We were a little depleted today, only seven of us as both Tom and Gary had family commitments. On the plus side, we had a new victim; Steve Squires decided that he’d have a go at BR. The usual faces were to be seen, Justin, Jeremy, Julian, Eddy as well as myself, plus occasional regular Phil and as mentioned, Steve. Straws were drawn…. well, bits of paper and two details plus a single shooter were sorted out. I was on Bench 1, first details, which meant I was also able to tak

15 shooters today - the perfect number for our three benches. And the weather was near perfect too, warm, with a light, predominantly left to right breeze. Mike Smith set the bar high with a first card 250:11x, then Allan Bunce topped it with a 250:14x - this card established a new club record - matching the existing score but bettering it on 'first X missed'. Allan went on to gain a personal best in today's match with an impressive total of 743:37x. And another personal best

Hi all The scores from East Devon Round 6 are now live: FT: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1wlZX0hLsu3kXpDVsrMOsQH_x_N6-3kyAZhDtOybh7vs/edit?usp=sharing HFT: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1loeNBasTFPi8DogH021pSEpNzLIqWuWZxgMOVWh7x9k/edit?usp=sharing As usual, please let me know if you see something which doesn’t look right. These links will be valid all year, so please keep a note of them if you want to check at any time. However, I will take the sheets o

A bumper crop of ten shooters threw their cash into the hat today, including two guests Chris and Kevin, experienced BRUK shooters who had come to see what we get up to at East Devon. All the regulars were in attendance, Jeremy, Julian and Eddy as well as myself with National shooters Phil, Justin, Gary and of course the maestro Tom, plus our two guests as already mentioned. This meant four details today, two with three shooters and two with two. The weather was forecast to g

A few of our regulars were unable to attend today's match, resulting in a slightly reduced field. Fourteen of us enjoyed what were perhaps ideal conditions for an outdoor benchrest competition. The Met Office forecast was broadly correct - 7 mph winds with 16 mph gusts, moving from east to south to southeast while the match was in progress. The card averages of 242.79, 242.21, 243.36, confirmed that the wind strength had remained pretty constant throughout. Congratulations t

Hi all, The scores from Dartmoor Round 5 are now live: FT: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1wlZX0hLsu3kXpDVsrMOsQH_x_N6-3kyAZhDtOybh7vs/edit?usp=sharing HFT: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1loeNBasTFPi8DogH021pSEpNzLIqWuWZxgMOVWh7x9k/edit?usp=sharing As usual, please let me know if you see something which doesn’t look right. These links will be valid all year, so please keep a note of them if you want to check at any time. However, I will take the sheets o

The scores from West Devon Round 4 are now live: FT: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1wlZX0hLsu3kXpDVsrMOsQH_x_N6-3kyAZhDtOybh7vs/edit?usp=sharing HFT: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1loeNBasTFPi8DogH021pSEpNzLIqWuWZxgMOVWh7x9k/edit?usp=sharing As usual, please let me know if you see something which doesn’t look right. These links will be valid all year, so please keep a note of them if you want to check at any time. However, I will take the sheets offline

Once again, we were six. Here we are in June already and six of us arrived bright and early at the club; organiser Tom, Gary, Jeremy, Eddy and myself were joined once again by Justin, sadly missing from the last couple of rounds. Julian was absent, having travelled to Spain for a bit of sunshine…. Erm, not seen this weeks local forecast then Julian? The weather was warm rather than the furnace like conditions forecast. The breeze was extremely light at 5 to 6 mph and at the s

Today's weather provided excellent opportunities for high scores - if you were paying close attention, or mediocre scores - if you weren't. Mostly sunny with a medium strength breeze, predominantly from right to left. Although the wind did regularly switch, briefly, to a left to right variety. Fortunately it also featured frequent momentary lulls, enabling those who timed their shots carefully to record a satisfying number of X's. Rob evidently had the measure of the wind, an

Mays benchrest scores.

The scores from Bodmin Round 3 are now live: FT: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1wlZX0hLsu3kXpDVsrMOsQH_x_N6-3kyAZhDtOybh7vs/edit?usp=sharing HFT: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1loeNBasTFPi8DogH021pSEpNzLIqWuWZxgMOVWh7x9k/edit?usp=sharing As usual, please let me know if you see something which doesn’t look right. These links will be valid all year, so please keep a note of them if you want to check at any time. However, I will take the sheets offline while I’

Today's match produced some remarkably consistent sets of cards, despite the wind conditions being frustratingly tricky - medium strength, predominantly right to left, but with frequent changes of direction. Mike Smith's first round 249 convinced many of us that the match had already been won, but the wind had other ideas, and his second card brought him back down to earth with a 241. Mark Whiteway's steady progression of 244, 245, and 247, won the day - with Mike just one po

Sunday the 3rd of May saw Duchy Shooting Association host round two of the South West England Field Target Association Summer league. Sunday saw 33 competitors on the FT course and 40 taking part in HFT with shooters travelling from as far away as Wales and Dorset. Duchy was very happy to welcome so many shooters and the numbers were boosted by two ungraded shooters in FT and seven in HFT bringing new blood into the sport. The weather was reasonably kind with light rain in th

Seven smiling faces turned up on a lovely sunny morning for Round 4 of the East Devon FTC BR championship. Tom hung on until 9.15am just in case a latecomer or two might swell our ranks, but then it was time to get going. As luck would have it, I ended up with the number one place, so that was bench one in the first detail of the day, along with Tom and Eddy. The breeze was very light, but never the less full attention had to be paid to conditions in order to avoid the dr

Today's weather forecast was worrying - 18mph winds with 45mph gusts. The direction was west southwest, meaning that it came predominantly from behind the benches. This always provides some of the most challenging conditions encountered during our benchrest matches, as it gives rise to those 'fishtailing' winds which are continually changing from left to right. And, sure enough, the sea of flags was experiencing a serious difference of opinion - most of us couldn't extract a

The scores from Shebbear Round 1 are now live: FT: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1wlZX0hLsu3kXpDVsrMOsQH_x_N6-3kyAZhDtOybh7vs/edit?usp=sharing HFT: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1loeNBasTFPi8DogH021pSEpNzLIqWuWZxgMOVWh7x9k/edit?usp=sharing These links will be valid all year, so please keep a note of them if you want to check at any time. However, I will take the sheets offline while I’m updating scores, so no sneak peaking until I send a message the scores

Ten competitors signed on for Round 3 of the ED summer BR league and the sun shone, a welcome change after the winter we have just enjoyed. I found myself in the first detail again and for my first card, the breeze was relatively steady and predictable. What wasn’t possible to read was whether the air between me and my card was warming, giving the pellet a little lift, or cooler, allowing it to drop slightly. After we had shot, it was clear that Tom and Phil, either side

Benchrest competition at Dartmoor has become something of a success story, we were slightly apprehensive today as we weren't sure exactly how many would turn up for this - the first match of the season. However, our fears were unfounded and an easily manageable 17 shooters drew their numbered disks from the hat to determine the order of service. The weather conditions were ideal, dry with a gradually strengthening wind to keep things interesting. The wind direction was changi

Hi all, Many thanks to everyone who braved the weather yesterday… I’ve said that a lot this winter! I hope you all had a great day and have managed to dry out… What could have been nicer than shooting at lots of silly small targets, in the cold, wet, windy, foggy weather. Madness, but great fun 😉 The Mini Mayhem scores are now live, as usual if you spot anything which doesn't look right, please let me know: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1K5XN-eApidcZn00gyTWP