Lesson 1 Continued.......

We progress from the Grouse to some gentle crossers. Apparently their are only 6 basic types of clays........ incoming, outgoing, left to right, right to left, teal (known as quail in my house) which are vertical birds and rabbits which bounce along the ground. I am told that everything is a variation of one of these, or a combination perhaps. At Sporting Targets Clay pigeon shooting ground they have umpteen variations of everything.

The first crosser I get to have a go at is a left to right that looks fairly straight forward. I miss it. It turns out it needs a bit of lead,( ie aiming in front of where it is so that by the time my shot gets to it it is where it should be and not behind it). Lead it seems is a quirky beast as everyone has a different way of interpreting and vocalising the lead that they see. I decide to give it what I perceive to be an inch an the end of my barrel, but what is probably two or three feet at the clay itself. I kill it. I try again...... perfect lead, weight on back foot.... I miss. And so it went on, miss, kill, kill, miss.... there is a lot to concentrate upon at first as you teach your body new disciplines. Keeping each aspect under control is suprisingly complex as I was finding out!

I was also having an issue with my eyes. I started shooting with my right eye closed as it seemed natural as I was aiming the gun. After a while I tried both eyes open with mixed results, but I am informed that it is better to start eyes open if possible so I muddle on until it seems natural.

We make our way up the range, shooting at a rabbit, which went ok, this particular little blighter wanted no lead, but to aim just under it. kill,kill,kill,kill,....... happy with rabbit we move on.

Shooting my first pair was fun, they were on report whereby the second bird is launched once you have shot at the first. These were outgoing first bird, incoming second..... with Fletch leading from just behind my shoulder I was doing ok. Still shifting my weight to where it shouldn't be on occasion and missing because of it, but otherwise ok.

And then we reached the towers............................