So the first club shoot of 2025 for the much coveted Bushey’s Pairs Crystal Tankard.

20 simultaneous pairs set over 5 stands. Despite the -6 deg C start, it was a splendid turnout of 15 shooters plus Clare trapping, scoring and admining. Fortunately there was little wind and the sun behind us, but still very cold and especially for the hands!

Newcomer Stewart, a friend of Rob’s, was made welcome and joined us for the day shooting one of Rob’s guns.

The targets were as follows, 4 sim pairs on each stand:

Stand 11 A L-R pair of slow and near crossers.

Stand 12 A fast R-L crosser and a High and distant R-L fast dropping bird.

Stand 14 A pair crows.

Stand 15 A L-R fast quartering away bird and a R-L fast and low quartering away looper.

Stand 16 (Grouse) A high midi driven and a mid-height L-R crosser.

All targets were hittable by the guns (just!) but Stand 12 proved very difficult for everyone.

Clare’s Cool Squad:

The excitement of getting the muzzle guns going again in 2025 in the eagerly anticipated Bushey’s Pairs was only cooled by the minus six temperatures at the Cambridge Gun Club. It was bitterly cold, every conceivable method of keeping fingers warm was being tested, and even Derek’s welding gloves were being used! The first stand was the well-loved Grouse Butt, a fast incoming high bird that tested the reflexes of overclothed shooters with a much slower angled incomer. Viking Pete, Rob and our host Bushy showed the way by only dropping one apiece. The next set of targets on stand 12 were a wicked combination of fast high R-L crosser with a rapidly dropping, going away, fast R-L bird which caused complete panic. Only Paul D, Derek, Martin and newbie Stewart managed two apiece, the others less and not a single B bird was hit! Sadly Viking’s gun’s balls dropped off with the cold in the Brass Monkey weather, and he completed the competition with his trusted hammer gun. Stand 14 was the calm after the storm with a couple of gentle incomers, Rob and Bushy dropped only one apiece and were now eager to get at stand 11. A pair of L-R incoming pigeons were offered here and Derek in his welding gloves dropped only one, with Kevin and Bushy chasing with only two dropped. Stand 15 was tucked away but had a wicked sting in the tail with two very different targets, the L-R fast crosser was hard enough, but the going away teal was only visible for a moment or two. The vertically challenged amongst us struggled to see it long enough to get a chance, so it was almost miraculous that Kevin the carpet, (although with his new taller hips) dropped only two as did the very much taller Bushy, with Martin and Derek following with three dropped.

A challenging round in the conditions with Bushy managing a very respectable 27, with Derek 25, Martin and Rob 22, Kevin 21, newbie Stewart a very commendable 19, Paul 15 and a disappointed Viking. Kevin’s eyes eventually went back into their sockets after trying to push frozen goose fat felt wads down his tubes even though Derek had warmed up a few in his undies as a special treat to help. A very enjoyable challenging round, as any pair’s competition should be, with a huge well done to an unbeatable Mike at the moment.

Bev’s Pair Bashing Squad:

There were 7 in this squad all shooting the competition. Our first stand was 15, one of the more difficult as it turned out. Mike and Paul R got off to a good start with 7, Fred with 6, the rest less. On to stand 11 and most did well on what should have been an easy card filler. Stand 16, (The Grouse Butt) was next. Here Bev livened up taking all 8, the others on 6’s and 7’s and Graham less. Onwards to stand 12, we watched the targets as singles from the outgoing nitro squad, could they be shot as a sim pair we asked? The answer was “with great difficulty”, only Bev managed a pair and ended on 3, the rest on 2’s and 1’s!! The distant R-L fast dropping bird was only hit once by Bev in both this, and the other squad! We agreed later that we should have concentrated on the fast R-L crosser only and settled for 4 points. The last stand was 14, we watched the other squad come away from it and were relieved when they said it was not as bad as 12! It was indeed kinder and in fact one of the easier stands once we had had mastered the trap buttons! 7’s, 6’s and 5’s were recorded except for Bev who cleanly missed his first 2 pairs!

A good variation of targets and generally the scoring was very good in this squad, despite some of the targets and the cold conditions, and that Stand 12 was a real tester!

Mike, Paul R and Fred came 123 in the squad and the same overall with little between them. Dave, Paul M and Bev were not far behind. Graham, I’m sure, was a little disappointed today, but he did have his fair share of malfunctioning traps.

Results:

Next Club Meet:

Sunday 23rd February, club meet, no competition, bring and shoot whatever gives you pleasure. Single and double targets will be set.

Mike & Derek provided the words