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| I have been involved in shooting since I was old enough to safely hold my father's Cooey 0.22. My Dad let me shoot it a couple of times when I was pretty young, but when we moved onto the ranch and the local gopher population revealed itself, I was in my element. By the time of the move, I had been target shooting with the Royal Canadian Air Cadets and I found that I had a natural ability in field shooting. I would regularly get 45+ gophers out of a box of 50 rds. During my teens, much of my spare time in spring and summer was spent crawling across dry pastures in pursuit of that one "wily old gopher" which had escaped me thus far. Anyway, much to my father's bemusement because of his typical rancher's belief that shooting at targets is wasting ammo that should be used on game, I continued to shoot small-bore rifle in cadets. In 1991, I won the Alberta region small-bore competition and was really enjoying the discipline. As soon as I got to University, I joined the rifle and pistol team and enjoyed a good couple of years shooting with the club and representing Loughborough Uni at national events. I never won any national events, but I never placed below the top third either, and as I spent little time practicing, I was happy with that. While learning to fly with the University Air Squadron, I represented the squadron at Bisley shooting combat pistol (issue SLP) and placed highly (third out of the UAS students, having only fired the SLP for the first time the week before). I enjoy shooting the pistol and have been told several times that I should take it up seriously as I am capable of being competitive in Air Force competition. However, pistol shooting to me is just a bit of fun, rifle shooting is what I take seriously. Once I joined the RAF, my shooting was mainly confined to currency shooting on the L85A1 assault rifle and the Browning Hi-Power self loading pistol. When I was posted to Northern Ireland, shooting currency became a regular event and it spurred me to return to competition shooting. All I needed was a club. Enter the rifle and pistol club that I currently belong to. We shoot on military ranges and use small-bore and full-bore rifles as well as pistols for those who are interested. I only joined in October '02 but have enjoyed myself in the short time I've been with the club. I have managed to collect one Christmas hamper full of goodies by shooting more balloons with less rounds than anyone else in the 0.303 round of our Christmas "Turkey Shoot". With this return to target shooting, I have made inroads to getting my new Savage rifle licensed in the UK. I aim to have it converted to use a box magazine (BAR as it's a 30-06) and shoot in tactical rifle shooting. I'm also going to get my SMLE put on my ticket and use it for Classic Service Rifle shooting. Time will tell how I get on, but I'll have a bloody good laugh. In the mean time, I'll continue to help Dad keep down the gophers when I'm home on leave. My little Savage Mk.II is a tack driver and Dad likes it so much I'm tempted to get another. |
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