Sights

CLAY TARGET SHOOTING IN THE JHC SIGHTS

Maj Dave Barbieri was assigned into JHC Support Branch earlier this year; as well as being appointed SO2 Equipment Support Ground, he has an impressive shooting portfolio to boot.

Written By: Maj Dave Barbieri

Shooting for the Army Clay Target Team for just short of ten years, he has been the Captain of the REME Clay Shooting Team and is now the Secretary of the REME Rifle Association. Additionally, he runs the Army’s largest Clay shoot held at Bramley Training Area and has participated in overseas shoots with the Army four times, most notably, a joint REME and AAC Tour of Cyprus.

Maj Barbieri, although still a keen shot, has been focusing more recently on his Clay Shooting Coaching development. Already a level two English Sporting Coach, he has passed the level two Skeet instructors’ course this year. This is a tough passor fail-course, his success has made him one of very few Skeet Coaches in the Services.

The course was conducted on Sywell Airfield, near Northampton. It is broken into two parts, a one-day coach development workshop, highlighting areas to work on and improve before attending the main course four months later. The second part of the course is three days long; starting with a ‘remind and revise’ then the students get to practice their coaching skills on day two, ranging from novice to county standard. The Skeet instructors’ course culminates with three assessments on the final day which has been likened to doing three driving tests back to back! 2021 has been a busy year for Maj Barbieri, who has shot for the Army in the Inter-Services League against the Royal Navy and RAF. He has also competed against the Police, Fire Brigade and Prison Service in shoots. He has run the Bramley Clay Club twice monthly, on Sundays, as well as the Army Target Shooting Club (ATSC) Clay Target events, shoots for cadet units, the REME Championships, the RLC championships, and the CSS championships.

His proudest shooting moments this year, have been witnessing his son (who he also coaches) winning the Wiltshire Olympic Skeet County Championships and more recently, seeing the

REME Team romp to victory at the Army Championships held at Barbury Castle. REME took the individual win, all the Jewels (first, second and third) as well winning the Inter-Corps competition convincingly. Maj Barbieri has enjoyed coaching for many years and has the humility to admit that he is yet to meet anyone who is as bad as he was when he first started. He says anybody can take up clay shooting and get to Army standard if they have the drive and determination to keep improving.

HOW DO YOU START SHOOTING OR GET INVOLVED?

Each Corps has a Team Captain who will be able to help you get started the main ones are below, also the ATSC will take people from Beginner level:

ATSC CT Army Air Corps RA REME RLC AGC RICHARD.CANN375@mod.gov.uk Billy.Millar727@mod.gov.uk Richard.Morris173@mod.gov.uk Peter.Meager849@mod.gov.uk Christopher.Pye428@mod.gov.uk Jason.Wright495@mod.gov.uk

If you would like to shoot at Bramley on the second or fourth Sunday of the month contact Maj Barbieri david. barbieri179@mod.gov.uk. The club has full civilian insurance so you could bring family members as well.

There is a club at the old bomb dump Middle Wallop which is civilian run. Contact Steve Clark on 07796 405414 for more details.