Thinking of trying HFT

[bozzer]

I absolutely 100% agree that the majority of air gun shooters who drag themselves out of bed on a Sunday morning and go to a club to drink tea, eat bacon butties and enjoy the banter ... do so on the plinking range. Most aren't interested in shooting courses and certainly not travelling around the region or country shooting serious comps.

So we've moved the goalposts there a little from ... Thinking of trying HFT? ... to ... Thinking of attending an air rifle club?

There was a thread on STB quite recently and the general opinion there was that most folk just simply don't want to drive around shooting comps. So I think that's fact.

I was talking more specifically about someone thinking about giving HFT a go and starting shooting some courses and comps.

Yup ... Chris C and Kieran and many more would all but clear courses with basic kit. I was at the first Worlds when Kieran did just that ... not on one day ... but on both ... 60/60 day one ... 60/60 day two. I think he used a S400. There's no doubt shooting ability knocks down targets not expensive kit. We don't even need discuss that.

Good points Dan about personal attitude. You are right that some people may struggle early on but will grasp that challenge and fight their way through the tough start and become better shots. Others will just give up and walk away as they want instant 50 plus scores.

That's a real nightmare for the organisers to try and accommodate. They need courses that keep the very best interested and challenged ... but they need them 'inviting' enough so that newbies will enjoy them and knock enough down to keep them coming back. How on earth can they calculate in the 'attitude' of people who probably need to stick at it a bit longer and work a bit harder before giving up?

I'll go read your poll. Thanks for doing that.

[ChrisC]

Interesting numbers Chris, almost identical to our club with the same sort of numbers in each discipline.

Bob

Aye Bob, but if a new shooter was looking for a club then it would be extremely rare if we turned them away.

I agree with this. I read about it back in 2007 and thought I'd like to give it a go, emailed Pete Sparkes and turned up at Quarry to have a go. The rest as they say is history.
Some people are just wired to get up and go and others aren't. Doesn't matter if it's HFT or hill walking.

I thought the comparision with bowling was a good one too. As for expensive kit, I'm pretty sure Chris Cundy and Kieran Turner shot with S200s a few years back in a magazine article to show the cost of the rifle had very little to do with scores, dare i say none (providing the rifle is shooting properly in the first place).

Indeed we did...i think i got a 58 and K got a 57.......first and second on the day and we didn't really set up the trigger on the s200. Kieran used it as a base for an article when the top notch target rifles started to make inroads into HFT.

[mr dink]

I started shooting FT after the handgun ban and loved it and HFT from it,s interception but am too old for FT and as getting up and down is a problem but i would recommend HFT to anyone give it a go while you can ,but i have to say a course set too UKHFT rules has become very hard for beginners ie small kills too far away altering targets so bracketing has become impossible ,in the early days of HFT at tawd vale we would get 60 -70 shooters turning up in the pouring rain i see the point, the top lads will still come out on top .