Ah yes a bank holiday. Bank holidays are great, a normal run of the mill weekend with that horrible Monday morning start pushed over to Tuesday. Yes it throws the rest of the week out with everyone getting all muddled up, (is it Wednesday or Thursday today?) But oooooh how that extra day off is worth it.  Sunny days, Barbeques, lazy days in the garden or just spending time with family on a day out. Bank holiday are great.

The reality is somewhat different, we live in the UK so it normally rains. I also live in the south west which as anyone who doesn’t live in London will tell you, means that on a bank holiday weekend the local population rockets as London empties. So that 5 minute trip to get milk now takes 5hrs. Any day trips out involve being stuck in a car moving 1ft every hour, to the accompaniment of plinky plonky consoles, tinny buzzing of MP3 players, and a chorus of are we there yet?

No we locals stock up and lock up, do the thing we need to round the house. The furthest we travel is to recycling bin at the end of the garden. That’s a real UK bank holiday weekend.

All that aside I LOVE the extra day off and LOVE bank holiday weekends. The month of May has two which is doubly brilliant. Two extra days off to fill with the things I love doing. Trouble is. I have a few loves in my life. Shooting, (obviously)  Sea Fishing (that’s along the same lines so makes sense) my Fiancé, (she told me to put that) mountainbiking (my attempt at keeping fit) and finally restoring old VW’s (you didn’t see that one coming did you) A Bank holiday weekend means they all want a bit of my time.

The last Bank Holiday in May was no different, my fiancé with ideas of doing the garden, a pile of B&Q bags subtly made that hint. The local VW club had a show stand at RTTS in Cornwall which I was asked to be a part off. And some cycle buddies were planning on cycling into Bath and back with a stop or two in pubs en route for, er, loo breaks. 

Finally and more importantly Rounds 2 and 3 of the UKAHFT nationals at Tawd Vale.  Well this is all about Airgunning. It was over the Saturday and Sunday and at almost the other end of the country. After failing the chrono at Lea Valley I was keen to get my first National comp under my belt. I couldn’t be competitive over the year, that was never going to be on the cards. As I’ve said numerous times it’s about the taking part for me, becoming a better shooter, meeting other shooters visiting new places, and learning for me.

So after failing at Lea Valley and the probability that I’d  miss Anston due to work. I decided that I would do the Saturday shoot and skip Sunday’s round 3. This year could be a year of learning and doing what comps I could, then maybe next year I could give them a run for their money. This way I could also keep the Local VW club happy on Sunday and then keep my better half happy by doing the garden on Monday.  That sounded like a plan.

An early start, a very early start, saw me, the rapid and a flask of coffee on the M5 as the sun peeked over the horizon. I got some odd looks from holiday makers as filled up the car in my realtree gear at the motorway services still I’ve had weirder ones when I’ve been in a ghillie suit.

4 hrs later and virtually just off the M6 I slowly turned off into a Cub Scout camp that is Tawd Vale. First impression is it’s a wood, maybe a forest. I don’t know at what point a wood becomes a forest so let’s just say there’s a loads of trees. That's new to me. Quarry is obviously an old quarry. Kibworth was all fields where I shot and lea Valley I never made it past the chrono. So lots of trees is new to me. It’s quite a tranquil setting and got me reminiscing about my time as a cub scout and my time camping at Bushy Wood. I don’t know how popular youth organisations are these days. But it was great start for me as a kid. I went from the cubs to the Air cadets, where I shot 22’s on ranges and even got my RAF marksman badge. It’s a pity I seem to have lost those skills now. But it did teach me respect and good gun sense.

Tawd vale is a very nice place indeed.

I went down and booked in. There I met the group of people who helped me at my first comp. Ryan Steph, Mike James and Vinny. They know who they are and each time I meet them they always introduce me to someone else.  They are great people and very friendly as is everyone.  If it wasn’t for these guys as well as a lot of other people  I wouldn’t have got the bug as much as I have. There is a lot of standing around, and it can be very lonely if you’re on your own. Everyone makes you feel welcome and will always offer to help if you ask. And at HFT event you can make friends fast.

So after chatting saying hi, loitering around, and listening to the banter. I was booked in and using all my will power to ignore the gorgeous and hungering waft of bacon butties. My mouths watering just thinking about it. Still those are cravings I have to resist. I quit smoking a year ago, and put on a little weight as a result, so now I’m on the obligatory diet. Ho hum.

