Understanding Clay Pigeon Shooting E-Book

Graham Brown

• Herausgeber: Crowood
• Kategorie: Lebensstil
• Sprache: Englisch

Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2018

Beschreibung

In recent years clay target shooting has developed into one of the fastest-growing sports in the UK, and its popularity has been infused with a new sense of purpose and life as a result of the Commonwealth and Olympic successes of both male and female participants. Understanding Clay Pigeon Shooting is aimed at both the beginner and the advanced novice. It will help you to understand the logic behind good shooting, and to develop skills already acquired to become a really good and consistent shot. Every potential shooter has the ability to reach the highest standards; this book will help you to unlock that potential. Topics covered include: the history of clay shooting; getting started in clay shooting; the three disciplines: sporting, trap and skeet; the different types of gun, and ancillary equipment; gun fitting and eye dominance, and finally, shooting styles and muzzle placement.

Leseprobe

UNDERSTANDING

Clay PigeonShooting

GRAHAM BROWN WITH TONY JACKSON

THE CROWOOD PRESS

First published in 2018 byThe Crowood Press LtdRamsbury, MarlboroughWiltshire SN8 2HR

www.crowood.com

This e-book first published in 2018

© Graham Brown and Tony Jackson 2018

All rights reserved. This e-book is copyright material and must not be copied, reproduced, transferred, distributed, leased, licensed or publicly performed or used in any way except as specifically permitted in writing by the publishers, as allowed under the terms and conditions under which it was purchased or as strictly permitted by applicable copyright law. Any unauthorised distribution or use of thistext may be a direct infringement of the author’s and publisher’s rights, and those responsible may be liable in law accordingly.

ISBN 978 1 78500 468 1

Photographs by Paul Quagliana

CONTENTS

Foreword

1 BACKGROUND AND HISTORY

2 CLAY SHOOTING TODAY

3 GETTING STARTED

4 THE SHOTGUN, CHOKES AND CARTRIDGES

5 SPECIALIST GUNS FOR CLAY SHOOTING DISCIPLINES

6 GUNS FOR LADIES AND YOUNGSTERS

7 GUN FITTING AND EYE DOMINANCE

8 FIRST LESSONS

9 STYLES OF SHOOTING

10 DIFFERENT TECHNIQUES

11 SOLID FOUNDATIONS

12 ASSESSMENT BY EXAMPLE

Appendix: Graham Brown

Glossary

Useful Addresses

Index

FOREWORD

I first met Graham Brown in 2012 when, after a very strong recommendation, he was invited to design the European Sporting Championships in Portugal. This was an opportunity for Graham to showcase his skills as a target setter, and it was with great pleasure that we approved the course design and management and welcomed him to join the FITASC family as one of our accredited course designers. Graham has subsequently built numerous European and World Sporting events, and was involved in the very first meetings, helping us to lay the foundations for our FITASC instructors’ programme.

Having come to know Graham in recent years, it is obvious that he has a wide range of knowledge and skills within the shooting industry. This in-depth knowledge is not only for target setting, but extends to shooting tuition, enabling him to create deception within target trajectories should a competitor be weak in any particular area. I have witnessed even the very best shots being deceived by what on the face of it would appear to be a very innocent target. By understanding various shooting techniques, gun fit, and the timing required to shoot well, Graham has proved to be an invaluable asset to the sport and has set a standard to be followed by all shooting men and women.

Thank you, Graham, for your sustained involvement in our beautiful sport.

Jean François Palinkas, President of FITASC

CHAPTER 1

BACKGROUND AND HISTORY

How did it all begin, and when? Believe it or not, the background to clay shooting in the twenty-first century embraces a history that takes us back at least 250 or more years, to a time in the eighteenth century when the art of ‘shooting flying’ had been accepted as standard sporting practice in England since the latter years of the seventeenth century. However, we lagged behind the French who, since the early years of that century, had been taking advantage of the flintlock ignition system, invented by a Frenchman from Normandy, Marin le Bourgeoys, sometime between 1608 and 1615.

THE FLINTLOCK SYSTEM

While gunpowder had been in use since the first century AD in China, where it was first invented, it was not until the middle of the thirteenth century that it was employed in primitive cannons and ‘hand gonnes’ in Europe. The development of an ignition system employing the match-lock and wheel-lock extended the usage of shoulder guns, but for the purpose of trying to shoot flying birds, they remained relatively impractical. The flintlock system, despite its several disadvantages in the field, did at least now offer the gunner or wildfowler in the field the ability to shoot birds on the wing with reasonable and consistent success.

