Has the Current Economic Climate Affected Your Shooting?
I used to shoot virtually every weekend, but due to the current economic climate and the freezing of wages I now shoot once or twice a month. 
A hundred bird shoot can easily cost a £100 or more when you add up the cost of the shoot, traveling costs, price of cartridges, food and drinks, etc.
Things won’t get better for a very long time, if at all, and I’m afraid that shooting might become exclusively accessible to the wealthy.
Have any you curtailed the amount you shoot?
Totally agree with you Ken. Its a shame that the grounds don’t realise this and lower their prices encouraging people to shoot more!If one ground started and saw their footfall increase then maybe others would follow.Whereas I used to shoot 100 now its more like 50 practice so its the ground who’s losing!
i have to disagree with you on this angie,
a lot of the shooting grounds are strugling,
for £22 -£25 pounds per hundred there isent a lot of profit by the time they pay their insurance and wages, the food in most of the grounds is priced very sensible as well.
cartridges on the other hand are a rip off,
add everything up plus your traveling expencis
a day out shooting is very expensive.
I think mid Wales’s £22 per hundred (practice) is a fair price. Some grounds are charging in the £28 to £35 bracket which is far too much. Add the cost of entering comps and it can easily get towards the £40 mark.
Fuel costs and cartridge prices are definitely pricing the ordinary worker out of the sport.
I sometimes think of giving it up, but then one of my mates phones me up wanting to go shooting and I quickly change my mind.
Were Hooked, that’s the problem
We all know the price of a single clay and down here £6 a round for skeet to shoot at targets that haven’t been hooped(and you daren’t ask for them to be hooped!!)on a ground that has bins full of empty shells and all over the place, where you have to avoid the sheep and dog poo is unacceptable. If the grounds are struggling then maybe they need to look at why their footfall has decreased and for me if they dropped they’re price to £5 a round then I’d probably shoot 4 rounds instead of just the 2 or 3 I shoot now….Oh for a rich man!!!!
Blaze Clays are around £0.09 each, so 100 clays around £9. At £5 a round, it’s an £11 profit.
I guess paying for staff, maintenance, insurance,etc takes about £5 of that, leaving £6.
Yet again they make a good profit in the gun room, on the food and drinks, lessons, etc.
I remember the day when grounds gave you free tea and coffee, yet they charge you around a pound now.
I agree totally with Angie, regarding the standard of targets on skeet, very few grounds bother to use the hoop to set up on each shooting day. The general comment is ‘they’re the same for everyone’ so they will do.
that’s disgusting, I would keep well away from that ground.
As to sheep and dog shit on a shooting ground
I’d love to but its my only skeet ground!Plus the ground I’m talking about is unmaned for 90% of the time except when you nip down to their little cafe to pay. And they charge FULL price for the Juniors!Thats hardly encouraging any of them.
Does the ground name start with a T and end with an N?
I totally agree shooting is getting far to expensive especially if you have a son or daughter coming into the sport. The grounds
that don’t give discounts for kids are shooting themselves in the foot as i know of several parents who will not use these grounds.Perhaps some grounds have realised this as i see a few adverts lately saying under 16′s shoot free with paying adult unfortunatly most of these grounds seem to be in england.
ps am i your first south wales correspondent
Hi TK,
Welcome to my humble little Blog.
your actually the second Southern Correspondent
Our Ms.Goodman’s been corresponding from the first day.
I sincerely hope many more will join from the wonderful South
Begins with a T and yes, ends with a N! At one stage they wanted me to give them the County Final……NO CHANCE!!
We had our skeet final there about 10 years ago, and I thought it was a lovely place.
Sounds like it’s gone down hill, since then.