MaY 2012 Issue - Target Shooter Magazine

PRACTICAL ShotgunThus it came to pass that 20 or so Digglemembers and a few ‘outsiders’ assembled fora UKPSA weekend ‘boot camp’. Now, I mustsay at this stage, that I didn’t personally takethe course having just returned from IWA(my excuse!) but I was on hand to observeand take photographs on both days.From what I could glean from the side-lines,trainees were subjected to a wide variety ofscenarios likely to be encountered in PSGcompetition and taught how to deal withthem safely. A ‘classroom’ theory sessionalso took place.If I had to use one word to describe thecourse it would be ‘thorough’ – thoughothers may choose a different one! At theend of two rigorous days, a tired but smilinggroup of PSG trainees were awarded theirpass certificates. The overwhelming opinionwas one of praise for the instructors andcourse-content and, to a man, everyoneadmitted that they had thoroughly enjoyedit and learned an awful lot. Members nowtrained and equipped, the next job was torun our own Club competition.Diggle’s 660 rugged acres offer plenty ofopportunity for challenging and variedcourses of fire so five stages, using mainlysteel-plate targetry and bird-shot, were setup to challenge and entertain. The weatherwas kind – cold but fine and sunny and, asa bystander, I was impressed at the levelof discipline exercised by competitors andthe general slick but good-humored way inwhich the event was run. With competitorssplit into groups, there was no waitingaround as the groups ‘rotated’ from stage tostage.Yes, I do have a s1 shotgun and took it along‘just in case’ and, in a quieter moment on oneof the stages, the RO coerced me into havinga ‘run’. Everyone kept telling me what goodfun PSG is and yes, I could instantly see theappeal – shooting a semi-auto ‘anything’ isvery satisfying but, unlike mini-rifle, at leastyou feel that you are shooting somethingwith a bit of – well, what’s the word I’mlooking for? You know what I mean guys...!And, in common with mini-rifle – no needto reload your ammo! Targets are steels, soeasy to manage and score – it either goesdown or it doesn’t! All this makes for a verysatisfying day’s shooting which gives thesame warm feeling as handling a recoilingsemi-auto pistol used to do in the good olddays.Although I mentioned Diggle’s 660 acres,of course you can run PSG on very compactranges as most targets will be at less than 25yards but, this is where the UKPSA trainingcomes in – in designing safe, challenging andfun stages.If you, or your club areinterested in PSG you could doworse than to get in touch withthe UKPSA at;www.ukpsa.co.uk orFour Islands at;www.four4islands.org96