Tondu Air rifle Club - Bridgend / Neath / Swansea

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Only Friday myself next week

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Thursday this week, 10 until dark

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Looking dry from 9 onwards with a good interest from shooters wanting to get out, tea and cake for all!

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tea and cake for all!

Not for you!!!!

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We had Diet Cakesand diet kit kat.


Looking good again for tomorrow, dry and sunny, sort of a "mini" day perhaps???

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We're on new car test driving duties tomorrow!

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We're on new car test driving duties tomorrow!

Your book of excuses is better than mine!

Bring it down Tondu. If it gets you back out buy it!

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Your book of excuses is better than mine!

Bring it down Tondu. If it gets you back out buy it!

That's a good idea lol

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Tuesday and thursday this week all being well

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Thursday 10 - 3 ish

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bit later saturday, meeting 12.30 till 3 ish.

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Break in the weather tomorrow so should be at tondu 10 - 2,30 ish

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Sundays long range forecast is 24mph wind and light rain. Perfect conditions!
Shoot will run no matter what the weather


Main FT Course is fairly well sheltered so should not be too much off plate shooting. In fact, most shots I think will be taken with cross hairs inside the kill zone
Ranges from 8 - 55 yards, but on the whole this will be a short Ft course with most targets in the 25 - 40 range.

Some Tricky shots over the pair of bottom ponds, Some Angels and of course the is Acid Hands Titanic Target on the pond! Snappy will be on hand to eat any who fall over board!
Easier in the woods where there are a mix of minis and some long fulls, couple of short standers whch is me knackered lol
Then a couple of testing lanes at the courses end.
I predict heigh scores.

No Vermin Side shoot this time so we have gone for the full 10 reducers in the main.

We are looking to have a side shoot, think it will be the "mini long Range"
Mini kills, but nothing past 55 yards. 3 targets, 3 shots at each, £1 a go, Prizes dependant on entry but at least a £10 for 1st. Confirm that after saturday

Covered Zero range will be in use, its got lots of boards out plus:
the 4 practice standing re-setter targets
the three sets of spinners
the practice plates.
Should be enough for zero check and warm up sesson.

The 20 target (20 or 40 shot) Gp practise course will also be open if you want to warm up before doing the main, or indeed if you want a warm down session post disaster, I mean Main shoot? Free to use.

Road is ok, but as ever just take you time and please shut the top gate. Bottom gate can be left open.

Booking in, zero and Gp practise open 8.30 onwards.

Main course Briefing 9.25am

Main shoot open 9.30 am



Be great to see some first timers come and have a go, Ft is no where near as hard as people think.

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Bit late I know but last week was a bit of a deflating one after Sunday!

Anyway, the Tondu Winter shoot went well with just two whistles, one a false alarm as no sooner than the marshall been called the string came loose from around the target and the only other one was snapped string. thankfully it was on the shortest target.
Weather held off for just a minute or two of sprinkles rather than rain, nothing that needed wet weather clothing.
Even the wind played its part in being constant in direction early on but tricky in strength. The wind did change late on in direction but strength was fairly consistant most of the day

I thaught I would do a breakdown of what cost shooters their marks, just for reference? you may see a pattern to your misses and be able to work on them?


Lanes 1- 7 were over the bottom ponds and were on the whole a tough section, Lane 1 was a new lane to all and proved to take more misses that I thaught it would.
T1 was fairly sheltered and thus it should have been easy for most to pump it down the middle at 32 ish yards despite it being a 25mm reducer. Some mis dilaed on it, some said the wobbled, it was missed by 10 out of the 36 entries (AA x 2, A x 2, B x 3 and c x 3)
It surprised me how many people missed T2 which again seemed fairly sheltered but at 49 yards it took 14 misses, the surpriseing thing was the breakdown of class misses. Aa = 5, a = 4, b = 3 and C = 2. suggests to me the experienced AA shooters thaught they would come out on a long one and it went striahgt?

