News for January 2010

CSFTA Winter League Round 5 Wendover

Write up by Michael Winstanley

Strange old day, Dean and I somehow ended up at Rownhams service station instead of Fleet services to meet Steve and Daniel, I thought we'd gotten there rather quickly. Rest of the trip up there went ok.

Back to normal on the weather front, Snow, rain, mud and wind. Well it is the Winter league, after all. Wendover set a course that would of been challenging even in good weather, with some really deceiving long shots and targets literally up hill and down dale. A few competitors had gun troubles (Dean reckons his problem is, he bought an EV 3 ) and most of us got pretty muddy. Steve really went to town and scored an impressive 37 (maybe the highest score, still a few to finish when we left ).

CSFTA Winter League Round 4 Christchurch Gun Club

Write up by Michael Winstanley

What ! No monsoon, Oh glorious Sun ! For a change the weather was kind to us, sun and light wind's, still very tricky on the first 8 lanes on the small bore range - wind went every which way every few seconds or so it seemed.

The course was well thought out, well done Christchurch guys & gals, with some awkward reducers. there was a good turn out with every one enjoying themselves ( I really enjoyed the home made Victoria Sponge cake, top marks to the lady who made it. Worth going for that alone ) . Unfortunately Daniel's top turret came loose early on, so he had to guess most of his shot's and Dean's rifle kept throwing in the occasional real low shot at certain ranges, so well done to them for persevering and scoring what they did.

Welcome to Helen, who put her first score in for us today.

News for November 2009

AGM

The AGM will be held on Sunday 6th December at 12:00pm, at the club (following on from the club day).

If you would like anything added to the agenda, please contact Duncan on the webmaster address.

We will be electing the committee for next year, and the list of roles will comprise of Chairman, Secretary, Treasurer, Competition Secretary, Webmaster and a number of general committee members to oversee club shoots.

Winter League Round 3: Help Needed

Round 3 of the CSFTA Winter League is our responsibility, and we have to build the course the day before the competition.

We are borrowing Bisley's ground this year, so this will involve driving up to Surrey two days on the trot if you wish to compete as well.

Food (in the form of pasties and sausage rolls, normally from Waitrose) will be provided for any volunteers, and we try to car-share as much as possible to reduce fuel costs.

We aim to be there for 9:00-9:30am, which will mean leaving Southampton at about 8am, and the build will normally take a few hours (depending on the number of people we have helping).

It is advisable to take an adjustable spanner or two to tighten the bolts on the targets, along with waterproof footwear because some areas of the woodland are rather wet or boggy. If you have a mallet or lump hammer, these are also useful for knocking the target support platforms into the trees.

Contact the webmaster if you are interested in helping out.

Club Day on November 9th

Unfortunately both Steve and Duncan are unable to make it to the Club Day on November 9th, so there will be no committee members there to open/lock up.
Apologies for the short notice, but we will be cancelling this shoot, to be rescheduled later in the year (what's left of it!).

News for October 2009

External Competitions

Don't forget to check the Calendar page (formerly "FT Diary") for dates of external competitions.

Lyndeen has been busy organising the Bisley Classic, which is two 40-shot FT courses with lunch in between. Entry is £10, and it is being held at Bisley FTO on Sunday 25th October.

Round 2 of the CSFTA Winter League will be held at Newbury on Sunday 1st November. Several of the seasoned shooters will be driving up there, so if anyone wants to car-share, send an email to the webmaster.

Equipment For Sale (Updated)

Duncan has somewhat reluctantly decided to part with his Air Arms EV2, so it has become the first item to grace the For Sale page in quite some time. If anyone else within the club wants to sell or request any items, please contact the webmaster, making sure that you've read the terms on the bottom of the For Sale page.

Dean has asked me to add his nearly new Air Arms TX200 HC, for sale at a very reasonable price.

News for September 2009

Club League

The Club League has now finished, and we handed out trophies after the last round. Congratulations to the winners, and commiserations to those who nearly got onto the podium. A special mention should go out to Mick, who was in with a shout of third place in the Open class, despite having only recently joined the club - well done!

We would also like to congratulate the anonymous sniper on the motorway bridge for taking out Keith's tyre - not an easy shot with his car moving at that speed. Bad luck, Keith.

Full results and photos can be found here.

