the new fauxdegla shooting ground

[perazzimx]

i belive that Fauxdegla shooting ground ( Llandegla ) has had some major refurbisment along with a new owner etc i hear very good reports any more out there??

[beretta]

new member perazzi hi and welcome

[Salopian]

Yes Llandegla is being improved beyond recognistion. Nice bloke Mike Faux, but I think he is trying to make a small fortune out of Fauxdegla By spending a large fortune on improving the ground

[Gordon R]

Beretta - you cynic. Same thought occurred.

[Chard]

[perazzimx]

Speculate to accumulate comes to mind, a ground can only be good because of its customers, look after them and they will look after you.

[Ian E]

Yes Llandegla is being improved beyond recognistion.

 

Yes a coat of paint and a couple of leather sofas

 

I was there for the first ESP regged after Mike took over, I believe Mike was on holiday at the time, but after the first 6 traps having problems.

 

I genuinely give Mike all the best luck in the world and hope it pays off for him, but at the moment Iam not rushing to go back.

Edited December 7, 2010 by Ian E

[Chard]

Seems to run pretty smoothly now, perhaps they were just teething troubles.

 

Needs to do something about the ******* weather :lol: :lol: :lol:

[Catamong]

Yes, stunning scenery, when the weather is right.

 

I shot the last FITASC shoot that Dave Hughes put on there last year, it was good, but a mega journey for us Suvverners.

 

Cat.

[Mr Potter]

Yes a coat of paint and a couple of leather sofas

 

I was there for the first ESP regged after Mike took over, I believe Mike was on holiday at the time, but after the first 6 traps having problems.

 

I genuinely give Mike all the best luck in the world and hope it pays off for him, but at the moment Iam not rushing to go back.

Ian,

I am surprised that you're not rushing to go back, how much bandwidth has been used up on this forum alone bemoaning the loss of grounds and the lack of registered shoots especially here in the North West. Admittedly Fauxdegla is not a new ground but an enthusiastic shooter has committed a considerable sum of money (I've not a clue as to how much but it won't have been cheap) and a giant leap of faith to bring the ground up to the standard that could potentially host domestic championships.

 

I'm sure all those that know the old Llandegla have got there own opinions about it, for what its worth mine are that currently it is a long established trap and skeet ground and has been for many years (I think has hosted Welsh championships in the past) so it already has a pedigree. It has shot E Sporting and FITASC shoots in the past but that was never the primary raison d'etre. That, I hope, is where Mike will concentrate, to make the ground capable of giving the established grounds a run for their money. Why shouldn't Fauxdegla be mentioned in the same breath as Shugborough, Doveridge, Southdown, Biddy's even Hodnet, OK it hasn't got the trees but it has got to be capable of being better than Lakenheath for God's sake!!

It requires three things,

Money for the infrastructure, traps, wiring, cages etc.

A course setter with the ability and imagination to fool the competitor with more than distance and speed. and

The support of the local and not so local shooters.

 

I haven't yet mentioned the one thing that is always talked about whenever Llandegla/Fauxdegla is mentioned - the WEATHER. Well yes Fauxdegla is not in the ideal location but for every Sunday that it is impossible to shoot there are probably 20 when you can. It's easy, look at the weather forecast, if it's OK go and if it's torrential rain & 60mph winds don't but to write it off because it MIGHT be stormy is plain daft.

 

All new ventures have their teething troubles but to "not rush back" because of a few trap breakdowns is shortsighted, we have to support anybody who is investing in the future, there are glimmers of hope for registered shoots in the NW, investment at Fauxdegla, Worsley & Blackpool thinking of re-registering, it's just a crying shame that all the 50/75 bird straw bale shoots we have lost in the same area are showing no signs of returning.

 

So give it a go, check the weather forecast, set the Sat Nav and try it, if it still has teething troubles in six months time you'd have some cause for complaint but I'd be very surprised, my impression of the new owner is that his mantra is attention to detail.