Lane 2
Snappy started you off, just 27 yards for the 25mm reducer and not too many misses, 6. A x 2, B x 1 and C x 3.
T4 was gadgets doing, long across the pond at 51 yards. 15 misses, AA x 3, A x 4, B x 4 and C x 3. Again, I think some may have come out and gone straight while others may have gone down the middle instead of inside 3 edge?

Lane 3 was another of mine and again an all new lane. Cut across lane two but with no crossing strings obscuring lane 2 targets. Building on something Dave Semmens said a few years ago I placed t5 at 45 yards and t 6 was just a couple of yards to the right of it at 48 yards. The theory was if you got t5 wrong you learnt and could adjust for t6?
T 5 took 11 misses, 4 x AA, 5 x a 0 x B and 2 x c. It was a no wind shot when I took it, though I gave inside 3 edge
T6 was surprisingly tougher on the shooters. 17 misses, 3 x Aa, 7 x A, 4 x B and 3 x c. Again inside 3 edge saw the pellet hit centre for me.

3 lanes on the smaller pond done and so lane 4 started at the side of the "bottom" pond.

T7 & 8 are kneelers, T7 was 27 yards and t 8 a proper 44.5 yards!
T7 claimed just 7 misses, Aa x 2, A x 1, B x 1 and C x 3.
T8 however was another of the harder targets for most with 17 misses. AA x 7 (!!) A x 5, b 2 and C x 3.
Seems some Wafta AA shooters need to practice their long kneelers?

T9 was one of the longer targets at 53 yards and again it caught many out, 16 infact. AA x 4, A x 6, b x 4 and C x 2.
T10 was Gadgets Titanic2 floating on the pond. Inch kill, which should have told shooters it was under 35 yards but at least one made it 36+ and then got his Trigger technique all wrong on it! Captain rat (25mm reducer) was sitting on the bridge at 34 yards and took just 8 misses, so well done Acid hands on the design and fixing of our first floater! AA x 1, A x 1, B x 4 and C x 2

I think it was lane 6 that produced the most combined misses.
T11 was 50 yards angled across the pond from T 12 that was straight out in front of the shooter, across the pond at 47 yards.
T11, nicely cut into the trees claimed 18 misses of which, 6 were AA, 4 x A, 6 x B and 2 x c
T12 claimed 14 misses, 7 x AA, 2 x A, , 3 x b and 2 x c. I missed t12 but I shot badly and pulled the shot right. If I had been resting the gun on my leg instead of holding it, inside 9 would have knocked it down.

Unlucky for just 8, T13 again was angled back across the ponds from its firing line position, but at a modest 40 yards. AA x 2, A x 2, B x 1 and C x 3 were unlucky!
T14 was another of the full set of reducers on the course. With no Vermin side shoot and shorter distances in our small wood, it was decided to use 10 x reducers.
T14 was a respectable 31 yards and although it may not have looked it from the firing line, was in a windy open section. AA missed x 2, A x 2, B x 2 and all square c x 2!

Into the woods and some restbite.

Lane 8 was to me a gimmie, pair of 25mm reducers. t 15 at 22 yards and t 16 at 25 yards.
T15 was not missed so Gimmie suits it I think.
T16 did catch a few out, AA x 0, A x 0, b x 1 and c x 1

Lane 9I thaught would catch shooters out but it proved no probem for most.
T17 was long at 50 yards, but missed by just 6. AA x 1, A x 2, B x 1 and c x 2.
T18 was at 42 yards but only took 2 misses, 1 from an A class shooter and 1 from a C class.

Everyones favourite next, first standing lane. Don't worry I told Gadget, we will make them short to start and make the second lane longer.
So T19 was set at 19 yards and T 20 at 24 yards. I wont mention Gadget double dinked in the breakdown!
T 19 was missed by just 1 x A and 2 x c grade shooters.
T20 however and the extra range plus a bit of fatigue may have got to some? 13 misses split AA x 3, A x 3, B x 5 and C x 1.