Winter League

After the Club League, we would like to encourage any members who found the experience enjoyable or constructive to participate in the upcoming Central Southern Field Target Association (CSFTA) Winter League. This is an annual series of competitions between several local(ish) clubs, with rounds hosted at various locations around the region. It does involve a bit of driving, but you will get to meet loads of new people and see lots of shiny and interesting guns. There is no limit on club team size, and only the three best scores per club count, so do try to make it to at least one of the rounds - you have nothing to lose! The competitions use 40 shot courses, so it's very much like shooting two of our Club League rounds back to back - you even get a handicap based on your grade.

The first round takes place at Carisbrooke on the Isle of Wight on October 11th. We try to share lifts to the island to keep the ferry costs down, so if you're interested in going, contact a committee member for more information.

News for August 2009

Club League

Results for Round 6 are up here.

The Open FT shoot at North Oxon (Otmoor ground) has been moved back a week to September 27th, so we've had to reschedule Round 7 for September 20th.

NSRA Championships

Steve, Daniel and Mick went to the NSRA Championships at Bisley and all placed within the top 5 of their grade. Daniel won Top Junior. A particular "well done" to Mick for finishing 2nd in C Grade at his first external competition. We need a few more people doing that before the Winter League comes round, and we might be able to get into the medals this year!

Club member results for all external competitions can be found here.

News for July 2009

Club League

Apologies for the lack of information - the webmaster has just moved house, and has been a bit distracted!

Steve managed to clear the course during Round 3, which is a first as far as anyone can remember!

Scores for rounds 3, 4 and 5 are in the usual place. I have now relegated anyone who cannot complete the necessary 5 rounds to the bottom of the leaderboard.

We have chosen the trophy design for this year - it's a rectangular glass panel with scalloped edges, in keeping with the round ones from last year. We have decided to only award one trophy in the Junior class, as we only have one competitor!

News for June 2009

Club League Round 2

Round 2 of the Club League was held on 7th June, and the results can be found here.

After a thundery night and some heavy rain, we weren't holding out much hope of a pleasant shoot, but we were basking in sunshine once the clouds parted. The wind was up a bit on last time, but not too bad, although it had a habit of changing direction.

The next round is on 28th June.

Club League Round 1

Round 1 of the Club League was held on 31st May, and the results can be found here.

The weather was really nice, and conditions were generally still, with the occasional gentle gust of wind catching people out on the longer shots.

We need more people for the next round, particularly juniors, as Sam will be going home with all three trophies at this rate!

News for May 2009

Club League (Updated!)

The Club League is back for the second year running - it stands to become a tradition if we're not careful! The rules will be the same as last year (summarised below for anyone new to the club, or any existing members with amnesia).

The competition will consist of 7 rounds, spread over the summer with some normal club days in between. Your best 5 scores get submitted at the end, so you are able to miss two shoots without penalty, although you will lose the advantage of being able to drop poor score(s).

There will be three classes of entry - Open, Sporting and Junior, and handicap points will be awarded to shooters based on their BFTA grade if they have one, or last year's average score in the Club League if it is higher. Newcomers and those who have never shot a BFTA competition will be awarded the maximum handicap of 3 points per round, so everyone stands a good chance of placing in the trophies.

The Club Shield will go to the member scoring the highest number of hits across 5 rounds (before handicap points), so it will be taken home by the best shot, even if they don't win another trophy.

Entry will be £5 for all 7 shoots (or as many as you can make it to), partly to cover the cost of trophies, but also to encourage people to turn up after their first shoot!

Last year we also held a "Golden Bunny" raffle, which proved quite successful, so we will be repeating it this year. Entry is optional at £1 per round (paid on the day), and the idea is as follows:
One target will be secretly nominated the Golden Bunny by a non-competitor. At the end of the round, all score cards for competitors who hit that target will be put into a hat, and one card drawn at random. The winner takes the pot of cash.

The course will be shot in the woodland behind the plinking field, with 10 lanes of 2 targets each providing 20 targets in total. 16 targets will be designated freestyle, while 2 will be enforced kneeling, and 2 enforced standing. This is exactly half a regular external Field Target competition, so it is a great way for you to see what competitions are all about without feeling too pressured.

We are aiming for a 10am shotgun start on May 31st, with sign-in at 9:30am. Help would be appreciated beforehand to put the targets out and generally get everything ready, and the same goes for packing up afterwards.

