How do we get back to Clay Shooting after the Coronavirus lockdown?

We are currently five weeks into the government lockdown which began as an attempt to curtail the spread of the new Coronavirus and Covid-19. Everything closed up at that time and all sporting events were cancelled, including clay shooting. It was announced on the16^th April, that the lockdown would continue for another 3 weeks at least.

I haven’t be near my shooting ground since the outbreak began. We had our last shoots at the beginning of March and I haven’t been to the ground since.

There is no getting away from Coronavirus and Covid-19. Every time you turn on the TV there is either a news programme, government press conference or advert telling you to stay home, stay safe and protect the NHS. Every time you lift your phone that is all that appears on facebook or most websites. There is really no getting away from it.

The hope is, that after the next few weeks, new cases of the disease will not be as common as they are now. “Flattening the curve”, are the new buzz words and if they can get the curve flattened then steps will be made to allow people to return to work and schools to reopen etc. This appears to be happening as I type this, on Friday 24^th April, but daily death rates are still well over 600 UK wide and we will probably pass the grim total of 20,000 deaths from Covid 19 by the time this weekend is out.

If and when the line flattens sufficiently, they hope for some sort of normality to return. They are hoping to get the Premier League started again but only play games “behind closed doors” with no fans mixing or interacting with each other on a personal level and risking another outbreak of Covid-19 cases and the curve going the wrong way again.

They hope to ease people back into society, perhaps the younger generation first and then the older and more vulnerable in society will be the last to be allowed back to ‘normality’ again.

This is all well and good in theory. However, from a shooting viewpoint and clay shooting in particular, will we be able to just go back to the way we were before the virus? With government experts warning that social distancing will have to continue until a vaccine is found for Covid-19, I am not really sure if we can or not.

I’ll try to run through some of the things that I’ve been overthinking about in past few days.

There are a few of us that set up the traps for our sporting shoots at my club. Most of our traps are on trolleys, to wheel about, and we also have use of a quad and trailer. Can anyone just jump on the quad and take a trap somewhere. What if someone else has been on the quad beforehand? Do we need to be disinfecting the handlebars of the quad and the latches of the trailer every time we go to open and close them?

We still work with cables to release the clays from the traps. Do these need to be dipped in disinfectant every time we take them out and bring them in again?

If I set a trap and then decide it needs moved slightly, am I the only person whose allowed to touch it?

Is someone allowed to take clays out of a box and hand them to me to fill a trap?

Do we need to be disinfecting spanners, sockets etc. when using them to adjust trap settings?

That is only getting the traps set. Then on the day of a shoot, how do we keep social distancing within the clubhouse. How do we handle cash as people pay their entry fees or club memberships etc. How do we give out food and tea and coffee etc.

Then, how do we run the actual shooting? Our club works with squads on our Sporting shoots. We have sheets made with 7 names on a sheet but sometimes they put 2 sheets together to make the squad bigger so a bigger group can go round together. My view of the club and the shoots is that it is more to do with the social aspect rather than the shooting. If a squad of 10 or 12 want to go together for a bit of slagging and banter then that is how they enjoy their days shooting and they are welcome to do that. How can we now keep 7 people socially distanced at a shooting stand? Do we need to disinfect the buttons each time a different person goes to use them. We surely just can’t hand the marking sheet and pen about willy nilly the way we have been. Can we?

One of the great things about being at a shooting ground is trying out a different gun that someone has just bought or someone new has brought to the ground. Do we now have to ban anyone from touching a gun or any other piece of equipment that does not belong to them?

Will shooters be forced to wear PPE? Eye and ear protection are essential Personal Protection Equipment at a shooting ground anyway but will masks and gloves become as essential. Will it be up to the individual shooter to bring their own equipment or will we as a club have to provide it? Has anyone even tried shooting while wearing a mask? Well, legally anyway? Lol. Will we have to ask people to leave the ground who refuse to wear a mask?

I know most of this is way over the top but I feel many of these things will require guidance and advice from the various associations. I feel that this could put an extra burden on me personally as one of the club’s Safety Officers. Extra responsibility that I just don’t need or want.

I do think it is possible to keep social distancing while shooting sporting clays. As an example, you could have a shooting stand with an area marked off on each side for the buttoner and referee with the rest of the squad standing further back behind the rest of the squad. I don’t really see it as being a big issue either. But the issues around the handling of buttons, marking sheets and pens still remain.

Down the Line shooting, as well as the other trap disciplines, should be OK, in theory. With the shooting stands 9 feet apart, this should be well outside the government recommendation of 6ft apart. Does this still be the case with 5 shooters and a referee and a scorer standing under a cover for the duration of a line? I’m sure it is.

Some people I’ve been speaking to are thinking that DTL could be started up again first and then Sporting could start later on in the year. That is all well and good but if 20 people turn up to shoot DTL with only one layout in operation, it gets back to keeping the rest distanced enough until it is their turn to shoot.

Another aspect that my club should also consider is that Sporting has the become the most profitable discipline at the club. If we can’t shoot sporting then we will lose around 50% of our membership and the largest portion of our income in the past couple of years. There are very few of our members that shoot Sporting that would ever dream of shooting DTL. They just don’t like it. Just in the same way as many of our DTL shooting members wouldn’t entertain the idea of shooting Sporting. If my club can only get back to shooting DTL, it will definitely struggle, and that is a best case scenario.

These are extremely difficult times for everyone and it will be interesting to see if any information of how we can possibly move forward with our shooting again, once things begin to get back on track, is forthcoming from the CPSA or other associations.

In saying all of that, unless I personally see that new infections are extremely rare and there is some sort of normality returning, I really can’t see me lifting a gun again. My interest in DTL is at an all time low and if that is all we are able to shoot, I honestly think I’d prefer staying at home.

Stay safe everyone and hopefully we can get back to enjoying our sport, the way we remember it, as soon as possible.