the shooting ground.

The Devon A Team scorecard.

I was game for it, and Brian said he was happy to, so we did - and I won it with a 25 straight.

I think the heat was finally getting to Brian, but he still shot well and put in a 22, and it made a nice and interesting end to the whole team event.

Perhaps he should also use that gun more often!

There’s the shoot-off! The prize was only about £30, but it was good practice. Thank you for the contest Brian!

Speaking of the team event, neither mine nor Brian's score helped us much.

The Somerset B team (which he was on) were a man down through illness, and that really scuppered their chances at fighting for the shield as all 5 scores count towards the overall team score.

The Devon A team made a good effort, but it wasn't enough.

Somerset A were solid all day and finished 12 targets ahead of us on 459/500, and took both the Senior shield win and the Veterans trophy win.

Well shot chaps!

The winning Somerset team. Left to right: Phil Stott, Geoff Eltham, Gerrald Sweet (Captain), John Bradnam, Tony Dore.

I must also say very well shot to Steve Keyte, our Devon A team peg 5.

This was his first time shooting with the top 5 and he performed admirably, despite putting himself under pressure and saying he should have done better - which we've all done at some time or another, but there's no need for that Steve - you did well!

Cornwall A finished 3rd with 440/500; Devon B (which was made up on the day) were 4th with 424/500; then Cornwall B with 393/500; and finally the 4-man Somerset B on 334/500.

Now on to the DTL.

One squad shot in the rotation and went through with all the Single Barrel squads, which is why they are listed on the scoreboard in the picture.

The rest of us were given the option of also shooting the 100 DTL after the Single Barrel was all sorted out and the presentations done - and four of us decided we would, even though it was now REALLY hot!

I had my spare Krieghoff with me, which I'd spent a bit of time setting up last weekend (and I had intended to try it at Two Counties on the Sunday after the competitions, but decided not to - that's another story!) - so I thought, "Why not, I was going to do a practice round anyway!"

And it actually went very well for me!

Simon Ede was top score with 99/292, and I was sharing second place with Gerrald Sweet (he had 99/291, I had 98/291).

That's not bad after having already shot at 125 in very hot conditions, and with a gun I hadn't shot before!

The only adjustment I made to the stock was to drop the comb half a turn on the screws before the last round, and that made a huge difference.

Suddenly, it felt like I was shooting with my other gun (only with a tad more weight in the barrels), and those last 25 didn't make it very far!

The custom titanium chokes that I'd programmed and machined at work when one of my machines had some time between jobs worked rather well too.

I was going for two pairs the same, but ended up with two the size I wanted, and two slightly tighter.

The most open one is somewhere between 1/2 and 5/8; the next is between 5/8 and 3/4; the next is very close to 3/4; and the tightest is between 3/4 and 7/8.

I don't know what the pattern through them looks like yet (I'll have to take my portable pattern plate somewhere and try it), but it can't be that bad - the targets I hit were smashed apart pretty well!

The pattern plate will also confirm if the number 4 hanger is right, though right now it seems perfect.

My misses were completely down to me, not because my bottom barrel was shooting in a wierd place, so all in all, I'm very happy with the spare gun, and might use it a bit more during the winter so that I really feel at home with it before next year.

Thank you to Simon, Andy, and Albert for yet another good shoot that ran like clockwork, and well shot to everyone who took home a class prize in either discipline.

See you all at Two Counties in two weeks for the South West DTL Inter-counties!