Team shoot 50m/100m Marsden and King today. 2nd year running I’ve been awarded top shooter in the squad.
Joint 4th top shot out of the 52 competitors (including some internationals). Good fun shoot.
4×5 shots at 50yds and 2×10 shots at 100yds. I did reasonably (averaging 97/100). The team didn’t win this year, but it’s coming…
So, back in August 2008 I injured my back. This put me out of action with my sport of target shooting for a long, long time…
As I was about to start getting back into it, the cat attack happened, which delayed me again due to a wrist injury. This September I dusted my rifle off and finally started up again – shot 3 times at 25 meters over 3 Wednesday evenings, then went off to a 50 yards / 100 yards open air team shoot today.
I have to thank those who have helped me in all of my training from day 1 back in 2006, as it seems to have stuck. Thanks to my current club too, as in those three weeks I was back up to a reasonable standard. Still a bit of a way to go to get that 99 average I had two years ago, but really happy to have come back at the level I did. It’s all about being positive, relaxed and comfortable that you know what you are doing without having to think too hard about it.
A big push came from my club team captain, who put me into a four man team shoot as soon as I was back shooting. The deep end is a real great place to snap the focus back on!
Concentration...
As it turned out the focus snapped in sharply. I felt good in myself – the kickboxing, boxing etc have tidied me up physically and mentally, so that side of things helped me out as I came back to shooting.
The competition was over 50 yards and 100 yards. Familiar faces mingled with new faces on the various teams that showed up to compete. There was slight drizzle and intermittent sunny patches on the range – which is one of the darkest ranges around, and not one of the easiest to shoot at due to the lay out. A good challenge then….
I started out on the 50yd range – A pair of sighters (if required) and 2 pairs of targets – 10 shots per pair. I scored a 95 and a 100, which I was happy enough with. The 95 was a bit low, but the ton made up for it.
The second set of targets were at the 100yd range – A sighter with 2 targets – 10 shots each. I scored 96 and 97, which once more left me in a good place.
When the final scores were posted I was surprised to see I was in the top 10 of all the shooters there (I think I was 6, but can’t be certain). I was the top shot in our team (only a point or two separated the top three), so I came back with a Marsden “patch” prize – but to be honest, it was very close between us and could have gone either way.
As for the team placement… not so good. One of the team had a really bad day. Really bad. He has eye problems and is up for an operation – and he had trouble with his rifle sites. As such we were not destined to win the whole contest.
Had a forth shooter scored around the same as the rest of us, then by the look of the total scores, we could have won. Never mind – it’s always a good shoot with good people and there is always next year. Hopefully a friend of mine (Jez), who has just started shooting and is showing a lot of promise, will be in the team for next year – and if that is the case the others had best watch out.
Sometimespace 