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Skeet shooting


Lloyd90
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3 hours ago, Scully said:

The only opportunity we have to shoot skeet is a visit to Westlands, which we do now and then. I really enjoy it and have shot it with my 3200 Trap ( full and full ) and my Perazzi choked at 3/8 and half. I haven't straighted it yet with either, but it's fun trying. As others have said, it's very satisfying turning any clays into dust with a full choke. 🙂

One of the lads up there has said he'll show us how to shoot FITASC, which I'm looking forward to. 

Fitasc sporting is the best discipline.  If you fancy a proper bash at it there are a few comps coming up over the next month or so in this neck of the woods and you would be welcome to join my squad.  Given the nature of the game, it can be 5 hours to shoot the 100 targets, but plenty opportunity for a blether and cups of tea, etc in between layouts.

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2 hours ago, grrclark said:

Fitasc sporting is the best discipline.  If you fancy a proper bash at it there are a few comps coming up over the next month or so in this neck of the woods and you would be welcome to join my squad.  Given the nature of the game, it can be 5 hours to shoot the 100 targets, but plenty opportunity for a blether and cups of tea, etc in between layouts.

How does it work out of interest please? 

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9 hours ago, London Best said:

Good post.

My pet hate on clay grounds is “loopers”.   W*F?

😀 Shoot ‘outside’ the arc. 👍

8 hours ago, grrclark said:

Fitasc sporting is the best discipline.  If you fancy a proper bash at it there are a few comps coming up over the next month or so in this neck of the woods and you would be welcome to join my squad.  Given the nature of the game, it can be 5 hours to shoot the 100 targets, but plenty opportunity for a blether and cups of tea, etc in between layouts.

Many thanks, that’s very kind of you. Will give it some practise first; see if I’m up to the job! 🙂

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34 minutes ago, London Best said:

Scully, it’s not that I can’t hit the loopers, they’re just silly. For me a clay, if I am going to shoot at it, must represent a quarry bird, not a pregnant cuckoo!

Competitive clay target shooting has long since moved beyond the replication of live quarry.  I think the only thing that remains in a practical sense is that the targets have to be within the effective range of a shotgun, although sometimes not even that happens.

That is why there is two quite distinctive camps in folk that shoot clays, the game shooters who wish to practice and will predominately shoot something resembling live game, or the target shooter who is more interested in their ability to shoot whatever target is presented at them.

In my experience the folks that are good at clay target shooting are also good game shots, but it doesn't always work the other way round.

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7 minutes ago, grrclark said:

 

In my experience the folks that are good at clay target shooting are also good game shots, but it doesn't always work the other way round.

I’d have to agree wholeheartedly with this. Even though I say it myself, I hit more than I miss at game, but I’m in no doubt at all that clay shooting has markedly improved my game shooting. 

Another way to improve your game  shooting is to get on the pigeons at every opportunity. 

Edited by Scully
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8 hours ago, Lloyd90 said:

How does it work out of interest please? 

Google is your friend, but a brief outline.

There are two types of fitasc, old and new style, the big difference being the number of traps that are used and the amount of space it takes up.

In old style fitasc the course of 100 targets is made up of either 4 or 5 layouts (parcours) and you shoot 25 or 20 targets on each layout respectively.  Each layout has 3 shooting positions or hoops.  On a 4 layout course each layout will typically be serviced by 5 traps labelled A - E. From each hope you will shoot 5 single targets, i.e. 1 target from each trap and you get to use both barrels at that single target, so that's 15 targets and the remaining 10 targets are shot as pairs which can be either on report, simultaneous or a rafael (two targets from the same trap as fast as they can be thrown).

So on hoop 1 you might shoot A, D, B, E, C in that order as singles then A o/r C and D o/r B as pairs, the next hoop you would might shoot E, A, B , C, D as singles and then E sim B as a pair and the last hoop B, E, C, D, A as singles and B o/r E and C raf C as your pairs.

