This review is a little overdue – apologies to the team at College Farm
It’s always nice to visit a new Shooting Ground, and if there were more days in every weekend I think I would travel around and visit a lot more, so when I had an invitation to visit a fairly local ground I hadn’t been to before, I jumped at the chance.
College Farm is the ‘sister ground’ to Hornet Shooting Ground, which is well known on the English and FITASC Sporting circuit near Thame in Buckinghamshire. The smaller ground is very close to Hornet, on the opposite side of the road about half a mile away, along a farm track. The ground is nestled on the side of a hill, with some stunning views across Buckinghamshire farm land.
College Farm owner Kev Gray, uses the ground for his corporate and coaching work and accordingly the ground is beautifully presented. As I strolled down the entrance hill, and a past the small clubhouse it was like walking into a manicured private garden. The club house is small and friendly, with a lovely covered outdoor seating area, complete with barbecue and deck to look out over the ground.
It’s worth noting at this point that College Farm is not a pay and play ground, shooting is by appointment and arrangement only and the ground is not setup for massive crowds or registered shooting. However, this arrangement is not only excellent for corporate groups, but also for coaching, practice and exclusive events.
Kevin Gray is renowned as a course setter, and College Farm enables him to set any target presentation required for practice and coaching. Corporate level targets are there, and permanent stands are set up to enable any stag party or small group to get started and get their first attempts at shooting.
I was there to shoot a private FITASC style event, which enabled Kev to show some really impressive targets for a small squad of intermediate and experienced shooters. The layouts curled around the ground, with some targets being used on more than one layout and providing some extreme tests from some of the pegs. We had an 8 man squad and the entire ground to ourselves, so we were able to test ourselves against the big targets and see what we could learn from this excellent facility. The pegs were arranged up and down the side of the hill that the ground is on, and some the higher pegs had some great downhill targets out into a valley which is a presentation you don’t get to see much of in the UK.
At the end of the shooting, Kev and his team had arranged lunch as part of our day, and we sat in the sunshine dissecting our shooting and enjoying the banter over a lovely meal in the afternoon sunshine.
College Farm is a great facility. For corporate or private events, it is perfectly set up with nice targets that will enable people to get their first shots in a beautiful environment. For experienced shooters who want to learn, or maybe arrange a private days shooting it is absolutely ideal. The terrain and targets can deliver any type of target, and the exclusivity allows shooters to move around the ground and learn targets from any angle.
For those shooters that want to arrange a private day with friends, for some enjoyable competition then College Farm should top of your list, Kevin can arrange almost any format you want, with any combinations you want. When you couple that with great coaching, good hospitality and the ability to have lunch arranged for your team or squad at the end of the day it seems like a no-brainer to visit this ground.
To learn more about College Farm and contact the ground, please visit their website here.
A small selection of pictures from the ground:
