It was dry, cloudy with a bit of wind (not from the Xmas sprouts!) for the first meeting of 2020. There was a good turnout of 18 members, 15 who shot for the annual 'Bushy' Simultaneous pairs Tankard, 20 true pairs. The other 3 shooters shot either 30 or 40 single targets.

The course was set over 5 stands being 5,6,7, the driven and the Skeet sporting with 4 of the same pairs on each. Stand 5 gave us a pair of good L/R crossers. Stand 6 had a high pair of R/L midi crossers. Stand 7 were a pair of relatively close loopers. The driven were driven! And the skeet layout showed us a pair of high incoming crows. Stands 5 and 6 were probably the most challenging targets, but plentiful misses were seen on the other 3 too!

 

Mike’s squad:

There were nine in our squad, with seven shooting the competition and the two ladies shooting singles.

Some good shooting was observed in the competition, Phil struggled on some of the targets, Simmo, Mike and John P all ending around 50%. Fred taking a good 25 and Martin and Kevin battling it out to end on 26 apiece in joint 3rd place.

The ladies shot well, Clare with a fine 19/30 and a special mention of Cath shooting singles with her double gun and achieving a personal best of 20/40, well done!

 

Bev’s squad:

Eight shot the competition in this group plus Ian who shot his black powder hammer gun. We witnessed some excellent shooting with a number of notable performances. In particular Bushy and Viking who both straighted stand 5, one of the hardest stands and Dave Elvin who shot consistently well with his flinter to end up in second position with 27. Bev also strung a few kills together to end up joint 3rd with 26. But at the end, way out in front was the competition's founder, Bushy with an astounding 33 from the 40 targets.

 

The winner’s trophy, an engraved glass tankard, went to Bushey, but that wasn’t the only prize. As it was Bushy’s 70th birthday he had generously donated £70 of prize money which was to be divvied out as seen fit. £30 went to second place Dave Elvin with the remainder shared between 2 random competitors whose names were picked out of a hat; their scores being added together. Martin and Bev were the lucky ones, their combined score being 52 narrowly beating Dave E and Viking with 51.

 

The fun was still not over, Peter Dann who did not attend due to ill health, had sent over a fantastic 70th Birthday cake made by his daughter. It had been specially decorated for Bushy. On the top was the image of a powder flask, around the outside there were discs representing clay pigeons and because there was insufficient space for his name she had fitted in the image of a bush, what else!!

 

Scores:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Next Meeting:

Saturday 15 February at Cambridge gun club. Singles and doubles targets (30/40) will be set so shoot whatever gun brings you pleasure.

 

Mike and Bev provided the words

 

15 February 2020 - Club Shoot

Breezy would be a gross understatement as a description of the wind strength for this month’s club shoot. It would also be an insult to ‘Storm Dennis’. Even so 13 hardy souls ventured out to shoot either the 30 single or 40 double targets. The layouts chosen were divided between the pond and skeet. The forecast promised heavy squally showers and these 2 layouts offered undercover protection for the shooters, but as you can imagine the targets had to face the elements which made them ‘interesting’. It was a real pleasure to welcome Allan Wellings and Anne who had travelled all the way down from Staffordshire in their motorhome, I bet they were buffeted by the breeze! We were also delighted to welcome Allan McNab, a keen game shot, who after viewing the targets looked a little bemused!

Five guns decided to shoot the single targets. Pete Viking opting to use his single flint gun – a sensible choice on a day like this! The remaining eight guns shot doubles and not to be out-done Bev used his double flinter.

The targets were not easy, even the few confidence-boosting targets were getting blown all over the place or appearing to just hover stationary 15 yards from the shooter only to be inexplicably missed!!!

In the doubles Martin made a very poor start on the pond layout but shot brilliantly only missing 3 targets on the tricky skeet layout giving him an excellent 30 from the 40 targets. Bev managed a 24 with his flinter and Allan Wellings was in third position with 22. Other notable performances in the doubles was Paul Dixon’s 20, and comparative newcomer Kyle who shot a 15.

The scores in the singles were all really impressive but Pete Viking needs to be singled-out because, using his well-maintained flinter shot an amazing 22 from the 30 targets. Unsurprisingly he won the trophy for highest on average. In second position was Clare with 19 and third, our young Henry with 18. Phil and Dick the remaining 2 guns didn’t do too badly either both scoring 17, so it was all very close.

 A big thankyou to Henry’s dad Paul for button-pushing and scoring.

 

Scores:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Next Meeting:

Sunday 15th March at Cambridge gun club. Singles and doubles targets (30/40) will be set so shoot whatever gun brings you pleasure.

 

Bev provided the words...

 

15 March 2020 - Club Shoot

March winds welcomed the 15 members, 8 shooting doubles and the remainder shooting single targets. The course was set over 4 stands being 4, 5, 6 & 7 with a good variety of birds and a fine close rabbit to add a bit of fun. Shall we say the wind made some targets a little tricky, with sudden leaps and dives of the higher clays making them somewhat testing!

 

Sandra's Squad:

Considering the conditions, there was some good shooting amongst the squad with little between the top three. Newcomer Kyle shot a reasonable 19, Mike and Derek struggling a little in the low 20’s and Graham did well with a 26 and several jokes along the way! Cath had a lesser day and experienced some capping issues in the cage. Of the top 3 Tony shot a good 28 and was presented with the wooden cup for effort, Fred a fine 29 and that old stalwart Bushy out front with an excellent 31. Thanks to Sandra for braving the wind and trapping and scoring for us.

 

Clares's Squad:

Seven shot the 30 single targets. Viking and Bev decided to use their flint guns, perhaps not the best decision as both struggled to keep the priming powder in the pan due to the persistent wind. There were some fine performances in the conditions notably Dick and John Poole who shot consistently well to return a score of 20. Viking, after getting over some early ignition problems came back strongly to score a sound 18. Clare struggled in the windy conditions and Phil using his short-barrelled 8 bore had mixed fortunes but as always really enjoyed his shooting. Bev and Martin were neck and neck for most of the shoot, but as Martin sensitively put it Bev peaked too early and blew it on the last stand ending up with another 20 allowing Martin to win the group comfortably with an excellent 24.

 

Our first AGM was held during the lunch break where the results of the morning's shoot were announced. As already mentioned Tony won the wooden cup, and  the cup was accompanied by a timely donation from Viking, a toilet roll. I believe Viking bought the last one available in Suffolk!

 

 Scores:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Next Meeting:

Due to the closure of the ground due to Covid 19 there will be no further dates in the near future. We will be in touch regards as and when shooting re-starts.

 

Martin & Clare (Report by Bev and Mike).

 

Unsurprisingly fewer people than usual attended, but 12 shooters turned up to shoot either the 30 singles or the 40 doubles. I couldn’t help but notice some luxurious hair growth that had taken place during the lock-down!

We divided into 2 groups of 6 to shoot the 5 allocated stands. The majority shot the 40 double targets the exceptions being Henry and Dick who shot their percussion guns and Martin, Bev and Viking who used their flint guns at the 30 singles. Clare decided to score and button for one of the groups rather than shoot and the other group had Paul, Henry’s dad, to do their buttoning etc. Thanks Clare and Paul, this really made the social distancing much easier for us shooters.

The shoot went smoothly and was enjoyed by everyone. The outstanding shooting of the day in the doubles was Bushy who broke 29 of the 40 targets. The nearest to him were Fred and Derek who each scored 22. In the 30 bird percussion, Henry shot a superb 21 followed by Dick who had a bad day. The flint shooters had mixed fortunes. Viking had to retire with a bad back, which was a real shame as he has been shooting his flinter really well. Martin started off poorly and Bev thought he had him by the s&c, that was until the tricky 6th stand where Martin hit 5 out of the 6 targets and poor Bev hit none and just had to watch as Martin‘s score went marching past. Martin ended up with 19 against Bev’s hard-earned 17

 

 Scores:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Next Meeting:

The next Club shoot is on Sunday 16 August, which is a change to our published calendar. After this date, the Club shoots will be held on the dates on our flyer.

In addition to this change of date in August, for those who wish to take part, we will be shooting two competitions held concurrently that day - the Archie Owens Flintlock Trophy and the Small-bore Trophy (16b and under). Please contact Martin for more details.

The Trevor Watling Double Barrel competition for 2020 will now be held on Saturday 5 September. For those who do not wish to take part in the competitions, then you will be able to shoot 30 or 40 targets as normal.

Please also note that the Clubhouse is now open for hot drinks and food takeaways, with picnic tables adequately spaced outside to allow you to maintain your social distancing. Face masks are also to be worn inside the Clubhouse.

Finally, for the shooting we would appreciate it if you could bring the correct money with you to all our Club shoots from now on, and place in an envelope with your name on it.

 

Thank you.

 

Bev & Clare wrote this for the AML Club.

 

 

A fine sunny and warm August morn welcomed the 13 shooters with temperatures rising as the day progressed. Because of the cancellation of shoots over the last 5 months the decision was made to shoot 2 competitions, the Flintlock and Small-bore Trophy concurrently. If you were fortunate enough to have a flintlock of 16 bore or smaller your score would be counted in both competitions. The course was set over 5 stands being 4-8 with a good variety of targets.  Rachel kindly took some photos and video of the shooting.

 

The ‘Flint’ Squad:

Six competitors shot in the ‘flint’ squad and out of those Viking and Bev were competing in both comps because they were using the smaller bore. Most of the small-bore competitors were in the other squad shooting percussion guns.

Five stands were being used giving a good variety of targets. Our squad started on stand 4. The ‘B’ bird was a battue launched at very high speed from a low tower close behind the shooter and disappearing over a high bank 30 feet in front. This caught out most of the squad and there were a number of glum faces as we moved to the next stand. Most of the squad acquitted themselves well over the next 3 stands, in particular Viking who was quietly pulling away from the rest breaking every target. The last stand was another tricky one. The ‘A’ bird was a long high L to R crosser which stumped most of the squad, the one exception being Viking who with consummate ease smashed every target. Needless to say Viking was in a different league scoring an amazing 27! YES 27!!! from the 30 targets. In fact the only ones he missed were the three battues on stand 4. Bev was a poor second with 21, Martin and Hairy Dave joint 3rd with 20 each. Graham was particularly pleased because he was the only competitor who didn’t have a misfire!

Viking’s score meant that he comfortably won the flint and small-bore competitions along with the coveted ‘gun of the day’ wooden trophy.

It has been very pleasurable to me (Bev) to witness Viking get better and better with his flint gun. Since the shooting grounds have reopened and on a nearly weekly basis we have been shooting our flint guns at a wide variety of sporting targets, and Viking with his very individual style of shooting and using a very basic ‘common breech’ single barrel original flinter, has consistently shot unbelievably well. It was great to see him at the competition shooting as I know he can, totally relaxed, confident and very modest about his well-deserved achievement.

 

A big thankyou to Clare for button-pushing and scoring.

 

The ‘Small Bore + others’ Squad:

Seven competitors shot in this squad, four shooting their percussion guns in the small bore competition and the other three shooting single and double percussion guns non-comp.

We started on stand 5, an opposing pair of birds, which all managed to hit fairly consistently. Stand 4, and the A bird RL looper did not cause too many issues, unlike the edge-on battue as described above, Derek, Mike and Bushy managed only one apiece, the others less successful! Onto new stand 6, an opposing high and fairly fast pair of crossers. Most found these ok with Phil taking all 6 and Paul 5.

Stand 7 presented a pair of quartering in crows, again most dealt with these reasonably well, notably Derek and Paul who both straighted the stand.

And finally Stand 8 with the long high crosser and the “easy” incoming crow. The crosser caused problems to most but Phil and Paul took 2/3 each. The “easy” crow caught a few out but Tony, Bushy and Paul took all of these leaving Paul to take 2nd place overall in the Small Bore Comp with a very good 24/30, very well shot Sir! Bushy, Phil, and Derek all finished on 20.

