Taff Mason Posted March 27, 2009 Report Share Posted March 27, 2009 Hi guys, the next week is going to be the first good week i've had in a long while, lately everything seems to be beating me, work sucks, generally nothing seemed to be going my way.BUT....today i will be travelling back to my home town of cardiff and as of monday i will be competing for a place on the army clay target shooting team. i'm getting a weeks training and shooting at south wales 2000 shooting ground all paid for by the firm, if i'm succesful i will spend most of this year off work getting paid to shoot. it wont be easy though as i have to be one of 20 selected from this week an i've heard there are lots of people attending it. i think i'll do pretty well but wether i get selected or not is another matter an if i dont atleast i had a great week at home, doing what i love.....AND just when i thought it couldn't get any better i remebered its my birthday next sunday the only downside is i'm getting old now, i'm going to be 24!!!! all the best lads, Taff Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chard Posted March 27, 2009 Report Share Posted March 27, 2009 Got any vacancies? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Taff Mason Posted March 27, 2009 Author Report Share Posted March 27, 2009 of course mate, just click here Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chard Posted March 27, 2009 Report Share Posted March 27, 2009 I'd need to lie about my age Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
throdgrain Posted March 27, 2009 Report Share Posted March 27, 2009 lmao me too chard Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Spaniel Posted March 27, 2009 Report Share Posted March 27, 2009 Nice one Taff, a weeks shooting cant be bad. And i think the weather is suppose to be nice next week so dont forget your hat and glasses. Let us know how you get on and have a good birthday, 24 thats so old Have a good one and enjoy Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jan147 Posted March 27, 2009 Report Share Posted March 27, 2009 hope it goes well, be interesting to read a write up of how your week went and what you had to do. Make us all even more green with envy! Oh to be 24! Have a good birthday as well. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Taff Mason Posted March 27, 2009 Author Report Share Posted March 27, 2009 cheers lads, yeah i'll do a write up and let you all know how i get on, as for the weather, its at my local club and its on the top of a mountain....all the time i've been shooting there i've never seen good weather up there even if its a great day down in the valley its god awfull up there!!! i'm not allowed to drink at all while the course is on so i'll make up for it on me birthday Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Taff Mason Posted May 20, 2009 Author Report Share Posted May 20, 2009 hi guys, sorry for the delay in writing this, i've been working away and haven't even been on here for about 2 months. getting withdraweral symptoms and everything :( i'll cut to the best bit first...I GOT INTO THE SQAUD!!!! basically the first 2 days were a selection to see if we had any potential as clay shooters. scores didn't really matter and we shot all the disciplines. if you wern't selected you were sent back to your regiment. luckily i was selected although i was definately not shooting at my best and i lost my glasses and had to wear some dodgy blacked out sun glasses which killed my scores in the low light (thats my excuse anyway lol) some lads were good shooters but didn't make the squad for reasons such as attitude. in total 14 of us were selected. army being army it wasn't all fun an games, shooting all day...and it wasn't as free as i was first lead to believe. i had to join the CPSA, army clay target shooting assosiation, the army rifle assosiation, pay £25 for clays, buy a few cartridges and pay £80 for a years training fees. still all this is well worth it considering what i get out of it. we had hours of dry mounting the gun, using different techniques and ofcourse a few push ups thrown in for things like not carrying a bottle of water at all times we still managed to get plenty of shooting in and the coach for my squad, simon arbuckle is a genius. he had us hitting targets confidently that before hand i wouldn't have even attempted. he also has the patiance of a saint because he never looses his temper even after hours and hours of teaching us and we're still getting it wrong or not applying what he teaches us. in the evenings we had lessons in a classroom untill about 22:00 on things like sport phsycology, nutrition and theory of clay shooting ect... the main problem was that most lads on the selection week were game shots, which i now know is a totally different way of shooting compared to cempetetive clay shooting. i was allways getting shouted at for '' shooting like a farmer'' for the first year i will be shooting in the inter services league, against the police, fire brigade, prison service, navy and RAF. as well as attending registered shoots in my own time. i've shot in two sporting cometitions so far. one at newnham park and one at kibworth. the first on was a nightmare. it was my first comp and nerves got the better of me. i shot terribley. the second i chilled out a bit more and nearly doubled my previouse score. the next comp is on 10th jun and its olympic trap. im feeling pretty confident about this because i've been shooting a hell of alot of trap latley and im getting some decent scores. i was at nuthampstesd last week which is apparently a very testing ground compared to others and i shot a PB of 19 19 20 22. i've now beat that at south wales 2000 with 22 22 23 24. not bad at all seeing as was lucky to hit 15/25 before simon took me under his wing. after the first year i have to decide on an olympic disciplin. origianaly i wanted to shoot skeet as it seemed like the easiest of the two coming from a sporting background. but now i've got my eye in for trap. i cant get enough of it when we start our chosen disciplin training the army will supply us with a new gun. i was using the army guns last week and they are lovely compared to my old pigeon gun they're fully adjustable ceaser guerini summit's and make my franchi harrier look and feel like an old pig iron covered in pallet wood this is just temperary though and eventually i will need to buy a decent clay gun which aint cheep so far i'm having a great time, my shooting is improving no end, i get time off work and a car to go training and shooting around the country, i get some free cartridges, i get the loan of a decent gun and best of all i shoot for £2 a round at my local club and £1 a round at nuthampstead. but the bad paoints are since joing the team i shoot a lot less pigeons and have to work late some times to catch up with work. and the worst point of all is the lads who i ususally shoot with take grat pleasure in ripping the **** out of me whenever i miss, wind me up all day and try and either swap counters with me or put thier shooting on my tab Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jan147 Posted May 20, 2009 Report Share Posted May 20, 2009 Congratulations glad you made the team. Kept looking out for the post to see how you had got on! Sounds like your having a great time, hope you really enjoy it and keep us all posted as to how it is going on Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Blunderbuss Posted May 20, 2009 Report Share Posted May 20, 2009 Well done Taff, excellent result. 2012 Olympics? :( You never know............ Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Peter De La Mare Posted May 21, 2009 Report Share Posted May 21, 2009 Excellent news!! Well done. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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