The shooting positions can be very varied, so from hoop 1 target A may be a right to left crosser, from hoop 2 it could be a straight going away and from hoop 3 a left to right crosser.

The order in which the targets are thrown from each hoop is entirely down to the course setter, likewise with the pairs that thrown.  It is not uncommon to have to turn your body through 180' to be able to shoot both targets in the double.

In a 5 layout course there would  be 4 traps per layout and you would shoot 4 singles per hoop giving 12 singles and then 4 pairs to make up the remaining 8 to give 20 targets total per layout.

In the examples above there are 20 traps, but 60 individual presentations of target per 100 birds.

Fitasc is a gun down discipline, so the gun has to be held out the shoulder (top of the stock held at a point 25cm below the top of the shoulder, there is a line on your vest/top) and can can only be mounted when the target is sighted.  So a solid gun mount and technique is critical.

It's typically shot in squads of 6 and the order of shooting is rotated, so on the 1st hoop the 1st person on the score card will shoot the singles and is followed in turn by the rest of the squad.  The second person down then shoots the pairs first and is followed by the rest of the squad.  On the 2nd hoop the 3rd person down starts the singles and the 4th person the doubles, etc.

New style fitasc differs in that every layout typically has 4 hoops with 3 hoops having their own 4 traps and 1 hoop with 3 traps.  So 15 traps per layout.  Hence the genuinely huge variation in target presentation, it's not just the same target shot from a different position.  As an example at the world champs at Churchills in July that is a 200 target comp so 8 layouts, so in that event you will shoot at 120 unique target presentations, sometimes you only shoot a target once, you either find it or you don't.

The mix of targets allows for some epic targets to be thrown, say a 70 yard battue going at full tilt, because you only have to try and shoot it once and you get both barrels at it.  On a regular sporting shoot you would never sensibly set that as it would destroy people if they had to to try and shoot that 4 or 5 times.

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Well I shot skeet for the first time today with a friends who’s never really shot before. 

Had skeet and 1/4 choke in. 

I managed 13/25 and my mate had 7/25. 

We were quite happy with the ones we managed to hit, a lovely elderly gentleman was just leaving as we came in and showed us the setup and off we went. 

After I hit a good on the first 3 stands he said “you don’t need me, I’m off for a coffee!” ... I wish he’d stayed as I was rubbish on the middle stands 😂😂

 

And a bonus my friend was keen to come again so another shooter in the pipeline 👍🏻

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5 minutes ago, Lloyd90 said:

Well I shot skeet for the first time today with a friends who’s never really shot before. 

Had skeet and 1/4 choke in. 

I managed 13/25 and my mate had 7/25. 

We were quite happy with the ones we managed to hit, a lovely elderly gentleman was just leaving as we came in and showed us the setup and off we went. 

After I hit a good on the first 3 stands he said “you don’t need me, I’m off for a coffee!” ... I wish he’d stayed as I was rubbish on the middle stands 😂😂

 

And a bonus my friend was keen to come again so another shooter in the pipeline 👍🏻

hello, i would consider 13 / 25 is a good score, i could never get on with skeet, DTL was my favourite

 

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5 minutes ago, dabbers said:

dont forget to include your repeat shot,,

Yes was told you repeat the first one you miss. 

Luckily (or unlucky) I missed the very first shot as no idea the path it was going. 

I hit it on the next go and again with the repeat :)

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As much as I find DTL boring as hell, I have a HUGE amount of respect for guys who straight stupid stuff like 100/100 etc. I have enough experience to recognise the amount of sheer concentration required to so that sort of things, and that's something I'm completely incapable of, so two thumbs up, even if it's some sort of alien discipline to me! Only fun I ever had shooting DTL is gun down!

