The Scottish Shooting Championship weekend is now over and it was just awesome, although really tiring. It was great to meet up with other shooters whom I haven't seen since March, and it was also easier to chat with them as there weren't as many people than at Wolverhampton.

I shot my first ever 60 shot match for the free standing on Saturday afternoon, and very nearly didn't make it, but I was determined to hold on and in the end managed it within the alloted time. On Sunday I shot the stand-assisted, which I've mixed feelings about.

At the end of the day I came away with two medals, gold for the McRae, and silver for the free standing. I've no idea what the McRae is, how it's calculated or what rules it follows, only that my score was apparently 600.914. I've no idea how a fraction comes into it, as all shots are scored to only 1 decimal place up to 10.9. But obviously the scorers know what they're talking about so I'm just glad to have won. The free standing was a complete shocker, as I would never have even dreamt I'd come second, after just three weeks of shooting that discipline, and having never even shot a 60 shot match with which to get some experience. I found out today that apparently it's even more awe-inspiring for the other free standing shooters to see this, as the club's Air Arms Pro10 I'm using is much heavier than their own purchased weapons, and with my weak upper arms the strain placed upon them is therefore much greater. My 2nd place score was 538 (average 89.6).

As for the stand-assisted, well, I'm happy my score was higher than the 582 I scored at the Scottish in 2006, but disappointed I didn't at least equal the 593 personal best I achieved at Wolverhampton. Having said that, I was fourth overall and therefore just missed out on the Olympic final, by one damned point, scoring 584 (average 97.3).

I think one of the reasons for the generally lower scores that affected most people across the board was that we used the electronic targets for the first timein a competition setting. And whereas I at least had the benefit of trying it out on Thursday, nearly everyone else had no experience with them. Granted, I personally don't feel that makes that much difference to the end result, but you do have to be careful of the increased margin of error caused by the increased distance between sights and barrel. This is particularly the case when canting is a factor. I personally loved using them, the time between shots is significantly reduced, the sound was fantastic and the score feedback is immediate and far more accurate. The one downside though is the lack of tactile grouping feedback, but I'd be willing to overlook that for the other advantages the system offers.

Outside the club, we had a wonderful barbecue dinner at Jim's place near Banchory on Saturday night. The food was delicious, the conversation was great and it was really livened up by an American rotary exchange guest Jim had staying over. His wife Tina is a really nice person as well, and she apparently remembered me from my first ever shooting trial over ten years ago - that took me aback a fair bit - I actually thought she was referring to a time at Kindergarten or before!

So, a fabulous weekend, two medals and some smile-worthy memories to remember - what more can I ask for? I'll be away working next week, my last major employ until the new year, but after that it'll be straight back to training. Two things I do know for definite are that a support glove for the free standing is a must (the strain on the heel of the palm gets too much after about 20 shots), and I need to get some recoil pads and find a different shooting jacket, as my fleece is too warm and I end up overheating terribly over the course of 60 shots. I'm sure that contributed some to my disasterous score today, but that's a different story. I know what I can improve on now, so now I just have to put the past in the past and look to the future and hopefully keeping these medals - I'm already getting used to having them on my desk!