 

Mr Potter

(you can always recognise me, I'm the one wearing the Fauxdegla cap )

[timps]

I was about to give up on it but gave it one last chance when Mike took over (well 2 but mike was not there for the first one so I discounted that one) and glad I did.

I really enjoyed the last ESP I shot there with Beretta, Chard and Florian so much so I won my class, if the rest are like that then I am a happy man.

 

Even had a round of skeet whilst we waited for Beretta & Florian to get there from the airport, not many grounds offer you that facility.

 

[Ian E]

I had enjoy my past shoots at Llandegla, even those nasty 120 birders, I do wish Mr Fuax the best of luck like I already said.

 

The whole thing was lets say differcult, I wasn't going to go into any great details, but lets begin

 

first stand rabbit and incomer, "ref" was armed with a new regulation issue a4 flexible folder which contained his photocopied score sheet and a biro

 

the folder was a little on the large side and being flexible didn't give the "ref" anything to push against to make his biro work.. he struggled to mark press the buttons, whilst trying to hold the two toghter

 

first shooter no problems, second the rabbit stated playing up, the ref messed about and managed to finally get thru the stand, I was 3rd up, needless to say the rabbit had packed up, by now the rain and wind had started, the ref again did his best to get the trap working by generally kicking the thing and farting about rather then going to get someone to fix it, finally it shot a couple off and we started again, got two off and it packed up, at this point 3 of the 8 on my squad said a French word that the mods won't let us say, and went back to get there money back, which left 5, by this point we had to abandon the trap to come back to it later...

 

The ref just left the trap not working for the next group rather then going back to the club house to inform someone...

 

on the way up the hill we were told there was a problem with the second stand, which happened to be a simo pair of low incomers, and now the wind and rain had picked up it was more luck then design if you could hit the lower of the 2 birds, before it had been blown into the heather, at this point another 2 people went back to the club house and got the money back, which now left 3 of us.

 

Of course now that his a4 photo copied paper was wet the biro didn't work, so he was struggling to mark us, good job I had a pencil to hand, else it probably would of been me myself and I on the squad..

 

stand 3 one trap didn't work, lucky for us Mr Boyd seems very handy with this type of thing was manually releasing the clay for us

 

anyways the next 3 stand also had problems, the last stand the relay was stuck open and it was emptying the clays out at quite a rate

 

I really won't go on anymore, cos if Mr Fuax reads this theres little chance of me getting a Fauxdegla cap

 

And in fairness as I already said he wasn't there, otherwise iam sure things would of been fixed very quickly.

 

So I hope thats explained a little bit more why Iam not in a rush to run back there, Iam sure I will go back at some point I just need to push that bad experience to the back of my mind first, like I said at the start I've really enjoyed the shoots there in the past.

[Salopian]

Ian E,

I think what you actually got was dreadful weather which is not the ground owners fault. Exacerbated by a very incompetent referee. Yes I would have been very unhappy, but when you consider how neglected Llandegla had been allowed to become by the previous incompetent Manager it is a marvel that the facility even exists. Mike Faux deserves all the encouragement we can give him by shooting at his ground, if we were to continue to experiance trap breakdowns then we could vote with our feet.

But to have had one bad day, due mainly to a numpty and bad weather is not giving Faux a fair shake of the stick.

The topography of those hills should lend itself to throwing some awesome targets.

[whiskymac]

Always enjoy shooting there myself, weather never really got me that worked up to be honest. Had everything from snow to glorious sunshine. Never hit all that much but hey ho.

The paintballing is first rate also.

[Barn_Owl]

Always enjoy shooting there myself, weather never really got me that worked up to be honest. Had everything from snow to glorious sunshine. Never hit all that much but hey ho.

 

After reading the threads I had a trip up there this afternoon, it's been over a year since my last visit

 

The roads where clear of snow but the temp. was showing Minus 9 !!!

 

Too cold for me , called in at the pub and had a bowl of parsnip soup and a pint.

 

I will have another trip when the sun shines.