SHOOTING - `Golf with a shotgun' all the rage at Marua club

There's a new type of shotgun sport that's been making its way around the traps recently.
Sporting Clays is the new kid on the clay pigeon shooting block, and the Marua Sporting Clays Club - based on Read's property on Marua Rd - is the country's first dedicated sporting club.
"We're the only club in the country that shoots solely sporting," club secretary Jacqui Read explains.
Other clubs have incorporated it as a separate discipline alongside the more traditional sports of skeet and trap shooting, she says, but the Marua club is sporting shooting only.
The club got underway midway through 2003 after the Reads were introduced to the sport overseas.
"When we lived in Australia (my husband) Eric shot sporting every weekend at the Brisbane Gun Club and he had this dream to set up a club on our property when we came back," Read said.
The more established sports shoot on set courses, that will be virtually the same every time you go to shoot.
Sporting shooting is usually on a completely different course every time you shoot, because the clubs use mobile traps (to launch the targets), which means you can shoot in different parts of the farm.
It is often described as golf with a shotgun. The sport differs from skeet and trap shooting in that it involves shooting clays at various locations which are launched at different velocities and angles.
"It makes the competition more interesting, rather than the same old thing every time you go and it also means you don't have to shoot 100 out of 100 to get somewhere," Read said.
The original idea behind sporting clays was to create an experience that more closely reflects actual hunting conditions.
A typical course will consist of 8-14 stations anad varying numbers of clay pairs are shot at each station. Targets are thrown at different angles and speeds, sometimes across the shooter's view, towards the shooter, or away from the shooter. The shots are intended to simulate game bird hunting, with some courses have traps which throw targets from tall towers simulating high-flying birds, while others have targets that roll and bounce along the ground to simulate rabbits.
The club has a membership of more than 80 members but there was a fairly low turnout for Sunday's competition with only around 30 competing.
At the Marua Sporting Clays Club Championships on Saturday the best result or "high overall" score went to Alan Alley with a score of 80 out of 100.
A dead-eye obviously runs in the family with Alley's son Dave winning the A Grade competition with a score of 79. Brian Deadman was one target back on 78 and Eric Read in third place with a score of 71.
Deadman recently proved that the club's shooting isn't too far off the beaten track on the international stage, with a first place in the junior division of the Australian national FITASC championships. He is one of a number of the club's shooters who compete overseas and nationally.