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Hi All,

 

I have just started shooting and after having several lessons and being taken along to a few shoots it looks like I have well and truly been bitten by the shooting bug!

 

As such I am looking for a regular club where I can practise and am seriously considering E.J.Churchill as it is about 40 mins away from me and from what I can see on their website it is open all week. It is quite expensive at £50 for a 100 bird shoot, however all of the other grounds I have looked at shoot on a Sunday morning which is the only time I can't do! Also, I will be looking at shooting a bit of Skeet as well as sporting and this is only £8 for a round.

 

Could I please ask people on here for some other recommendations near me (Bracknell, Berkshire) and also if there are any members or regular attendees at E.J.Churchill, their opinions on the ground, facilities and general feel of the place.

 

Many thanks in advance!

 

 

Ben.

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Royal Berkshire is another but probably just as expensive.

There is also the place behind West London Shooting School that I can never remember the name of, but someone will.

 

A C Sporting Targets - Andy Castle's place and my local as I only live about 5 mins away. Skeet, Compak, DTL, Fitasc -not open Sundays though. Only open Wed, Frid and Sat.

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I'm a member at E.J Churchill and A.C Sporting.

 

First if you want to shoot 'often, but not bonkers often' E.J membership is too expensive, however, you can negotiate an 'off peak' membership that just doesn't give you member pricing on saturday -- that's what I have, it makes it a lot more affordable (well, half price!).

 

I'm lucky to be about 10 minutes from Churchill and about 20 minutes from A.C Sporting. I think you will /learn/ better at Churchill with a caddy, as you can decide on /any day/ to shoot the same bird 100 times if you feel like it. Quite frankly, that's how I learn stuff... The caddies are all awesome and will otherwise pick you a selection to keep you on your toes without hammering you into the ground, and will help. They are not 'coaches' per se, but well they see a lot of shooters.

 

However, A.C is a LOT cheaper, is very friendly (a bit less up-market!), a bit more social (you get to talk to more people) *however* I find it's not the very good place to /learn/ stuff. I you play the COMPAK or FITASC or Skeet, and they do have /excellent/ targets, but you don't get any opportunities to have the range to yourself and blast at a couple of ones to 'sort them out'... Well not *very often* anyway, you need to get there on Wednesday early or friday -- saturday won't do, it's too busy -- seriously you will not learn anything.

 

But, A.C is lots of fun, the trappers are very nice too, and the range of targets are nice too; from the 'cow shed' to the very tough FITASC setups. Also, I took one lesson there with Chris and I tought he was absolutely awesome; doesn't try to teach you to change your shooting style, just get you sorted on whatever targets.

 

Anyway, 'value for money' per clay is A.C, especially if you are a bit more 'advanced' -- if you are *less* advanced, if might be worth shooting at Churchill at least for a while, just because you can pace yourself and work on whatever target you like, without being pulled into a fast paced COMPAK or FITASC. That works well if you are a good 'self learner' and don't require 'lessons'... Also, to be fair, Churchill has more variety of targets, and change them very often -- I mean VERY often. I was there yesterday and they've brought in 3 or 4 HUGE cherry pickers with a pair of traps at the top, and are throwing frigging AWESOME 60+ yards birds at stupid angles!

 

It's now off season, but Churchill also have the 'evening shooting' in the spring/summer, where it's a lot more affordable to shoot (even if still on the expensive side) -- they have a caddy at various stations and you can do a 50 birds course on Tursdays, or do skeet or COMPAK on wednesdays.

 

Anyway, both grounds are nice, and I'd be happy to meet you at either -- I'm a fairly new shooter myself (one year, w00t) so I'm still learning a lot...

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Thanks again for the input - especially for Buze's comprehensive reply.

 

I have three young kids so time wise shooting is going to be limited to the odd Saturday unfortunately rather than being able to shoot regularly and I work in London so evenings for me start at about 8pm! Agree with Buze that membership doesn't look worthwhile on this basis.

 

I do occasionally go to Bisley NCSC for DTL as I can do that on my own, however I have heard from a few people who have been to the Pay and Play at Bisley that it is a little lonely and they close a load of the stands on Saturday. Also - at £39 for 100 I think I would rather pay the additional £11 and have someone on the button who can give some guidance as to what to expect, rather than having to deal with time delays etc.

 

I think the best option is for me to suck it and see by going along to A C Sporting Targets, E.J.Churchill and Bisley Play and Play and have a go at each, so all those kind people who have offered to show me round - be warned I may well take you up on it!

 

Many thanks again to everyone!

 

 

Ben.

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West London and Royal Berkshire charge 'corkage' for using your own cartridges on their caddied rounds, EJ Churchills don't.

 

I've been a member there a couple of years now and visit on average twice a month for practice rounds. It's perfect for me as I can shoot pretty much whatever I want.

 

Before I go out the caddy will ask if there's anything I want to work on, so if I'm struggling with certain targets they will find me something. Sometimes I'll shoot a load of close and floppy targets, sometimes a load of more extreme targets and other times I'll just ask for them to mix it up and we'll shoot and score it as a practice registered shoot.

 

Lovely ground, great clubhouse, all the staff there are very friendly as well. As a member I feel very welcome and looked after.

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Well I must say e j is s great place to shoot and very welcoming. We shot 100 birds with the caddy taking us round. He ask us how good we were and to that we said average shooters so he started us off with an easy stand and went round and putting us on more challenging targets. I ended up wth a score of 78/100 so fairy happy with that and would happily shoot there again.

 

SSS

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By way of a quick update - I got the chance to go with a friend to Bisley pay-and-play on Saturday and had a great time.

 

All of the stands were open and the variety available is amazing. Really easy to use the machines as well and a delay being available on all stands meaning a solo round is possible.

 

We shot about 200 clays between us and had a great time - would definitely recommend!

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By way of a quick update - I got the chance to go with a friend to Bisley pay-and-play on Saturday and had a great time.

 

All of the stands were open and the variety available is amazing. Really easy to use the machines as well and a delay being available on all stands meaning a solo round is possible.

 

We shot about 200 clays between us and had a great time - would definitely recommend!

 

Well done! I would agree that the pay-and-play is probably the best way to progress (that and skeet!) especially if there are not a lot of people around and you can shoot the same target until you 'get it'... I suggest not keeping a scoring card either. Don't be too hard on you if you don't 'get' a target at all; try to identify exactly the kind of target you don't get and *later* get an instructor to tell you what you are doing wrong.

Sometime, 'sleeping on it' and getting back to it another day will fix it too, amazing how the brain works at solving geometry problems when you sleep ;-)

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