b'STAYN TARGETTAKEWith Keith Dighton: The philosophy of precision target shooting at tournamentsC at that same distance consistently, takesprepping game. A lot of the stu featured hances are, that at some stage or other you have beensomething more. online tends to focus on the hunting and asked, Why do you shoot aIt takes skill. poaching side of the sport but it wouldnt catapult? (or slingshot) andFor me catapult shooting and why I do itbe right to overlook competitive target for each of us our reasonsis all about competitive target shoots. I dontshooting and the leaps and bounds in will be dierent. For some its a parthunt any more. Now dont get me wrong.progress that have been made in the past of the family history or because its anI have hunted eiciently and successfullyten years. With professionally organised inexpensive field of shooting to get into.but theres only so much wood pigeon,tournaments from the England Slingshot It could be a way of meeting new peoplepheasant or rabbit a person can take andFederation, World Slingshot Association or making walks more interesting. Youconsume until the novelty wears o (forand others, who put in a lot of time and could of course prefer to use the catapultme, anyway.) and you look at ways to geteort to make competitive target shooting primarily as a hunting tool with its smallmore out of your shooting. Of course theresafe, accessible, fun and friendly for all size and pocketability or for plinking atare people who solely hunt with catapultsages and skill levels. No other sport caters targets in the garden. The list of reasons isand more power to them, as Ive statedfor everyone quite as well, I feel. And the unique to each individual. previously. We all have our own reasons. catapult organisations do so with pride, no The reason people tend to ask this whyFor me to get something more frommatter your race, age, gender or ability, you question is that most people have shot athis sport, it wasnt to be found walkingwill be made welcome. Whether its your catapult in the past and often rememberthrough woodland taking and thenfirst time or you are seasoned professional.how diicult it was back then. They hadVlog, Catty & Mic! Tournament shooting is why I shoot a go with their Black Widow or classiccatapults. If there were no competitions I Milbro and found it was hard to hit a canwouldnt shoot one and thats the truth. My or similar sized target from ten feet away.first taste of competitive shooting was in Catapult shooting in general is filled with2012 and everyone was shooting hunting variables and truth be told, there are muchsetups which was the norm. I came joint easier ways of shooting (air rifles, archerythird at my first ever appearance and ever etc.) and people are always confused as tosince then I was hooked on the buzz of why we pick the catapult as our preferredshooting in front of a crowd (Anyone who method of shooting when we could do it farknows me will agree I quite like to be centre easier with dierent tools. of attention!)My answer is simple. I like a challenge. Since then, year after year I have attended Being accurate with a gun or similar isnearly every competition or tournament in relatively easy in comparison. Hitting athe UK and have shot in multiple countries. target at 20m is childs play with the rightAnd every time I attend an event, there are equipment and not much experience. Butmore and more people that make the eort with a catapult, hitting that same targetto go and shoot at them.There are those that mainly hunt and Chloe Dighton, future Olympicwant to see how they fare against others Gold medalist in a competitive environment. Those who are chasing trophies, those who shoot in a team, seasoned veterans and those who simply want to meet the people they watch on Youtube and meet on Facebook and enjoy the atmosphere.The main thing is, that with more attendees there are more competitors. Which means in turn it gets harder to win. My view is that tournament shooting is not about proving how good you are to others but proving your true ability to yourself and seeing how that fares against the best. Winning anything is bonus whether you are 014SlingshotWorld014-015_SSW005.Keith Dighton.indd 14 26/11/2021 11:10'