The HARDY Shotgun Championship Series
The key to a good shotgun stage is that it presents a problem - or series of prob- lems - to the shooter. For example, per- haps there are two or three very differ- ent ways to shoot it. The shooter must decide which to go for and how to play to his own particular shooting strengths. For example, there was a stage of 28 plates which offered the shooter a choice of either crawling twice through a short tunnel and then running once down a longish path, or crawling once through the tunnel and then running twice along the longish path. Crawl twice or run twice? Which is quicker for you? There was more than one shooter who screwed it up and had to do both twice.
There was another stage where there was a row of six target plates with six orange clay pigeons attached by elastic bands to a rocking arm so that they all moved to and fro in front of the targets. Break one of the clays and it counted as a penalty. Hit the bar to which they were attached and the shock broke them all – six penalties! It happened more than once and it hap- pened to me!
There was a stage which included an array of four moving clays, this time bona fide scoring targets for you to shoot but which appeared, disappeared and re- appeared from behind a large steel plate. They were tricky to shoot but it was most satisfying when you dusted them. Fun was the second watchword of this competition – the first watchword being of course, safety. Steve will never permit safety to be compro- mised on his range.
There were ten stages in total, of which three were out-and-out speed shoots of about half a dozen steel plate targets, including the famous ‘Texas Star’ which
is a wheel-like affair which rotates as you shoot the target plates from the arms of the star. The other stages were longer with between 12 and 28 targets.
I will not go into a stage-by-stage description, al- though the mixed slug and birdshot stage was some- thing I have never seen before and, dear reader, the writer can boast that he has probably shot as many shotgun competition stages as anyone in this country. Six paper targets had each to be shot twice with slug and there were six skittles which could be shot down with either slug or birdshot. Half the targets were vis- ible from one position and half from another position.
You had to pick up your gun and shoot. Simple, you say? The problem was that the gun had to be pre- loaded with eight birdshot and so, after shooting down the first skittles with birdshot, there was not room enough in the magazine for the slug you then needed, plus there was an unwanted birdshot car- tridge in the chamber! I shot it particularly well and was the Saturday overnight winner of that stage.
Unfortunately for me, the country’s superstar shot- gunner Dyke Marby (name changed) turned up on Sunday and won the stage, indeed he went on to win the competition outright, just eclipsing Steel Miff (name changed). Will either be able to challenge Iain Guy, the winner of last year’s Four Island 2011 Cham- pionship?
Sixty-two shooters shot the competition and the prizes were of the sort you want to win - fodder for your gun. There was not a plastic trophy in sight and every competitor won a prize. The results are posted on the Four Islands website at
http://four4islands.org and there is also a new Four Islands Facebook page.
Thank you, Shield Shooting Centre, Steve Pike, his build team and all the range officers, for a truly FAB - U - LOUS match, complete with excellent catering, world-class bacon butties and burgers to die for, plus a fine clubhouse with a wonderful ambience of friendly and welcoming shooters - especially welcoming to the newer shooters.
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