I've shot english skeet "a lot" and I'm *not* a skeet shooter. But I think that it's a very, very good exercise for any gun to shoot skeet. Again, it's humbling, I've seen quite a few 'good shot' fail miserably at this 'silly' discipline. It does require a lot of practice and concentration again. I spent quite lot of time shooting skeet until I straighted it (to be fair I was shooting a browning B25 with full/full+) I can't recall the times I did 24/25 until I eventually nailed it. Oh, gun down too. Not 'FITASC' gun down but gun off the shoulder.

I think it's fantastic practice, I still do > 20 if I do a run, as I stopped training it, but everytime I shoot skeet I 'discover' something that I now do differently, better (or not sometimes) and it's a very good 'metric' on how your overall shooting is going.

Now Olympic Skeet is a different fish. Just the 3s random pause gets your nerves on edge. It's great fun.

Thanks @grrclark for the writeup on FITASC rules. I shoot quite a bit of "old" FITASC and love it, I'm a lot better at /that/ than English Sporting, but yes the format is a bit of a bore for competitions. It actually take the whole DAY. Sure if you have a squad and a whole day it might be fun, but really it's boring as hell to come in, start at 9:30 and leave at 5pm to have shot 100 clays. As much as I love the format, I hate the time it takes!

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18 hours ago, buze said:

 

Thanks @grrclark for the writeup on FITASC rules. I shoot quite a bit of "old" FITASC and love it, I'm a lot better at /that/ than English Sporting, but yes the format is a bit of a bore for competitions. It actually take the whole DAY. Sure if you have a squad and a whole day it might be fun, but really it's boring as hell to come in, start at 9:30 and leave at 5pm to have shot 100 clays. As much as I love the format, I hate the time it takes!

Completely agree on the FITASC .... the time is a downside ...

A good compromise is Sportrap, where at least you get to shoot a huge variety of different targets, but also can be done in an hour and a half :good:

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On 02/06/2019 at 16:28, Lloyd90 said:

 

I’d have rather hit 20+ but don’t worry I will try it again I enjoyed skeet :) 

Try just 4 single targets on the stands where you would normally shoot a pair. After a few rounds of singles, you should have locked the sight picture of gun/clay position from each stand. When you are shooting 20 single targets, then start with the pairs. It is just practice, practice, practice  ! 

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  • 2 weeks later...

Skeet is a great discipline for covering the angles. I take it that those who find it boring are hitting straights every round they do and can't miss one even if they close their eyes. It takes a massive amount of concentration to shoot a straight 100 or close to it. Another reason I find people say it's boring is because they can't hit them. I shoot skeet several times a month but have never found it boring. I like esp also but will say I have been bored with the targets at some grounds as they were rediculously easy. 

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8 minutes ago, Scully said:

Meant to amend a comment I made on this thread regarding FITASC at Westlands. I learned on Sunday, whilst at another shoot, that the layout at Westlands that I assumed was FITASC, ( not knowing any better ) is in fact Sporttrap. My apologies. 

I am very glad you now know the difference, that could have been interesting in so many ways!:rolleyes:

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1 hour ago, TIGHTCHOKE said:

I am very glad you now know the difference, that could have been interesting in so many ways!:rolleyes:

That's just it, I don't know the difference. Someone tried to explain it to me but I was waiting in line to shoot at the time, so I couldn't give it my full attention. 

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On 14/06/2019 at 15:51, The Mighty Prawn said:

Without wanting to be pilloried for being an ignoramus - where does Compak fit into this? Quite similar by what I can see except just five targets from five points but there does seem some overlap with the disciplines being discussed

Compak is actually a Fitasc discipline, but when we talk about Fitasc we are actually talking about Fitasc Sporting to give it the full title. (See my description of fitasc sporting earlier in this thread).  Fitasc are actually a French based shooting federation that also govern Helice (ZZ) and universal trap (trench).

Compak is very similar to sportrap in concept, but there are many more rules governing compak. To add confusion when people talk about compak they mostly mean sportrap.

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