As was so often the case where the development of arms and sporting shooting were concerned, the French invariably seem to have enjoyed an advantage over their cross-Channel neighbours, so it was not until the accession of Charles II to the English throne in 1665 and the return of his courtiers from France, armed with flintlocks and the ability to employ them, that wing-shooting began to take off in this country. Within twenty or so years Richard Blome, author of Gentleman’s Recreation, was able to write that ‘it is now the mode to shoot flying’.

THE FIRST SHOOTING COMPETITIONS

The development of the muzzle-loading flintlock through the eighteenth century, and its gradual evolution into a well-balanced piece with a barrel considerably reduced from the tubes that extended to 4 feet (1.2m), and even 5 feet (1.5m) of the previous century, ensured that sporting shooting at flying birds was increasingly adopted in the field. There is little doubt, too, that the first shooting competitions, albeit crude and makeshift, came into existence around the middle of the eighteenth century. Informal get-togethers, perhaps in the grounds of an inn, with tame pigeons or trapped sparrows used as targets, quickly developed into more formal, rule-encased occasions.

One of the oldest accounts of a shooting match dates from 1770, and a report appeared in the 18 April edition of the London Daily News. We are told that:

Considering the brilliant weather of Saturday, and the increasing interest in pigeon shooting, it’s hardly surprising that there was a very large gathering at the Gun Club Ground of members and other noblemen and gentlemen qualified by the rules to compete for the First Spring Handicap.

It is obvious from this published 1770 report that competitive live pigeon shooting had been established for some considerable time. The report goes on to mention a handicap match, based on the concept of the shooters moving back increasing distances from the box out of which a pigeon was released. Each shooter had already established his own handicap, an indication that the sport had been practised for some considerable time, and by the 1790s competitive live pigeon shooting was taking place countrywide; it was notably popular in the surrounds of London. One of the most frequented resorts was The Old Hats Tavern, a public house on the Uxbridge Road at the small village of Ealing. Other popular live shooting resorts included the Red House at Battersea and the Hornsey Wood House.

LIVE PIGEON SHOOTING CLUBS

The first live pigeon shooting club was entitled the Old Hats Club, though whether it was originally founded on the Ealing tavern is not clear. However, in 1825 the club held its forty-ninth anniversary dinner, which would indicate that it was established in 1776. Why was it called the Old Hats Club? The answer lies simply in the fact that the pigeons were placed in a small hole in the ground, and then covered with an old hat to which was attached a long string. Given a tug, the hat tipped over and the unfortunate pigeon was released. By 1856 box traps had replaced the hats system, the antecedent of the modern trap and trap shooting.

However, over the years the popularity of the Old Hats Club diminished in favour of the Red House shooting ground, and between 1826 and 1832 the Club held a succession of events supported by substantial prizes. The Championship held in 1828 was for 1,000 sovereigns, a vast sum at that time.

TRAPS FOR ARTIFICIAL TARGETS

Live pigeons continued to be employed for some considerable time, though by the 1860s an artificial target in the shape of a glass ball came into fashion. Not only was it cheaper than the live bird, it also satisfied those critics who were beginning to complain about the inhumanity of live bird shooting. However, in both this country and in The United States live birds were still employed in parallel with artificial targets, and in 1881 the Live Bird Championship of the World was held at Hendon. It was won by the legendary American ‘Doc’ Carver, a renowned shot and a former buffalo hunter and showman.

It was, however, Carver’s great shooting rival, Adam Bogardus, who in 1877 invented the first really practical trap designed to throw glass balls at least 60 feet (18m) in an arc. Previously primitive traps had thrown the balls straight into the air, providing little challenge to shooters who were used to fast pigeons darting from traps. In the same year Bogardus also patented various types of glass ball, including a ball with a raised diamond pattern on the surface designed to prevent pellets ricocheting from the glass surface.

In competitions three traps were used in front of the shooter, who had to stand 18 feet (5.5m) back. One trap threw to the right, one to the left and the third to the centre, but the shooter was not aware of the order in which the balls would be released. The disadvantage of glass balls was, of course, that shards of glass littered the ground to the detriment of livestock. In addition, some balls were filled with feathers or dust to make a strike appear more spectacular, and indeed, feather-filled glass balls were used in exhibition shooting up to the 1920s, providing as they did more of a spectacle for spectators than did clay pigeons.

THE FIRST CLAY PIGEONS