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Hmmm.

We had a hell of a time with the markers on the Open day, funnily enough though I found that simply resorting to being nice, saying please and thank you, and encouraging them helped a lot......That said.

It is dead worrying for me when you get a marker that clearly is not paying attention or patching out badly.

It can mean that you get misleading indications (and then correct incorrectly) and this is never a good thing, particularly in a comp.

I do wonder when I see young Asian girls in saris going into the butts, they are very unlikely to be able to reach some of the holes, let alone heft the targets up and down all day.

I understand that youngsters want to make some cash, I also get it that they get bored, have phones, have their minds on just about anything but marking.

Having done my fair share of marking in all sorts of weather I sympathise (particularly with those marking in stickledown who wont get replaced easily, cannot see the splash easily, and have some very hefty, poorly maintained and unbalanced frames to deal with).

But the bottom line when you look at it is that a days marked shooting (even if you share it as a club) is not cheap, both in terms of time and expenditure.

I see that the NRA will struggle to get decent, reliable, fastidious markers all of the time, and that they don't happen immediately, but I think they need to look harder at supervision and training sometimes.

My club as it goes hire our own. It is not much more than the NRA costs, and they are that quick that sometimes you have to message 4 just to make sure the bloody thing was marked as you can miss it while plotting.

I agree that the electronic targets may be a good thing, but if they cannot reliably maintain the kit they have what chance??? emrolleyes

One recent idea someone suggested was to advertise in the right places and start a sort of markers agency.

From what I've gathered part of the reason that the marking was so bad at the start of the season, was due to a shortage of experienced markers, meaning that the majority were new and 'in training'...

...but I have to say that there was a distinct improvement through the season on Century - some of the marking was still a bit slow (which I think is down to how hard some of the targets are to operate for the size and age of some of the markers), but we only had one really bad marker since this thread started...and we actually gave a £10 tip to one marker (even though he only marked the morning), as the target was 'bouncing' back up without a pause and always correctly marked...was excellent

Dougan wrote:From what I've gathered part of the reason that the marking was so bad at the start of the season, was due to a shortage of experienced markers, meaning that the majority were new and 'in training'...

...but I have to say that there was a distinct improvement through the season on Century - some of the marking was still a bit slow (which I think is down to how hard some of the targets are to operate for the size and age of some of the markers), but we only had one really bad marker since this thread started...and we actually gave a £10 tip to one marker (even though he only marked the morning), as the target was 'bouncing' back up without a pause and always correctly marked...was excellent

Good call, I often chat to them at Jenny's if I get a chance, they are usually a pretty good bunch.

I would not like to do it all day anymore

Has some slightly ropey marking in the Autumn meetings (when the COF's often mean timings are tight), but most of the season until then was pretty good.

They should show new markers this video to see how they should be doing it - the second guy, blond hair from about 0:05. The actual marking happens from 0:08 to 0:14 - just 6 seconds of it.



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rox wrote:Has some slightly ropey marking in the Autumn meetings (when the COF's often mean timings are tight), but most of the season until then was pretty good.

They should show new markers this video to see how they should be doing it - the second guy, blond hair from about 0:05. The actual marking happens from 0:08 to 0:14 - just 6 seconds of it.



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No patching though, how does he know which hole to mark?

shugie wrote:No patching though, how does he know which hole to mark?

Watch it more carefully. The hole was patched. He had it on his right index finger and dabs it onto the hole immediately after moving the spotting disk.

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Today yes today in the driving rain it was worse than poor on Stickledown.

My wind coach almost called for a Message 4 after every shot - in total with 15 shots i had 10 message 4's.

I can fully appreciate what it was like in the Butts as the shooteers were experiencing it too - the driving rain down the range so interesting shooting.

What cannot be excused was the challenges that were clear and even more of a B*(l ache to go through when trying to maintain some sort of rythmn but a Clear target that then miraculously appeared as a Maggie which I had called form the outset as I could hardly see and was being buffeted wildly !

I fully understand what it can be like in the Butts but ok towards the end of the season rain etc. at the end of the day thayey volunteer and get paid for it. That we cancelled after 900 meant that had a full day with only half a days work.

I have never seen the RO so overwhelmed with requests for 4's and challenges on a range where only 5 targets were in use !

J303