The Compak technique

If you feel your shooting has reached a plateau, think again. Graham Brown looks at some methods that shooters of all stripes can use to improve their performance and get more from a social day with friends on a shoot or in competition

In the way that those pursuing weight loss or body building can plateau, the point at which no amount of additional effort seems to make any further improvement, so it can be with shooters. Something needs to be done but that depends on the shooter and what they want. Some are happy to treat shooting as a social event, others hanker after something a bit more competitive. But what to do when the plateau is reached? “Over the years I have identified several types of shooter,” says Graham. “The first is what I would call the ‘Social Sunday’ shooter, someone who simply enjoys a day with their mates and then maybe a meal at the local pub. The next is the ‘Sunday Aspirational’, one who enjoys shooting competitions at club level and wishes to proceed to registered events. Next is the ‘Traditional Group’, who dabble in registered shoots elsewhere but still support their local club. Then there is the ‘Circuit Shooter’, who follows registered events and is looking to prove themselves against their own scores and against their peers. There is, perhaps, the ‘International Shooter’, who aims, one day, to compete at the very top. Finally, there is the ‘Gameshooter’, who starts clayshooting either for practice or socially but then makes the transition into the world of fieldsports and live quarry shooting. Regardless of which category a shooter may

fit into, to enjoy and get the most from your day takes a degree of competence and this is particularly important where live quarry shooting is involved.

Variations

“I feel that one of the best disciplines that can sharpen up a shooter and get them thinking about different techniques is Compak. The discipline goes by several names: Compak, Compact, Sport Trap or American Five Stand. They are all variations on a theme whereby a wide range of clays are shot by a squad where a small positional change can dramatically alter the presentation of the clay. This forces the shooter to think about lead and the correct technique for that particular clay. The discipline is shot over a relatively small area, all clays are perfectly killable and it is also shot at pace putting pressure on the shooter. It is one of the fastest growing disciplines in the clayshooting world.”

The group Graham chose for the lesson was a mixed party who had been shooting together for a about a year. They had met under a scheme that Graham runs where you can get to know some fellow shooters and form your own group. Alan Booth was a former target pistol shooter who left shooting behind after the pistol ban, and had recently taken up clayshooting. Nick Rees had started about a year ago following an introduction to clayshooting through corporate events and had started entering competitions. He felt that