HomeMy WebLinkAboutHuron Expositor, 2006-09-06, Page 16Pegs 16 September 6, 2006 • The Huron Expositor
Sports
Trap shooting harder than it :looks
Expositor reporter sets out to test his marksmanship at Kippen Gun Club
Jeff Heuc-hert
Here I am with my head resting
against the handle - or as I will
later be told, the stock of a shot-
gun, preparing to fire at a. tiny clay
target as it is thrown from a
machine out in front of me.
I say "pull." There it goes. I fire,
creating a tiny jolt in the rifle which
resonates through my right shoul-
der.
I've missed.
Hardly a surprise considering up
until this second I have never, even
once in my 23 years of existence,
fired any kind of firearm - not even
a paintball, pellet or BB gun.
Which made my recent visit to the
Kippen Gun Club a much more
intriguing assignment than let's say,
the average council meeting.
Arriving at the club shortly after
5:30 p.m. last Wednesday - just as a
handful of the club's 35 or so mem-
bers lined up to begin a round of
trap shooting, I had an opportunity
to sit and see what this sport is all
about.
vinguicsalimminiblift
Expositor reporter Jeff Heuchert takes aim recently
To explain it as simply as possible,
trap shooting involves shooting a
tiny - 4 inch in diameter - clay disc
as it's thrown from a machine left,
right and centre.
The club's long-time owner Jamie
Caldwell sees me and says hi, but
for the second he's occupied scoring
his shooters.
I sit and
watch, quite
amazed by the
extreme skill
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(and' patience I would soon learn)
that is required by the shooters: to
hit the targets.
Some hit the targets on 23 of their
25 shots - all hit at least 15 of them.
Even more impressive is how
young some of the shooters are.
Later in the evening, Jamie will
tell me that his club's members
range is age anywhere between 10
and 80.
"Age doesn't matter," he says.
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boils down to."
He adds that his members come
from all over, even some as far as
Wingham and Stratford.
After the impressive showing of
marksmanship, Jamie comes over
and introduces himself. The next
words out of his mouth catch me off
guard.
"So, let's go get you suited up so
you can fire a few rounds," he says.
As we head inside the small office
situated behind the shooting range,
I consider telling Jamie that I'm
quite the marksman myself - having
years of experience with water guns
and the Duck Hunt video game
under my belt, but I choose not to
bring it up.
Jamie hands me a pack of
earplugs, a belt with a pouch, which
will hold my rounds and a
Remington 1100 shotgun.
• Ile grabs a box of shells and
dumps them into my belt. What
looks like hundreds turns out to be
only 25.
"They're 12 -gauge," he tells me
about the ammunition. "Eight shot,
which is a light trap load designed
for this."
"They only have a velocity of 1145
feet per second," he adds, maybe to
try and convince me I have no rea-
son to be nervous about firing -a
shotgun.
• With my confidence level some-
where between low and average, I
step up to the line, in between sev-
eral very skilled shooters and pre-
pare myself - whatever that entails.
Before we begin, Jamie gives me
some pointers.
"Look ahead...keep your head
against the stock and aim a little
under the target because your gun
shoots high," he tells me, mean-
while I'm just trying to remember
the proper way to insert the shell.
Finally it's time to begin. After
missing on my first shot, as I
expected, I'm already feeling much
more comfortable with the gun in
my hands and I'm anxious for my
second attempt.
I miss again.
Then again and again and again.
"Wow, this is tough," I think to
myself. "This will be really embar-
rassing if I don't hit any of my 25."
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