HAVING RECENTLY completed the UKPSA shotgun safety course, I felt I should put it to good use and compete in an affiliated shotgun competition. Talk about jumping in at the deep end, I decided to enter the British Open Practical Shotgun Championships! This was held at Shield Shooting Centre, in Dorchester on the 1/2/3 June.

The match was held over three days to accommodate the 79 competitors and the 12 stages of shooting for each person. I thought the steel challenge matches were varied but this shoot was brilliant. There were some unusual stages and plenty of 'no shoot' targets, painted red, as well as load-one shoot-one stages and field courses to test all classes of competitor.

Steve Pike (match director) and the R/Os really put in some effort to make an excellent match. As you can see from the accompanying pictures, they didn’t make it easy to shoot. After all, who wants a walk in the park when it comes to shooting?

There was a small amount of running but most of the stages were tactical. It made you think as to which way you ran round a barricade. You did need to be agile though as there was some crawling required, all great fun.

If you have never been to Shield before, it is a range complex of eight 20-metre ranges and one twenty five-metre range of varying widths and a field stage set in a wood. The stages run in the wood as in previous years had to be omitted this year because of foot and mouth. There are livestock in the field next to the wood so in the farmer's best interest it was not used.

Running stages on several smaller ranges made it possible to get more people shooting more of the time. The first thing that struck me was the safety of all the shooters. As you looked down the front of the ranges all the guns were placed muzzle down resting against the back wall. The only time the gun may be handled out of the bag and when it can be parallel to the ground is when you are on the range and about to load. Safety areas are provided where you can dismantle your gun for any problems, but no ammunition is allowed in this area. Very safety conscious. This is something both the UKPSA and Shield can be commended for.

Upon your arrival you book in and find out whom you are squadded with. There are usually about four or five other people in your team. When on the range the first competitor shoots the stage while the next one is getting ready. When the first one has shot the others reset the plates. This will go in a rotation so you each have your turn at shooting first and last. There is none of this "I don’t want to shoot first" and you must help in resetting the plates. No prima donnas please.

I know that some people don't like resetting the plates but it does have advantages; 1). You get to walk the course 2). You know where the plates are and 3). You can see how thick they are. Yes you need to see how thick they are. If you have had a transport café sandwich made of those doorstep thickness slices of bread you can picture the thickness of some of the targets. Steve Pike didn't want a couple of pellets knocking the plates over. They have to be hit square on to knock them over.

If you thought that you have only a shotgun with true cylinder and that you wouldn't stand a chance at these plates think on. Steve Pike went to great lengths to put on a fair match. He has a pump action shotgun with true cylinder and shot the targets about which doubt had been expressed as to whether they would fall, or enough SG pellets would hit the targets. He made the course, so proved it could be shot with true cylinder. Good thinking batman.

Ammunition requirements for the 12 stages were a minimum of 33 SG and 130+ birdshot. The plus is for my misses. The SG loads were used on paper targets, which required at least two pellet holes to count as a hit. There were plenty of plates and pepper poppers plates. As a concluding comment for the match, I wouldn't miss it for the world and, now I know what to expect I hope to do better next year.

I almost forgot the results. With so many classes I will list only the top three in each class. Winner of class Master grade and overall winner goes to Dave Clegg second Ade Sell and, third Neil Beverley.

Class A winner was Colin Lutley, second Graham Hill and third Graham Cresdee

Class B winner was Nigel Dwyer, second James Harris and third was Andy Newman

Class C winner Neil Brooklyn, second Dave Brown and third Graham Mason.

Class D winner Laurie Hinds and second Simon Slinn and third place Guy Bottard

Ladies class winner Vanessa Duffy, second was Sharon Strowger and third place went to Tern Price

Open Grade (not graded) Winner myself with Peter Stanley second and third was John Gisborne.

If you want to try your hand at Practical Shotgun give Steve a bell. They run UKPSA basic safety courses for shotgun and open shoots throughout the year. Another good shotgun competition is the Shield Slug Shoot in September on the 22/23. There will be no big black slugs shot at, only the ones you shoot through your gun. You must have slug ammunition on your FAC to enter. (Home Office rules). For details about future events please contact Steve Pike on 01308 482626 or by e-mail at shield@tesco.net If I can be of any help please e-mail me at prw@winnall.freeserve.co.uk

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