joecash Posted June 17, 2012 Report Share Posted June 17, 2012 As a newbie beginner from Nottingham I have just paid £45 for about an hours instruction by a CPSA qualified instructor. The cost included use of a gun the clays and cartridges. All in all quite good value i thought. I just wondered what the experiences of other PW community members are when it comes to tuition and its cost. Thanks in advance for your thoughts. Joe Cash Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sticky96 Posted June 17, 2012 Report Share Posted June 17, 2012 Hi, As a newbie myself to clay shooting, I invested in a course of three introductory lessons which covered all the basics of clay shooting. It is a big cost, but I feel that it is justified as it gives you the foundation on the sport, I personally believe that it would be a waist of money having a shotgun if you did not know how to shoot. Sticky Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
theosmith Posted June 17, 2012 Report Share Posted June 17, 2012 i personally believe in self teaching, aslong as you know good gun safety just shoot away, watch others Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
EdSolomons Posted June 17, 2012 Report Share Posted June 17, 2012 i personally believe in self teaching, aslong as you know good gun safety just shoot away, watch others Depends how good you want to get really. Chances are you will hit a few but build in lots of bad habits. In the long run good instruction saves you money. All depends what you want to get out of it. The guy starting off and wanting to learn a good base to develop from will go and see another guy that the man looking for his first England badge. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HDAV Posted June 17, 2012 Report Share Posted June 17, 2012 £45 inc clays and carts is very reasonable for a 50 bird lesson as you have £15 of clays and carts! It's a contentious issue a lesson that costs £20 but teaches you nothing is is a total waste although cheap a lesson that costs £100 but improves your shooting long term is expensive but much better value at £4 a box of cheap carts and the same for clays if it takes you a few boxes to learn a certain target presentation it can cost more in long run not to have lessons and you are much more likely to pick up bad habbits! Finding an instructor you are comfortable with and confident in is the key it doesn't matter how much you pay, if you don't trust what you are being told you are wasting your money Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BerettaSV10 Posted June 17, 2012 Report Share Posted June 17, 2012 (edited) I tend to go for a pairs lessons which costs £50 each for a 1 1/2 hours excluding cartridges. Fair enough watching others shoot, but you can pick up their habbits, at least with leassons they will tell you what you are doing right and wrong and can help improve your shooting. Edited June 17, 2012 by BerettaSV10 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Arklyte Posted June 17, 2012 Report Share Posted June 17, 2012 I am a newcomer too, I can understand about picking up bad habits but doesn't that happen anyway over time despite even the very best tuition, it seems to with car driving. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
garden gun Posted June 17, 2012 Report Share Posted June 17, 2012 £45 including carts and clays is really good value. Round here it is £60 at least not including carts and clays. Lessons are important in my view - had to put my shottie plans on hold for the last year with busted Acilles tendons. Will be getting back to it this autumn when the ankles get back to full power. Good instructor will get you off on the right foot. Sure you will pick up bad habits, but that is when a remedial lesson or two kicks in. Same as any skill of hand sport - golf, fly fishing etc. Had a 3 hour fly casting/fishing remedial a couple of years ago. Worked wonders. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gerry31 Posted June 17, 2012 Report Share Posted June 17, 2012 This is a difficult question to answer it depends on what you want out of you shooting if you want to be a good club shooter then you will probably be ok if you want to go on then go to the nest you can afford but this is expensive. Just a couple of thoughts the guy you went to see what level does he shoot has he won any comps is he well known and so on Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cant hit rabbits 123 Posted June 17, 2012 Report Share Posted June 17, 2012 (edited) I learnt to shoot at a small local clay club. My shooting style is a mixture of those of people I shoot with and my own adaptations. I've never shelled out for proffessional tuition and can shoot reasonably well. Today I shot 75% at the local clay shoot. You can get clued up on safety, enough gun fit knowledge to get you going and basic skills in a few sessions at a small club in my opinion. My club is very close to Nottinghamshire, let me know if you want to visit and I'll point you towards it. Forgot to say, cost wise its alot cheaper. All I had to do was pay for a standard round of clays, £5 for 30 (non member) and buy a couple of boxes of cartridges at the going rate. There's always someone happy to lend a gun and the club chair man takes round beginers for the first few weeks. Ends up costing £10-£15. You can have three weeks for the cost of your current tuition. Edited June 17, 2012 by cant hit rabbits 123 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
clayman Posted June 18, 2012 Report Share Posted June 18, 2012 Yes, I'd agree with Ed - self teaching is likely to be counter productive in terms of lifting your skills to the maximum. Copying others with bad habits only creates bad habits, and those who come to an instructor after a year or two of shooting, having plateaued at mid B class, require lots more work to correct than those who come early in their shooting career. Also, its far better to use longer lesson times. While many grounds/ instructors offer one hour slots, this is insufficient time to move conscious learning to automated reflexes. Good shooting is all contained in correct reflexes from the sub-conscious. One hour lessons usually have enough time to get correction in place within the lesson, but when the pupil goes away and shoots a few rounds away from the instructor the old reflexes are still more firmly established and take over from the corrective work. 1/2 day ( 3-4hrs) is enough time to gain a thorough knowledge of corrective technique, and then has enough time for repetition, to move the new methods into the sub-conscious. £45 for an hour is about as cheap as you will get, but ask about a longer single lesson, rather than a series. Over-all you will get more out of an extended 1/2 day lesson than from 4 one hour ones. Self learning can then work well, as a pupil should leave a competent instructor from a 1/2 day with a thorough understanding of stance / mount / technique etc, and be self analytical. You can only effectively self teach if you can also self analyse. JPY CPSA Senior Tutor Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bloggs Posted June 18, 2012 Report Share Posted June 18, 2012 You can only effectively self teach if you can also self analyse. An excellent statement...! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TrapFiller Posted June 18, 2012 Report Share Posted June 18, 2012 I learnt to shoot at a small local clay club. My shooting style is a mixture of those of people I shoot with and my own adaptations. I've never shelled out for proffessional tuition and can shoot reasonably well. Today I shot 75% at the local clay shoot. You can get clued up on safety, enough gun fit knowledge to get you going and basic skills in a few sessions at a small club in my opinion. My club is very close to Nottinghamshire, let me know if you want to visit and I'll point you towards it. Forgot to say, cost wise its alot cheaper. All I had to do was pay for a standard round of clays, £5 for 30 (non member) and buy a couple of boxes of cartridges at the going rate. There's always someone happy to lend a gun and the club chair man takes round beginers for the first few weeks. Ends up costing £10-£15. You can have three weeks for the cost of your current tuition. Where abouts do you shoot. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dougall Posted June 18, 2012 Report Share Posted June 18, 2012 £45 is incredibly good value,if you like and are happy with where you went crack on that is cheap. I think everyone benefits from some tuition.Whilst sportsman/women pick it up quicker I am not a believer in 'the natural shooter argument'.Young have quicker reflexes but shooting is about experience picking up a bank of pictures.But the vast majority of good shots have good basics,stance/hold/positioning etc and it is much better to be shown/taught these at outset.Whilst you get the odd Bubba Watson(never had a lesson in his life) the other 99% of pro golfers are built around sound grip/position/plane of swings etc. atb. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dirty Harry Posted June 18, 2012 Report Share Posted June 18, 2012 My local club is £56 per hour for lessons and does not include cartridges. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bogder Posted June 18, 2012 Report Share Posted June 18, 2012 (edited) £45 an hour all in is a great deal . I live in the Manchester area and I have been quoted £65 per hour ,plus Cartridges & Clays .As a new-bee its probably not the right idea , but at £65 + I will wait until I have a had a few more sessions down at my local club , then go for a lesson , if nothing else I will be more familiar with my gun , and perhaps in a better position to understand / get more from the lesson. Edited June 18, 2012 by Bogder Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
EdSolomons Posted June 18, 2012 Report Share Posted June 18, 2012 When your just starting off then a basic lesson with someone like a cpsa/basc etc coach will be fine to get you started and a bit of a platform to work from. Depending on where you are these should be resonanly cheap around the £50 all in price. After that you might want to look at getting a bit more specialist help which won't be cheap, but at the end of the day you are paying for knowledge that someone has spent in all likely hood 10s of thousands gathering and working on- so a couple of hundred quid for a morning to have that distilled and applied to your personal game isn't that bad. But if you are happy to stay round straw bale shoots with your mates then you probably just want to have a laugh, hit a few and put as much lead in the air as possible. Both are perfectly good options and no one can say either is wrong. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dougall Posted June 18, 2012 Report Share Posted June 18, 2012 Agree with Ed...now if he'd only had more lessons at the start could be a good shot by now... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
EdSolomons Posted June 18, 2012 Report Share Posted June 18, 2012 I keep getting told I'm doing it wrong but I still plug away at it...! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
joecash Posted June 20, 2012 Author Report Share Posted June 20, 2012 once again may i say thanks to all who have expressed a view Regards Joe Cash Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mick Shaw Posted June 20, 2012 Report Share Posted June 20, 2012 Just keep plugging away Joe, you will improve. As long as you enjoy yourself. Just feel sorry for us over 60’s who learned to shoot with light, game side by sides, felt wad paper cased Pigeon loads (ouch) I don’t think there were any shooting coaches about in those days and in any case my wages were two pounds twelve and six pence a week and £1.00 for a box of Eley’s I couldn’t afford one. I agree with what’s been said and if you self teach you will pick up some bad habits. It’s all down to what you want out of it. If you are like me and shoot for fun and the comradary then self teach, if you want to excel at the sport then spend as much as you can afford on tuition. I hate to think how much I’ve spent on shooting over the years but I’ve enjoyed every moment of it (bad habits and all) Mick. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Arklyte Posted June 20, 2012 Report Share Posted June 20, 2012 Just keep plugging away Joe, you will improve. As long as you enjoy yourself. Just feel sorry for us over 60’s who learned to shoot with light, game side by sides, felt wad paper cased Pigeon loads (ouch) I don’t think there were any shooting coaches about in those days and in any case my wages were two pounds twelve and six pence a week and £1.00 for a box of Eley’s I couldn’t afford one. I agree with what’s been said and if you self teach you will pick up some bad habits. It’s all down to what you want out of it. If you are like me and shoot for fun and the comradary then self teach, if you want to excel at the sport then spend as much as you can afford on tuition. I hate to think how much I’ve spent on shooting over the years but I’ve enjoyed every moment of it (bad habits and all) Mick. I had wondered how people used to manage before professional instructors and gun fitters came along. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bloggs Posted June 22, 2012 Report Share Posted June 22, 2012 Just keep plugging away Joe, you will improve. As long as you enjoy yourself. Just feel sorry for us over 60’s who learned to shoot with light, game side by sides, felt wad paper cased Pigeon loads (ouch) I don’t think there were any shooting coaches about in those days and in any case my wages were two pounds twelve and six pence a week and £1.00 for a box of Eley’s I couldn’t afford one. I agree with what’s been said and if you self teach you will pick up some bad habits. It’s all down to what you want out of it. If you are like me and shoot for fun and the comradary then self teach, if you want to excel at the sport then spend as much as you can afford on tuition. I hate to think how much I’ve spent on shooting over the years but I’ve enjoyed every moment of it (bad habits and all) Mick. What a great piece of advice.. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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