East Devon BR - 12/9/2
We had a solid attendance of nine competitors to the last shoot of the 2026 season, not
quite the most we have seen on the range, but a good turnout and all familiar faces,
including regular Thursday attendee but first time competitor Dave.
As we have three benches, then details are shot, unsurprisingly, in threes, so having nine
shooters made for an easy allocation of benches.
As always, conditions are key to scoring and today was not quite what any of us were
expecting, with a cool start and a very light mostly right to left breeze which was changing
both velocity and direction on a regular basis, pushing pellets all over the scoring diagram
when it so chose. As the morning went on, things warmed up a bit, which again had its
own influence on pellet flight; never a dull moment in BR, I tell you!
Wind wise, things remained pretty constant throughout the competition, but it was
impossible to settle into much of a rhythm, as the breeze never really remained in the
same direction for long and the warmth meant that high shots were pretty common
across everyones score cards.
As always, I was using my flag and paddle windicator combo to as good an effect as I
could manage, but not paying extremely close attention to the wind flag could prove
immediately detrimental to scores. It is interesting, shoot to shoot to realise which
element of the combination is most important. Sometimes the cross wind paddle is the
most important decider of when to release a shot and when to hold fire, today the paddle
showed a steady breeze, but the direction was changeable and so the flag was the thing
to pay close attention to.
As I pulled the number 1 out of the pot, I was on bench 1 for the first detail. My card went
well enough, I was in company with Julian and Dave and both were extremely quiet,
which is not like them at all, we were all giving it maximum concentration, the score killer
being pellets flying high. Comments from shooters in the second and third detail indicated
this was happening to everyone.
My second card was shot in pretty similar conditions to the first, maybe a little warmer.
Each of the benches has its own characteristics and I don’t know if bench 2, which sits in
the middle of the range, has a less abusive character, but I really felt on top of things
during this card. I have not, at the time of writing seen my score, but I’d be willing to bet it
was my best card of the day. Again my fellow shooters were extremely quiet, so much so,
it was almost unnerving. Comments from other shooters after the second detail was
finished indicated that we were still all finding the conditions interesting!
I fear repeating myself month to month, but for my last detail I was watching my
windicators like a hawk, again. The breeze had changed just a tiny bit and was
occasionally coming straight towards the firing line, I also had at least two shots where
despite anything my sighters told me, my pellets landed right on the centre of the
crosshairs, great had my aim been the centre of the ten ring, but it wasn’t, so solid nines
were scored on both occasions (and plenty of others besides).
Tom had told us on several occasions that the scores were close and Gary had wished
me bad luck for my last card, thanks mate, you’re a pal, but he really turned the wick up,
as did Tom as the pair of them went after first place.
Prior to the shoot, Tom had asked us all to stick around and be patient, so that he could
not only sort out the days scores, but also the series scores and lastly the qualifying
shooters for the SWEFTA BR Championship shoot in October, the results are shown
below.
The days scores were 1st: Tom 746 27x. 2nd: Gary 740 28x. 3rd: Jeremy 734 26x. 4th: Me
234 25x 5th: Dave 727 19x. 6th: Eddy 726 19x. 7th: Justin 726 13x. 8th: Phil 724 12x
9th: Julian 719 14x.
Well done to both Jeremy and Dave.
Jeremy has been after one of Tom’s pellet trophies all season. He finally and deservedly
got his hands on one today.
Dave was a revelation, a model of concentration and applied skill. For his first every
competition, his result was impressive, to say the least.
The series results for the regular attendees were. 1st: Tom, 2nd: Gary, 3rd: Me, 4th:
Justin, 5th: Eddy, 6th: Jerry, 7th: Julian, 8th: Phil. There were six other shooters during the
year who put in at least one set of scores, hopefully we will see some or all of them for the
next series.
SWEFTA Championship Qualifiers. Tom, Me, Justin, Eddy, Jerry and Julian.
Gary also qualified, but will be away on the date of the shoot in October.
So that is that for the 2026 season, but as with all addicts, we don’t stop shooting just
because it’s wet and cold, so watch out for some informal competitions between now and
the start of 2027
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