In an occasional series of articles the DSG Secretary will try and answer some questions most often put to him.

If you have any question or query relating to the sport or the DSG please feel free to email the Secretary with your question via the link on the Contact Us page and over time you may see your answer here.

The most recent questions will alwys be at the top of the page.

23/02/07

Membership Related Questions:

How much is membership and how do I join?

It remains at £20 for new members and £12 for renewal - due on 1st January. New applicants should contact the Membership Secretary and Treasurer, Geoff Gott, whose address is here. 

Is membership only open to the disabled?

No - anyone is welcome and we have an able-bodied membership at the same fee as disabled. Many able-bodied members are spouses or partners of disabled members but that is not a requirement. At every event we run an able-bodied members' competition - it is hotly contested.

How do I qualify for disabled membership?

As a disabled member your disability must be one which affects your ability to shoot (eg, but not exclusively, a mobility difficulty, loss, or loss of use, of a hand or arm). Deafness or a speech impediment, for example, may not qualify. Receipt of such allowances as Incapacity Benefit, Disability Living Allowance, etc, are the usual benchmarks but if in doubt apply anyway - your application will be dealt with in the strictest confidence and the committee will include you if we possibly can.

Why are events not held in, for example, the South West of England?

At the moment our members are mainly from the Midlands, North Midlands and the East of England, though we have some in every part of the country including Northern Ireland, Wales and Scotland. As soon as there are enough members in ANY area we will try to hold events there. So if you have disabled or able-bodied friends who shoot encourage them to join! If we could be sure of, say, about 20 entries at an event in your area it would be viable.

I have only ever done a little pigeon shooting. Do I need a particular gun to take part in clay target shooting?

Side-by-side game guns and indeed any gun which can give you two shots will do but game guns are not ideal as they are very light and do not absorb recoil as well as the heavier over-and-under 'sporter' made specifically for clay target shooting. An over-and-under is the clear favourite and a sporter with multi-chokes would make an ideal all rounder. Cost - a good second hand Miroku or Beretta, for example, should cost you no more than £600-700 and will depreciate very little, unlike your car! A new one - around £1000-1200 - but you can spend A LOT MORE on guns such as Perazzi from about £5000 upwards new depending on quality of finish! But try one or two different ones before you buy - many shooting grounds either have guns for lend/hire or even have a shop where they will let you try used examples.

Do I need any other special equipment?

Assuming that you have your gun, security cabinet, gun case or slip and cleaning kit then you need little more. Hearing protection (eg, ear muffs) from about £20 and safety glasses (from about £10 if you do not need a prescription) are a MUST! If you wear prescription specs it will cost you more to obtain shooting glasses which sit higher on the face than normal but sometimes the 'aviator' style prescription frame available from your optician will do the job - with plastic lenses of course! A shooting vest (with a non-slip shoulder pad to keep the gun firm and big pockets for cartridges) is also a good idea - they cost from about £30 and, apart from gloves and waterproofs for cold and rainy days, you don't NEED anything else - but you should see the kit some people haul around!  A bag of some sort for cartridges and waterproofs, etc, might be useful - a large "Sainsbury Homebase" toolbag is as good as anything, cheap, and almost identical to a bag sold by one of the gunmakers at a higher price! 

05/02/07 We start the questions with an explanation of "Choke" asked recently by a member.

Choke:

Choke is a constriction in a barrel designed to control the spread of the shot pattern after it leaves the barrel. There are various methods of achieving this but the normal modern method is for the constriction to be gently increased in the last few inches at the muzzle.  

A barrel with no choke is a parallel tube and the choke measurement is known as 'true cylinder'. The usual maximum is 'full choke' which is nominally 40 thousands of an inch (about 1 mm). I say "nominally" because different barrels and cartridges perform differently. The only way to be sure exactly how a barrel performs is to test it by firing (with your chosen cartridge) at a 'pattern plate' and measuring against the traditional British method, e.g., a full choke barrel is intended to place 70% of the shot in a 30 inch circle at 40 yards - so if yours does this it is really a full choke whatever the markings on it tell you. Many grounds have a pattern plate and for a few pence you can buy a sheet to stick on it which has the 30" circle marked out. It is worth while doing this because many chokes, with a modern plastic wadded cartridge, perform much more tightly than their nominal markings, e.g., a half choke may well produce a three quarter choke pattern. It is also worthwhile experimenting with different cartridges because they may give a different result. Don't be surprised also if you see gaps in the pattern as this is obviously not a precise process and two cartridges out of the same box will perform slightly differently. A gap through which a target can pass does not have to be very large! This exercise also helps you to check whether your gun shoots where you think it does. If you find that the centre of your pattern is not in the centre of the circle it may be that your gun does not fit you although there could be other causes.

So - what to use for what disciplines? Trap guns, in my view, are usually too tightly choked. They are normally supplied with three quarters and full which isn't even really necessary for Olympic Trap. One reason for supplying them with such tight chokes is that taking choke out is easier than trying to increase it. For DTL the current favourite seems to be to have guns bored (or tubes made) at three eighths and five eighths. This is fine for the best shots but if not very quick, like many of us, it may be best to stick to around half and three quarters. For sporting it depends on the target - if you have a fixed choke gun quarter and three quarter or quarter/half is common, though I have a friend who shoots everything with true cylinder in both barrels - and he does quite well! If you have a multi-choke you can obviously use what suits the target - the only advice I can give is that most people seem to use too much choke. Try in practice using less choke than you think you need - you may be surprised. For skeet - well, the obvious, skeet chokes - but I know a lot of people who use true cylinder because the targets are quite close. In the end it's up to you - and it depends how your gun performs with your chosen cartridge.
Bob Kibblewhite.