Bisley Shooting day, part two...

My latest article spoke about a recent trip to Bisley with Terry Doe. My team and I learnt about different stances and techniques, and more importantly – how to improve our individual techniques to better us all out in the field.

Here is the day continued… After a couple of hours practicing like mad and getting a little told off when we weren’t doing our best we called it quits to go have some lunch, as our fingers were well and truly numb – the joys of the outdoors during winter – and forgetting those much needed gloves! Over lunch we had a catch up and ironically after the health talk we’d had during an earlier discussion – most of us had chips for lunch - except for me, I was in the mood for some good old porridge to keep me warm!

Back to it – Competition time! The most nerve-racking part of the day. We got back to a little practicing with our standing position and tried to perfect our techniques remembering to aim, breathe, pull the trigger and follow through with our shots. We were getting a little confident, maybe too confident, when we were hitting the knock down targets at 25 yards. I even thought that it was too easy at one point – oh how I showed myself up!

We were lined up ready for our competition, we had to go one at a time at shooting our 25 yard target, the one who missed the most, gets knocked out of the competition. I thought I’d do fantastic as the training session was such a breeze for me and I was easily hitting the 30 – 40 yard targets during practice. Unfortunately, I was knocked out from the first round; I only hit one out of 5 targets. I was so embarrassed but the pressure got the better of me and I would insert excuses here, but I have to be honest – I was terrible due to the pressure! But I tried and knew exactly what I was doing wrong, so have learnt from my mistakes and will make sure to stay in check for the next time I’m “under pressure”. The rest of the team battled it out and it came down to the final two on the last round, we didn’t expect our friend, James, to win the competition as he hadn’t had a lot of practice leading up to our learning day – in fact I think he’d had the least practice- but he won the competition fair and square, he even won a camouflage hat as a prize, I was so jealous! I may have to think about getting myself one and pretending I won the competition.

I can’t say I wasn’t gutted that I got knocked out on the first round, but what I will say is this – We all had such a fantastic day learning, and to be under the tuition of Terry Doe was the most amazing feeling. We all felt that he is an inspiration to the airgun scene and we honestly felt like we were hanging out with a God. We came away with so much more confidence and knew exactly where our faults were, alongside our good habits too. We have since taken the new stances and all the advice given to us into the fields, and hand on heart can say that all the recommendations to help us improve have sunk in. Except for that sitting position, that’s a killer!! But it’s one that will improve with me over time, until then it’s a case of practice, practice, practice until I’ve perfected it.

Here are a few words from the Team, on what they have learnt and how the day affected them as a shooter –

Sean- “I didn’t really know what to expect when we got to Bisley. I was nervous and had butterflies the size of pigeons. This soon changed the second we met Terry Doe - he was so welcoming! Anyway we all assembled at the 55yrd training range. Terry took us through the safety procedures and checks that should always be taken. He then allowed us to have a few practice shots before the hard work started. You try holding a gun still when the scope is on full mag – it’s not easy! But just to make things more difficult we had to shoot in a position known as the sitting stance. I know the others will tell you that I made it look easy but it definitely was not - my backs still hurting now. Then there was the kneeling stance which was a lot easier. Anyway we broke for dinner and then had a chance to buy some goodies (to take home) before the big comp took place. There were 6 contenders for the unknown prize. First round all went through except for Danni. Least said bout that the better, she’ll not be impressed I’ve mentioned this! I went out second. It all came to a shoot off between James and Matt. This went on for quite a while until James beat matt at the post to take top shot. What was the prize I here you say? - Well it was a camo hat which James wore with pride. This was my first experience of a shooting club and one I will be repeating in the near future. The whole day was a complete hit and I met some great people that I would now call friends”.

Taz- “The highlight of my life was this day at Bisley with Terry Doe and the rest of the Trigger Happy Admin Team. Terry has to be one of the most influential people I've ever had the pleasure to meet and I learnt a lot including improving some different shooting positions/stances. Just goes to show you can still learn new tricks at a mature age. I can't wait to get out on my newly acquired perm and put some of this new knowledge into practice. Thank You Terry.”

James- “So Bisley was an absolute cracking day- the main thing I personally learnt was to not rush my shot and to use my breathing technique to my advantage, whereas before- I found I was holding my breath just before pulling the trigger which was causing me to wobble a lot more! Terry advised me to squeeze the trigger on the breathing out and this helped enormously. Also when standing I was advised to tuck my rear arm down to give me more stability and control which has since helped me massively! Terry is a god when it comes to air rifles and was an absolute gentleman on the day - as was Phill Price, thanks both for such a great day learning.” Matt- “I, like the rest of the team was a little nervous before our learning day, not knowing what to expect, not having met any of them before or Terry himself. But Terry gave us all a very warm welcome and made us feel all at ease while having a little light hearted fun. When it came to the shooting itself I must admit I felt a little over confident beforehand thinking I knew it all, but I can honestly say I didn't, and with Terry's help I left Bisley a much better air gunner - with new skills and more techniques to practice with, to help improve my shooting even more. The biggest one of all was to always shoot with your scope on full magnification; this truly has transformed my accuracy! I would like to thank Danni, the Trigger Happy team and of course not forgetting the man himself Terry doe, thank you.”

Peter- “Having been shooting on and off for the past 28 years from -the local fairgrounds to the scouting movement to being given my first air pistol - a weihrauch HW70 - which I literally shot to pieces. I got involved in my later teens in pest control. Rather than quality quantity was required so practice, practice, was my way forward. When I was invited to join Mr Terry doe at Bisley on the BFTO ground which I had recently joined I knew no more and it turned out to be a trip back to my early training days. Being a keen Springer shooter my trusty HW98 in .22 was out for the day. Terry put us through our paces and safety was first order of the day through to stances, positions and limitations, fished off with a knock out shoot-which I was third place. Not knowing any of the other shooters on the day, I did as I was instructed and have incorporated the techniques in to my everyday shooting. We could all benefit from a kick back into reality and the day had me leaving wanting to know more. Many thanks to Mr Terry Doe and the trigger happy team.”

So thank you once again to Terry and Phill for such a fantastic experience learning, something money could never buy! As for you readers and hunters out there, if you wish to attend one of the shooting events that I intend to organize very soon, don’t hesitate to contact me and I’ll help you out as much as I can. We hope to pass on our new knowledge to others and help to improve and inspire other shooters techniques by demonstrating what we have learnt as a team. Until then – Stay safe and happy hunting.

Unpublished Article