 

A big thankyou to Sandra for button-pushing and scoring.

 

Results:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Next Meeting:

Saturday 5th September at Cambridge gun club for the Trevor Watling Memorial Trophy, 40 bird pairs.

 

Bev & Mike wrote this for the AML Club.

 

 

A very strong breeze greeted the 11 shooters who turned up for this month’s Club shoot. The numbers were lower as several of our regulars were on their first game shoot of the season. Seven of today’s guns were competing for the rescheduled Trevor Watling Double Barrel Cup, with the remaining shooting their single barrel guns.

All the targets set were excellent, fast incomers, loopers, high quartering away crossers and springing teal, all of which were made even more challenging by the strong wind conditions.

A special mention must be made about Archie who made a big effort to come and shoot with us. Archie has been waiting 6 months to shoot his newly acquired Manton percussion double barrel gun, and after shooting it with some success on the first stand Archie decided to retire.

Paul R had a bit of a nightmare day, first of all he thought the competition was for the hammer gun trophy and had brought the wrong gun, then sadly after straighting the first stand, on the second stand, the forend came away from the barrel. Paul finished his round, shooting an excellent 27 with his nitro .410!

Bushy led the field throughout the shoot, leaving Martin behind particularly on the second stand, a tricky fast wind affected high teal paired with an easy to hit/easy to miss incomer. Martin couldn’t quite catch up with him after that.

A big thank you to Sandra and Kate, Kyle’s partner, for buttoning and scoring for us, this really helps us all and makes everything easier for us.

 

Results:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Next Meeting:

The next Club shoot is planned for 25 October - the Big Bore. Obviously we will be following COVID-19 guidelines in force at that time and will update you of our plans for the shoot closer to the day.

 

Clare wrote this for the AML Club.

 

 

A fine October morn welcomed the great turnout of 17 shooters, an excellent turnout in these Covid times. 14 shooters opted for the long awaited annual pig hunt AKA the Big Bore Trophy for guns of 10b and over. 3 shooters shot their double percussion guns.  Five stands were used, all along the Southern boundary of the ground, giving some testing targets:

Stand 5: A L-R crosser and L-R looper

Stand 6: A nasty going away teal and a slow R-L crosser

Stand 7: A crow and another nasty teal

Stand 11: A midi L-R crosser and another slow R-L crosser

Stand 10:A pair of good long L-R crossers from the tower

Several of the big bores played up with hang and misfires aplenty, why is it that a gun can behave impeccably one day and not on another? All part of the joy and frustration of owning and firing these mighty beasts!

 

Clare’s Squad:

Martin, Mike, Graham and Dave shot big bore, Derek and Kevin doubles.

Those slow crossers were easy to hit and of course miss! Both the teal targets caused most problems for the squad, with only Dave really getting any quantity of them. Had Dave got to grips with those long crossers off the tower, things would have been different on the podium! Martin was plagued with misfires and did not shoot as we know he can, but still returned a good 19, with Graham not too far behind with 14. Apart from shaky first and last stands, Mike shot reasonably well to finish top in the squad, but second place overall. Always the bridesmaid!

Derek and Kevin had fun with their doubles, with Kevin in particular (shooting his newly acquired gun) putting together some nice sim pair kills.

 

A big thankyou to Clare for button-pushing and scoring.

 

Sandra’s Squad:

Paul, Dick, Bushy, Fred and Tony shot big bore, Cath her double.

Paul had a disastrous start on stand 7 but came back strongly to finish on 18. Dick didn’t like the long crossers on stand 10 but shot a respectable 15. Fred and Tony were both hit some miss some to finish on 13 and 12 and Cath had one of her lesser days but enjoyed the day as always. Bushy as ever shot well, straighting stands 11 and 6 and even with an unusually low score on his last stand, still managed to come top in his squad and take the Trophy! Well done.

 

A big thankyou to Sandra for button-pushing and scoring.

 

Viking's Squad:

Viking, Bev, Phil and Jon shot the big bore comp, Tim used a smaller calibre.

