PROMATIC THE WORLD OF NEWSLETTER IN THIS ISSUE FAUXDEGLA SG MASTER CLASS TECHNICAL FOCUS

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1 THE WORLD OF PROMATIC IN THIS ISSUE FAUXDEGLA SG MASTER CLASS TECHNICAL FOCUS PROMATIC INTERNATIONAL LTD. STATION WORKS, HOOTON, SOUTH WIRRAL CH66 7NF TEL: PROMATIC INC, 801 MID AMERICA DR., PLATTSBURG, MO TOLL FREE: FAX: SALES@PROMATIC.BIZ NEWSLETTER ISSUE 31 MAY 2017

2 FOREWORD... FOREWORD by Brian Jardine Thank you for taking the time to read the May 2017 issue of the Promatic Newsletter. In the first quarter of the year we have been extremely busy organising equipment to be shipped to national and international competitions worldwide, including the Pan African FITASC Sporting & Compak in South Africa, the Promatic Cup in Dornsberg Germany, the European FITASC Compak Sporting Championship in Poland and in the UK the CPSA English Open at Highwayman s Shooting Ground and the Essex Masters. Still to come this summer is the Clay Shooting Classic at Southdown Gun Club, the 50th European FITASC Sporting Championship Finale on the Lulworth Estate, Dorset, the FITASC Sporting UK Championship at Barbury Shooting School, the World FITASC Sporting Championship in Hungary, the ICTSF World English Sporting Championship at Kelmarsh Hall, the Hellenic FITASC Compak Sporting Grand Prix in Greece, the Dutch Grand Prix and the British Open at West Midlands Shooting Ground. We could not be more proud at Promatic to be sponsoring such prestigious major national and international championships. Providing the most reliable backup service is just as important to us at Promatic as providing the best quality equipment. Our Master Classes are an integral part of that service. We received some fantastic feedback from customers who have attended our Master Classes over the past couple of months and we plan to run classes a lot more frequently once the service department is up and running at our new HQ. We have welcomed another member to the team; Jean- François Fardoit will be working with our French agent François Noalhat to help with our French sales and enquiries. We look forward to seeing you at one or more of the shows and game fairs this summer including the Game Fair Loit Et Cher in France, The Scottish Game Fair at Scone Castle, The Game Fair at Hatfield House and the Midland Game Fair at Weston Park. MEET THE TEAM Jean-François Fardoit has joined the Promatic Team as a new French agent alongside François Noalhat. He is 31 years old, married with two children. Jean-François has been shooting since the age of 16 and passionate about hunting mainly in Normandy. I have always dreamt that my passion becomes my job so I am very pleased to have joined the Promatic team. Jean-François holds of a Bachelor s degree in Mechanical and Military Engineering.

3 REFLECTIONS ON A MASTER CLASS John Timmis tells his experience of a Promatic Master Class Early on the morning of 1 February, I battled with the traumas of the M6 northbound to attend the free Masterclass in trap maintenance and target setting at the Promatic factory at Ellesmere Port. It was a course I had long wanted to attend, having missed a similar opportunity some three years ago and I was not to be disappointed. Three Lakes Gun Club, just South of Birmingham, has a mixture of traps, seven old Parkers I inherited when I took over in January 2013, along with an even mix of newer Bowman and Promatic s that I have purchased. Much of what I learned on the course was generic to most of my traps, not just the Promatic s and has now given me a confidence to tackle what I thought was something only a seasoned expert should attempt. For the past four years I, like many others, have been guided largely by other untaught, well meaning individuals, believing what they told me and oblivious to the correct procedures and settings. Yes I had the manuals, but the written word can so easily be misinterpreted and there are times when hands on guidance from an experienced expert are required. For those four years in the dark, I was in effect a blind man led by the partially sighted. By lunchtime on the course however, it was like a veil had been lifted, a cataract removed and for the first time I could see both clearly and in colour. On arrival, after coffee and biscuits we were split into four small groups of four and guided by individual technicians around basic Promatic electronics and three of the more common Promatic traps. Our guides PROMATIC NEWS... for the day were Monty, Artur, Owain and Adam. We spent a good 45 minutes with each technician and personally I learned a great deal, for example, how to set the knife edges and the blades properly to the correct settings to allow some small tolerances, not just in the thumbnail gap between the clays themselves and the knife blade but so that the clays could also move freely around the carousel base. I also learned how to simply lift the plate and move the arm to ensure the correct relationship between the arm rubber and the clay. I learned the correct tension needed when setting the carousel on the trap, not too loose, not too tight but one where it could spin maybe half a revolution then stop. I learned too that it was possible to run the trap briefly in reverse