The weekend before Tawd, I’d set about making sure my rifle was going to pass the chrono. I wasn’t going to fail that again. Set at a decent 11ftlb. I’d re-zero’d and was confident I’d be able to get a few pellets on the killzone. So I dint fell like I needed to go down and check on the ranges. BUT as is the case with a lot of standing around boredom sets in and the urge to tinker grow by the second. I expect that’s why when I trundled down to the range I found it was full and there was a queue. Now I’m a firm believer of don’t change things once you’re happy with it. Get it set up in plenty of time get used to it and leave it alone. That final twist of an allen key here a short adjust there, changes things and rather than makes things better, I’ve usually found messes thing up as you’re not used to it. My visit to the range was just to fill in time. And see if I could work out a bit more of my reticule.

I sighted up on a spinner and it flipped round like a gymnast on the bars. Nothing wrong there.

The wind was gusting in from my right and the next pellet dinked the edge. Hmmm. I tried again compensating a bit for the wind. And it dinked the other side. HFT had just got a bit more complicated. I tried another a bit further out and aimed at the same point before. Took the shot and zing around the spinner went. That was either a lucky shot or I’d nailed it. I’d have to wait to find out  as the siren sounded for the safety briefing.

I gathered up my gear and traipsed back to the wafting smell of bacon butties.

I was starting on peg 15, and after walking up the hill to a ridge I was joined by my shooting buddies through the pegs. Andy who was shooting a springer, a pro sport I think  and was on the lea valley team and Craig who I think shot Tawd as his local club. He wasn’t on a team but he’d shot there a few weeks previous. We all exchanged hello and that and after the siren went off we started working through the pegs. They both knocked the first one down and I started with a faceplate. It was a rat shaped one that was hidden in amongst the bushes. The grass had been mown from the peg which showed where the targets were. Where we had started, was a clearing in the trees and in sunlight. The knockdowns some of which looked to be miles off  were in the gloomier bits on the trees. It creates a bit of an optic al illusion making the targets look further away. Which threw me off a lot. I could hit my normal hunting range ones about 20yds, but everything else was faceplates. Just clipping the edge of the killzones.

I even had a couple of complete misses. One clipped a tree that was right in front of the target next to the kill, and later on the same thing one behind some tubes and another a leaf on the pellets flight path.

Craig and Andy had no problems. Knocking downs falling 2 points, after 2 points after 2 more. Some long range 15mm kills kept me on singles. But the standing only off the trees pegs went down for 2’s Those familiar hunting shots, giving me some glimmer that I can get double pointers.

My biggest problem was the wind. I just couldn’t compensate for it right. It was gusty and because it was coming through the trees. It swirled all over the place. I tried and just couldn’t do it. Trees are a new hazard to me. My shoots all open fields or buildings and any wind is mostly unhindered and relatively constant. Trees are random all over the place and the air swims and swirls round them

Andy said look at the target. You can see where everyone’s pellets are going, that will tell you what way to compensate and give you an indication of how much. Or do what he did and wait until the wind dropped. It’s a simple enough solution which helped me get a couple of other 2’s. But it was too late. With pegs running out, the 15mm kills, 3 zero’s and my total inability to suss out the ranges properly.  Meant I ended up my day with a grand total of 32 and was in last place. Well someone has to be

That C means I passed the chrono YAY

You know when someone wins the 1p on Deal or no Deal or some other game show, and they go “I’ve had a smashing time and enjoyed myself” and you know they‘re gutted and just being nice. Well I really did enjoy myself and had a great day even though I came last. I wanted to stay and do the Sunday round.

That was to me the hardest course I’ve shot, probably because it is my first national one and wasn’t a fun event like the ones I’ve shot before.  Nearly everyone else there scored points in the 50’s My mate Vinny shot 59 and the guy who won got 60. So it’s not impossible to do.

My score of 32 was dismal in comparison, but I’m happy with it. I learnt more to help me improve It was more lesson 2 than Round 2. Round 1 taught me I had to learn more about my gun and chrono’s. Lesson learnt, homework done and back for the next course.  This time the homework is: Learn my scopes reticule lines. Not exact distances yds, metres, etc. it could be bananas for all its worth. I need to know that that looks like it should be on that line, etc. I won’t get it perfect, but like those familiar shots off the tree, eventually those tricky ones will become familiar shots too.

I started on my homework yesterday and after emptying a tub of penetrators into targets working out the reticule. I dropped a rabbit with mixy at about 50yds, distance and wind adjusted for, and pellet landing exactly where it was intended.

 So maybe this old dog is learning new tricks.