First Friday's shoots

Today and tomorrow are the five preliminary matches (one at each distance we'll be shooting in the Grand Aggregate). Their is also the first match in the Grand (the Daily Telegraph at 300yds tomorrow). So looking forward to the day.

Today's matches were 600yds, 900yds, and 500yds. I resolved this year to take every match seriously as they all have medals and cups to be won, even though they aren't in the Grand. I've learned from my shooting friends that you try to win every match, not just the "important" ones.

The first match was the Century 600. I held well (my core group a minute) but completely misread the angle changes and came off with a 44-2. I later in the day shot witha fellow I admire greatly for his accomplishments and attitude, David Luckman, and learned he had a 48-5 in the same relay. So the wind wasn't easy.

I put on some Hawai'ian slack key guitar music and just watched the wind at 900yds. I thought I was on target 31 and I was supposed to be on 32. So I put my first sighter on the wrong target (a bullseye!). The wind changed by three minutes and I had a magpie (a 3). Fortunately I read the wind well on my first record shot and it was a V. A good recovery, I thought.

More Vs and bulls followed and when it was done, I had shot my best score at Bisley, a 50-7. Over the moon.

My next and final match today was in the light rain, with David Luckman shooting with me in a pair (we normally shoot in threes). I read the wind as three minutes, resolving to watch the angle of the flags against the backstop to measure the strength. It ran up to 5 minutes in my sighters, and I kept taking off wind, but not quite enough, leaving my first record shot out for a 4, perfectly at 9 o'clock. A bit frustrating but I knew I was holding well.

Our match finished with Lucky firing a 50-8 and me a 49-5. That won't win me anything but I'm shooting quite well when I can remain calm.

I have high hopes that I might win something with my Admiral Hutton score, as it was quite good, even if I was classed an X. I'm an O, so there is some potential there.