T21 next was out in the wind at 47 yards. Missed by 3 x AA, 2 x A, 4 x B and 1 x c.
T22 caught just 1 B grade shooter officially. Set at 40 yards on a fence post, I gave it inside 9 and the wind changed. I clearly saw the pellet move about 10mm right and strike the plate and it fell over!! When its your day its you day so thanks to however did not reset it properly before us lol!!

T23 & T24 were the 15mm pair dealt with, 9 yards and 19 yards, sheltered lane with no wind and a nice easy downward angle (as most of our wood shots are) so ok for me/fatties!
T23 showed a few have not done all their ranges properly, AA x 1 miss, A x 4 misses, B x 2 misses and C x 3 misses.
T24 was a bit easier, AA x 2, A x 2, b x 2 and C x 1.

T25 & T26 was another easy 25mm reducer lane (unless your arms dealer).
T25 was shorter at 22 yards and did not take many misses, AA x 0, a x 0, B x 2 and c x 1.
T26 (28 yards) caught out AA x 3 (so arms dealer not alone), A x 0, b x 1 and C x 1.

Lane 14 was the penultimate woods lane so T27 was pushed out to 52 yards and it was in the wind. 6 x AA missed it, as did 3 x a, 3 x b and 2 x c.
T28 was closer and at 35 yards only took 1 miss, to an unknown AA grade shooter!

Leaving the woods via 54 yard t 29 caught some out, myself included. I was one 4 x AA, 3 x A, 4 x B and 3 x C grade shooters to miss. My miss went right however when I am sure most earlier misses would have gone left?

Out of the woods and a clear view was in hand for lane 16, clear enough to see the Standing sign sadly.
T31 was the long one at 35 yards. Missed by 6 x AA, 5 x A, 5 x B and 2 x c so another of the targets that took the biggest amount of misses.
T32 was no easy option after t31, though shorter at 24yards it claimed 0 x AA, 2 x A, 3 x B and 1 x C.

I went soft on the next two lanes!
T33 was full at 32 yards and T 34 was full at just 17 yards.
T33 claimed just 1 x A grader while T34 was hit by all!

T35 was I thaught another fairly easy taret but it got a few at 38 yards. AA x 3, A x 1, B x 1 and C x 1.
T36 was 25 yards and full and caught out just 1 x A grader.

T37 and T38 were kneelers, placed at reasonable length but in an open and thus windy (at times) lane. T37 (Boar) was the short one, at 34 yards while T38 (Hedgehog) was at 41 yards.
T37 caught 4 x AA, 2 x A, 1 x B and 2 x C graders.
T38 was another of the ones that caught lots. AA x 5 misses, A x 5, B x 5 and C x 3!

Last up was the pipe lane, sheltered from most wind it caught some out by pellets going straight when they came out! T39 was full size at 38 yards while t40 was in the pipe at 48 yards..
T39 got 1 x AA and 2 x A grade. The AA and one of the A graders were shooting together lol
T40 took a few more, AA x 3, A x 1, B x 5 and c x 2.


I believe most enjoyed it, it was bit different from our recent courses as we did not 1 in 5 gimmie targets so some put in a string of misses before finding a 40mm or 25 mm hole they could flatten.
If you know what you missed you know what you need to work on.

Thanks to Gadget for his help in prepping the lanes and deciding what was going where in most cases and also to dave, John, Peter, Zak, martin and the rest for helping to put on another good shoot,


Now to start on the John Thomas Memorial for April 13th. That's going to be tough!




I rode my luck on the one that went off the plate, but it made up for the bad t12 shot! Change was order of the day as I used Priest beast with 4.50 die 46 but not lubed as I forgot the lube bag!
I wanted to check out luep no 4 and despites its different way of working it was pretty good on the ranges.
No 4 needs to be H - Low, but passed the target nad back up to get best consistency. Very strange compared to all my others but it works!
Stock felt good today as Desire was with me so its tme to get it sorted ready for summer 2014 now.

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expect to be at Tondu 10 -4 ish Saturday

Setting up an Ev2

Checking an Ev2

Drinking tea.