Fauxdegla DTL Grand Prix 2023 – Sponsors Day 26/5/23
Today followed a rather interesting practice day yesterday, where I took advantage of Fauxdegla’s pattern plate facilities and did something that I could have done here last year, but chose not to.
The question has been in my mind, do both barrels on my Krieghoff shoot to the same place, because I’ve heard stories from people who have bought one and discovered that they don’t.
Krieghoff have 10 different hangers to choose from, and by changing between them, you can change the point of impact of the bottom barrel relative to the top barrel.
It turns out that on mine, they are pretty close, and the gun itself is printing roughly 80% high which is ideal trap shooting territory.
And the pattern through the bored out fixed chokes is pretty good!
Then, to do the job properly, I got out the Invictus and did the same thing (just to make sure that one was right also).
What I wasn’t expecting was to see puffs of dust from the bank above and behind the pattern plate when I was aiming for the middle!
Firing at the bottom edge of the plate put a pattern in the centre, so I decided that I need to relegate the Invictus to backup gun for the weekend, and look at the stock setup again when I get home.
All of that meant that I was now scratching an itch I’ve had for a long time, and took the K80 out (which still hasn’t been in for a service!) and got stuck in.
Super Comps SMOKE targets through this thing!
Practice consisted of 3 rounds, all 25 straights, and all first barrels.
And nearly all of the target breaks were very sooty!
Spurred on by that performance, I turned up this morning with the mindset of, “I’m not here to do anything special, just concentrate on doing things properly, enjoy blowing up targets, and see where we end up.”
First round - 24 balls of soot and one complete miss, most likely due to wandering concentration.
Then second round - 23 balls of soot, 1 second barrel, and another complete miss due to moving the gun before I saw it properly.
A few years ago, losing 7 points in the first two rounds would have really put a dampener on my day, because I was always chasing exceptionally high standards and being hard on myself for not reaching them.
Today though, I really didn’t care.
I was here at a beautiful shooting ground, doing something that I really love, and shooting rather well - what more do I need?
So instead of sliding down the slippery slope, getting more and more uptight, and costing myself even more points, I shot the back 50 straight and finished on a 98/293.
That isn’t going to win anything, but it’s a nice statement to make – I’m here.
Actually, I shared 9th place overall with Joshua Keeble, Ellis Pritchard, Paul Turner, and Connor Harris.
And I must say how happy I am to be out on the big competition circuit again.
The big names didn’t disappoint either.
Top of the scoreboard were Dan Price and Steve Janes, both on 100/299.
Curtis Woolley was next with 100/298.
Then it was Paul Neal on 100/297.
Nicky Waghorne and Leon Gill were next on 99/296s.
And then the big man himself, Paul Chaplow on 99/295.
Filling up the remaining gap between the group I’m in and the top was Bob Clarke on 99/294.
For a full list of the scores, click here.
Well shot to them, and to all class winners today.
We also had this lovely thing to look at while we were waiting to shoot!
The weather was perfect, and the next 2 days promise to be very similar – which is rare for a bank holiday weekend in the UK!
The plan for tomorrow is for more of the same, but as I said to friends, tomorrow is another day.
One thing’s for sure though – I won’t be changing guns overnight!
A certain friend of mine who was shooting with me in practice yesterday and witnessed first hand how hard I was hitting everything, told me that he will “give me a stern talking to” if I use anything other than that Krieghoff!
Given how much fun I’ve had today, it isn’t hard to do as he says!