Our squad started off on stand 5 which caused problems for the majority, but Viking with consummate ease smashed the lot with Bev missing one. The squad suffered a long delay as the trap which launched the ‘B ‘bird stopped operating and took a bit of sorting out. On stand 6 it was Phil who blossomed missing only one. Most of the squad faltered on stands 7 and 10, in particular stand 10 where Bev and Jon got the top score of only 2 from the 6 targets. Stand 11 was straighted by Viking and Bev, the other shooters had mixed fortunes. Top scorer in our squad was Viking with 20 which earned him 3rd position overall.

It was amazing to see throughout the shoot what appeared to be absolute ‘sitters’ completely missed with these large guns with big charges. I got the feeling, on this layout, that if we had been using our normal conventional-sized muzzleloaders the overall scores would have been higher.

 

Results:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Next Meeting:

Sunday 22nd November at Cambridge gun club for the Black powder Hammer Gun Trophy, 40 bird O/R pairs. 30 bird single targets will also be set.

 

Mike and Bev provided the words.

 

 

 

The weather forecast for our Club day was not looking very good - heavy rain due late morning. Martin, with his helper Bushey opted to shoot under the shelter of two of the more spacious covered shooting stands which halfway through the shoot proved to be an excellent decision. Fifteen shooters had booked into this shoot, so we split them into two squads, each with their own buttoner/scorer.

 

Sandra’s Squad:

There were 8 competitors in Sandra’s squad. The starting point was the sporting layout based around the skeet range where a wide variety of tricky targets were presented, most quite demanding. Paul Revere shot well on this layout hitting 12 of the 16 targets with Bushey next on 10. Graham S and Phil both put in a strong performance hitting 9 apiece but Bev, Henry, Tony and Dick were having a very bad day at the office not even getting half marks. If we thought that was tough we were mistaken. The layout based around the ABT range was to prove even more testing. Fortunes were reversed somewhat with Bushey shooting with great speed and confidence hitting 11 of the 14 targets to end up with the overall winning score of 21 ex 30. Paul struggled on some of these targets, but even so ended up in second place overall with a brilliant 20. Graham S shot consistently throughout the competition ending up with an overall score of 17. Bev finally got his act together hitting 10 on this layout joining Graham with an overall score of 17. It was good to see Henry stringing a few hits together breaking 9. Thanks as usual go to Sandra for controlling proceedings, tolerantly button-pressing and scoring..

 

Clare’s Squad:

The way the targets were set for this competition meant that the course was very unforgiving as with only two single targets to shoot at, it did not give the shooters very long to work them out! This is fairly evident by the slightly lower than normal results.

As each sample target was shown, there were many gasps from my squad of “oooh” and “ah, that’s a tricky one” as well as a certain reluctance to be the first one in the stand, mainly because we all wanted to see how they would tackle these interesting targets. Having elected to button and score for the squad, I was keen to see how everyone would get on. The results were mixed – hit some, miss some. However, for our squad there was just one target that defeated every shooter bar one, young Kyle. It was a 30 yard, edge on, very fast left to right orange dropping as it neared the bank, which Kyle shattered on his second attempt. I am not sure why our squad found this one so difficult, as after looking at the other squad’s scores they managed to break 13 out of the 16 targets thrown. It is a strange game this clay shooting!

Everyone enjoyed the morning, with Fred finishing as the high gun for our squad with 17/30, closely followed by Martin with 16, and Derek, shooting his modern Ardessa for a change, finished on 15. Thanks go to Kate, Kyle’s partner for helping with the scoring.

 

Normally after this competition we would all retire to the clubhouse and sit down to a beautifully cooked Christmas Lunch, with all the trimmings, however with Covid this couldn’t happen this year. I think everyone missed this very special tradition of the club and we are very much looking forward to the time when we can all socialise normally again.

 

Results:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Next Meeting:

The shooting dates have now been confirmed and will be available on the web site soon, with Sunday 17 January being the first one of the year, Covid restrictions permitting of course.

 

A Bev & Clare Production