There will be a couple of lanes put aside for plinking, both for competitors to check their guns before they start the competition and for anyone who does not wish to compete to carry on once we start. Competition targets will be painted in reversed colours (yellow faceplate, black kill) to differentiate them from the plinking targets, and must not be shot at unless you are on the relevant lane during the competition. Anyone caught "practicing" on the competition targets will be deemed a cheat and disqualified from that round.

Full rules can be found here.

Average scores from last year and current BFTA for all 2008 competitors:

Please be aware that we have deliberately raised the percentage bands for all Grades in an effort to increase competition and fairness across the League. This also brings your club grades more in line with how you would probably be doing in real-world external competitions. To explain this, the top shots in our club would likely not set the highest score in an external competition, as there are even more highly talented shooters out there. This would mean that your percentages would be lower, so our grade bands need to be higher to compensate.

Anyone who is not on the list will be shooting in C grade or their BFTA grade, whichever is highest. If you've never shot an external competition, you'll be in C grade.

Tick Tactics

After a quick visit to the woods behind the plinking field to check on the bluebells and competition lanes, I acquired my first tick. Thankfully I discovered the little critter before he latched onto me, but Steve and I agreed that we should warn people through the website. The woodland contains a large number of ticks, and they take great delight in attacking air rifle owners. We strongly recommend that you do not shoot wearing shorts when in the woods, and it is advisable to wear insect repellant, particularly around the ankles, wrists and waist, as ticks have to crawl onto you from the ground. Duncan uses DEET 100, which is strong stuff, although you have to be careful not to lick your fingers, and it is slightly greasy which doesn't help your shooting much.

News for April 2009

BFTA Inter-Regionals

Steve and Duncan took part in the BFTA Inter-Regionals competition at Newbury on Sunday 5th, competing as part of the Central Southern Field Target Association team.
The CSFTA finished 4th overall, missing out on the medals by only 5 hits between their 10 shooters.
Daniel also attended as a reserve, and declined to shoot for Scotland (they only fielded 2 shooters and were looking for help), instead acting as club photographer and flattening his Dad's car battery in honour of the absent Keith and his ailing Daystate Mk 3.

News for March 2009

Winter League Results

The Southampton Buccaneers put in a very respectable performance this year, finishing 5th amongst the clubs in our region, but with three of our members making it into the Inter-Regional team (top 15 in the region), and 4 of us the Showdown (top 32).

Steve P and Keith came away with 1st and 5th in A grade respectively, while Duncan took 2nd in B grade.

Photos from the Showdown at Carisbrooke on the Isle of Wight here.

Summer Club League

We have put up provisional dates for the summer Club League, starting at the very end of May and running for seven rounds until mid-September. Last year was a great success, and we hope to repeat the formula this year. More details to follow but, rest assured, it is nothing to be scared of.

News for February 2009

Winter League at North Oxon

The North Oxon round of the Winter League on Sunday 8/3/09 will be taking place at Weston Woods, not Kennel Copse. For any of you who have been before, this is the old Otmoor ground at OX25 3QE.

Bluebells

The bluebells are now sufficiently long that we have had to abandon the woods until further notice to avoid damaging them. All club days will take place on the plinking field until the flowers die back.

Winter League at Wendover

The Winter League round at Wendover on Sunday 8th February has been postponed due to the threat of bad weather. It should now take place on Sunday 22nd February.

News for January 2009

Membership Renewals

I'm afraid it's that time of year again! We will be collecting membership fees at the club day on 4th January, and the fees for 2009 are unchanged from 2008 as follows:

Adult Full Membership £60 year/£35 6 months
Junior (under 18s) Full Membership £30 year/£17.50 6 month
Adult Range Membership £30 year +£2 per visit
Junir Range Membership £15 year+£1 per visit

We will also be collecting £3.50 per person for BFTA membership cards, although the club will cover the cost for anyone purchasing a Full year membership. Possession of a BTFA card is a requirement for club membership and vice-versa.

Anyone who has not yet completed their probabtion may continue to shoot as a guest upon payment of a £3 range fee. Once you have completed 5 paid visits and we think you are safe to join the club, the fees will be reduced on a pro-rata basis for the remainder of the year (except Range memberships, which run for a year from purchase).

Membership forms can be found here in Microsoft Word format.

AGM

The AGM was held on Sunday 14th December, and minutes will be posted once Dave sends them to Duncan! There's not a lot to report, as we re-elected the 2008 committee and agreed to postpone some other decisions until later in the year.