4 PROMATIC NEWS... by switching the battery connectors over; how I wish I d known that before, when well meaning helpers had managed to trap cables within the trap mechanism, forcing me to strip the trap to release them. I learned never to max out the traps in any respect. Don t be tempted to wind the spring up too tight or to slacken it off to its weakest position, as too weak and the spring clatters around damaging itself and other moving parts while 3 /4 tension actually throws the target to its maximum. Don t set the traps on maximum tilt settings as the gravitational forces interfere with clay reloading contributing to breakages. Three quarters of anything is always enough. I also learned from Monty that the reason for clay breakages on both of our own club s Falcon traps which Three Lakes Gun Club had won at the 2013 and 2014 Clay Classic events, was in part due to a faulty slide plate which had since been redesigned. Two replacements were promptly sourced by course director Steve Peers and supplied free of charge, which was excellent service and much appreciated. I learned so much more in this four hour course, too much to adequately summarise here and it was clear that my own Road to Damascus experience was not unique, as others in my group were often remarking, I never knew that or I ll be re-checking ours now. This was a very worthwhile course and I commend it to MASTER CLASS REVIEWS Thank you for organising and accommodating me on today s Trap Master Class course. A very informative and enjoyable input, delivered by very knowledgeable and professional staff. Please pass on my thanks to them all. Good luck with the rest of the re-location and reorganisation. Pete McIntosh Leadbrook Hall Shooting Ground Just a quick note from Richard Depledge and me to say thank you to you and the Promatic team for what was a truly enjoyable and worthwhile course yesterday. As clay shooting instructors we have always focused on the gun end of the whole clay shooting process and it was a great opportunity to view things from the other end so to speak. Traps will hold no mystique for us from now on. May I offer my sincere apologies for not making the time to thank you personally. Please be assured that whilst anyone who has to work with traps on a regular basis. John Timmis Three Lakes Gun Club Promatic have been our trap of choice for some time, we now have the background knowledge to explain why in a more detailed and assured manner. Ian Daley & Richard Depledge I would like to thank you and your engineers for a very constructive and informative Master Class last week. I understand you will not be offering any more training until later in the year but I would like to send up to four of our members when courses are available. Once again many thanks. Mike Birch Oswestry Police Clay Pigeon Shooting Club A quick note to thank you for arranging the course last week which I found very informative. Please pass on particular thanks to the guys in the factory who carried out the sessions and really know their stuff. It s appreciated. Gary Turner CCI

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6 PROMATIC NEWS... THE MASTER Twenty-six times World champion George Digweed MBE, talks about Promatic traps. I use Promatic traps for one reason and one reason only they are the best. My routine and preparation for a competition over the years does not involve huge amounts of training. I have a Promatic Ball Trap on a trailer that I use for instructional purposes if needed, but more importantly we use it for filming our monthly Club Digweed Shooting Shows. I recently attended the Essex Masters, which is the biggest shoot in Europe by far. In a solid week of shooting 2,150 competitors each shoot 200 targets a day. I spoke to some of the referees on the Sunday night when I went back for the prize giving, luckily I won the event, and one proudly said that he had had only two broken targets all week on his stand. I also spoke to the Promatic representative who said the only problems they experienced in seven days of shooting were the odd battery going down; that is some accolade considering that, including the pool shoots and the variety of machines, Promatic traps had thrown nearly half a million targets. Game Shooting is my passion (although Brian has not invited me to Altcar yet) and in the quiet periods of the clay season I try and play as much cricket and golf as possible. I am looking forward to attending the European FITASC in Dorset and the World Championships in Hungary both Promatic events and both designed by Graham Brown, who sets a good course. When I go to a competition I rely on the consistency of line and speed of every clay. Usually we only get to see one target and I need to rely on the fact

7 PROMATIC NEWS... that the next one will be in exactly the same spot. I, and the thousands of competitive clay target shooters, take for granted how good Promatic are at achieving this required level of consistency. CERTIFICATE SCHEME DELAYED A new scheme within the Police & Crime Act 2017 whereby shotgun and firearms certificates would be automatically extended by eight weeks if police fail to process the renewal in time has been put on hold. The reason given is it would be necessary to reprogramme the National Firearms Licensing Management System (NFLMS). CLAY SHOOTER OF THE YEAR Ed Ling was voted Clay Shooter of the Year at the sixth Annual CPSA Awards held at The Belfry Hotel & Resort. The Taunton born shooter received the award from a shortlist of five contenders, which also featured fellow Olympic Bronze medalist Steve Scott. E J Churchill, an all-promatic ground, won the Ground of the Year award and Fauxdegla, another all-promatic ground, was runner-up. Amy Easeman won Young Shot of the Year. GENERAL ELECTION With only days to go before the General Election on 8 June the BASC has relaunched its general election website which identifies every candidate and allows constituents to them and ask if they support shooting. Visit uk/election2017. ED LING EU FIREARMS DIRECTIVE After nearly two years of scrutiny the EU Firearms Directive has been revised and our interests have been protected, such as under 18 s allowed to have a certificate and own a gun, home loading allowed and historical firearms recognised for collectors.

