EDIT 17-May - We had a pleasant and successful event, ten shooters on Saturday and eight on Sunday. Having two days back-to-back was quite helpful, on Sunday we got to build quite a bit on Saturday's experience. St. Antoine is a beautiful facility, I'm looking forward to shooting there again later this month at the RCR Centennial Match 30-May (500m & 600m).
There will be two "Circle Training" events this year. The first one is this coming weekend, Sat-Sun 15-16 May, and will be held at the St. Antoine Gun Club.
This will be an "Introductory Level" event; it will be straightforward for everyone, including complete beginners, to participate and get something useful from it. The other Circle Training event on
our schedule (5-June) will be an Advanced Level one, which will require either that you have a fair bit of experience with team shooting, or you have taken this Intro Level and are keen to keep going.
THIS EVENT IS A FANTASTIC OPPORTUNITY TO LEARN ABOUT SHOOTING; almost all of our shooting days are individual matches, in which coaching while shooting is in progress would be considered to be cheating. This is NOT A MATCH, and is not only a great opportunity for brand new shooters to try outdoor centrefire target rifle shooting, it is also one of the few opportunities for competitors to sit back and try something new and perhaps even take a step toward the next level of their shooting progress.
We will only fire 300m for this Intro Level Circle Training course, so we won't be dealing with any particular wind-reading challenge. Instead we will focus on team shooting procedures, shooter-coach-plotter communications and interaction, plotting groups, operating a plotomatic, centering groups, etc.
Feel free to shoot one or both days. Each day will be essentially the same format. We'll form groups of approximately six people, who will then spend the day on a target and cycle through the different roles of the "circle" - one pair will operate the target in the butts, another pair will shoot, and the third pair will coach the shooters. The third pair will takes turns acting as Coach and as Assistant Coach (plotter). After the two shooters have fired, we'll cycle through and shift roles of each pair - so when the day is done everybody will have done each role twice or three times.
Bring enough ammo to shoot twice or three times in a day (24 or 36 rounds per day ought to do it).
Ron advises me that you should bring raingear and especially bug dope, he expects the flies will be quite hungry by this weekend.
Camping is available on the site, and you may use the facilities in the clubhouse but please remember you are responsible for your behaviour. If your would like to camp, please contact me (dmc@danielchisholm.com) or Ron prior to this weekend so he can open up the building for you.
The fee for each day will be $10.
If it rains much we'll make a smart retreat into the clubhouse before we or our gear get too terribly wet and we'll spend some time there doing "classroom" stuff while we wait for comfortable weather. We'll save the "how-to-shoot-and-win-in-miserable-weather" lesson for some other day....! There are plenty of useful things that can be learned in warmth and comfort - shooting of groups, centring of groups, shooter-coach communications, match procedures and tactics, etc.
DIRECTIONS TO ST. ANTOINE GUN CLUB: Take #115 north from Moncton. When you enter the village, turn right on
Chemin Renaud Mills (there's an Irving on the corner). Go east a mile or two, there is a big blue sign on the right side of the road,
View St. Antoine Gun Club in a larger map
