Fred Garrod (Third with 32/40)
The shoot is held at Cambridge Gun Club which has an excellent shooting ground featuring no less than 20 different clay shooting stands, many with multiple clay traps as compact sporting layouts. Choosing different targets each year is easy as there are so many traps which also get moved around by the CGC groundsmen. The Anglian Muzzle Loaders, a muzzle loading shotgun branch of the MLAGB, host the event and provide scorers.
The competition is open and draws competitors from all over the country. This year, 2024, the furthest travelled came from Glasgow, with several others from Yorkshire and Derbyshire. The beauty of holding sporting shoots at Cambridge Gun Club is that there is such a wide variety of less common targets such as loopers, battues, minis & midis. These types of targets are rarely encountered by most muzzle loading shotgunners as many commercial clay shooting grounds will not permit the use of black powder. This is due to a lack of commercial viability as muzzle loading clay shooting is very slow compared to breach loading nitro guns but probably due to a lack of understanding and experience.
The Anglian Muzzle Loaders have been very fortunate in that we have been welcomed both at Cambridge Gun Club and Eriswell Lodge, both excellent commercial clay shooting grounds.
This year’s Holts Muzzle Loading Shoot attracted 25 competitors. The targets were chosen to be fairly straight forward but with one or two stands that needed a bit of “reading” as the targets had tricky trajectories or speeds. The eventual winner was Peter Beecroft, better known locally as Viking Pete, with a superb score of 34 ex 40.
Just behind him was Martin Crix on 33 for second place and Fred Garrod on 32. Many were in the 25 to 30 bracket which was pleasing to see. Viking Pete was awarded the perpetual Holts Tankard and medals were awarded for the top three along with a free annual subscription to the Holts Auction Catalogues.
Nick Holt kindly presented the prizes.
The 2025 Holts Annual Muzzle Loading Clay Shooting Competition will be held on Sunday 7th September – see you there!