8 SHOOT REPORT... PROMATIC CUP DORNSBERG The first Promatic Cup championship in Germany was held at Dornsberg Shooting Ground on 6-7 May. A challenging and varied 200 bird sporting course was created using more than 60 traps from the Promatic range in not ideal weather conditions. Darren Hull, Promatic s European Sales Manager, said, Overall it was a fun event with very few KONOPISTE TEAM no birds through correct training and competence of the Dornsberg ground staff ensuring that the machine settings were correct. The High Gun went to Markus Leibinger with an impressive 176 and the prize trap was won by Konopiste Shooting Range from Czech Republic.

9 TECHNICAL FOCUS... CAROUSEL TIMING OF 6 STACK MACHINES It is important that the carousel rotation is coordinated with the throwing arm timing in order that the clay drops from the top plate onto the casting plate just in front of the throwing arm. This will ensure the arm collects the clay and positions it between itself, the back rail and the spring finger or front rail (if fitted). The procedure is as follows: n Nudge the trap until it fires. n Nudge again until the gearbox crank is pointing directly to the rear of the machine and is aligned with the crank arm (see diagram). n Disconnect the power from the trap. n Check the position of the rear pusher; it should be as far to the right of the machine as the top plate will allow less a little clearance. n If this is not the case, slacken the rear pusher crank bolt (found to the rear of the crank arm) and rotate the rear pusher into the correct position. n Retighten the rear pusher crank bolt. n Reconnect the power to the trap and test. Rear pusher crank bolt Allow clearance between rear pusher roller and top plate inner corner. The end result should be that the carousel pocket passes over and a little beyond the drop hole in the top plate allowing the clay to drop before the throwing arm moves beneath the drop hole and gathers the clay.

10 SHOOTING GROUND... A JEWEL ON THE MOOR Fauxdegla has been on the Welsh Moor for more than 30 years. Mike Faux commented I was looking for a ground that had the potential of being the best in the country and went to see plots of land and grounds that had become distressed but I had a vision and was convinced I would be able to see a grounds potential. Llandegla Shooting ground came up for sale in 2010 and I decided to buy it. The ground was in a terrible state and was looking as though it was ready for closure. I invested a tremendous amount of money to get it back on the map, including building a stronger relationship with Promatic as all the machinery was from them and they had a very good back up service. We installed new traps, microphones etc, a WiFi system and 12 new Claymate systems for the sporting layout that also works with the new credit system. In 2012 we hosted the first big shoot for the ground in many years, the British Sporting Championships and the British Sport Trap with over 1,000 guns attending giving us the test of

11 SHOOTING GROUND... which is why our reputation has grown. Promatic traps have proven to be the trap to have. We have dug them out of snow in sub-zero temperatures, put the battery back on and they work first time. They have been out on the Welsh moor dealing with everything mother nature can throw at them, a true test for a trap, which works every time. things to come. This was the year we took the accolade of being awarded Premier Plus status and runner-up Shooting Ground of the Year by the CPSA. Two years ago, we introduced the World ABT Championships to see if this would be a popular championship. It has proved to be very successful; shooters are willing to try something different and many Olympic discipline shooters attended, which helped create a world class atmosphere. For the future, we have planning permission to build a shop and we are also in the process of putting in three Olympic Trap layouts ready to host the British Championships in June this year. We pride ourselves on being a very welcoming ground providing a service and facility for everyone, families, info@fauxdegla.co.uk MIKE FAUX (RIGHT) WITH ED LING. beginners, experienced shots and mixing with champions all enjoying a day s shooting. The ground has gone from strength to strength with visitors coming from all over the world and we are very privileged to be able to offer a second-to-none service Fauxdegla Premier Shooting Ground Mike Faux Llandegla Wrexham LL11 3AL Editor & Advertising Keith Fisher Kingfisher Sporting Services keith_fisher@sky.com Regular contributor: Rachel Blackwood If you have a comment or question or would like to contribute or advertise please contact the Editor.

12 inc. Delivery & VAT (UK Mainland only) Your Sport......Our Passion Tel: M DISTANCE THROWING 50 CLAY CAPACITY 1.5 SECOND RELOADING TIME TROLLEY BASE FOOT PEDAL RELEASE 12 MONTH WARRANTY