Blog: Action woman

Clay pigeon shooting

Guns are not something I have ever taken a great deal of interest in, thinking of them as weapons designed to kill and very dangerous, especially in the wrong hands. Like many people here in Cyprus, I tend to keep away from the mountains on Sundays in the shooting season, we have all heard about some of the accidents that occur, mainly due to inexperienced people handling guns. However, since I was to be taught how to shoot clays by John Bosley, who first held a gun aged five, was a senior coach for the Clay Pigeon Shooting Association (CPSA) and an international referee, I felt I would be in safe hands.
My friend Delia had expressed an interest in “having a go� so the two of us turned up at the shooting club located in Karaoglanoglu behind the Girne American University to meet with John and another member of the club, Tony Irikzade, who was to kindly release the clays for us to shoot at.
John started by explaining the history behind clay pigeon shooting. It had crossed my mind at some time that it was odd to be called “clay pigeon� shooting, but I hadn’t got around to investigating why. So it was with interest that I learnt the story behind the name.
Apparently, live pigeon shooting was banned in the UK in the mid 1800s. Previously the birds were held in trap houses, until the shooters were ready then a lever was pulled, the pigeons released and shot at. This was succeeded by glass balls filled with feathers being placed in a spring mechanism and which were released into the air at the call of “pull� by the shooter. This was not found to be ideal, as broken glass ended up everywhere and so clay was introduced. The clay disc made with clay, chalk and pitch has remained the same consistency as used in the late 1800s and the terminology used has not changed since the original live pigeon shooting days.
John was going to teach us two of the clay pigeon disciplines, skeet and trap shooting. We were to use a 12 gauge shotgun, also know as a 12 bore, although it was an “over and under�, rather than the traditional side-by-side variety. For those as ignorant as myself when it comes to shooting, this means that the cartridges are set one above the other, rather than side-by-side. This makes it easier as the alignment remains the same for both shots.
We started with skeet shooting. For this discipline the clay is released either from the left or the right and arcs across the sky in front of the shooter. After emphasising the importance of safety and how a gun should be properly held when not being used to shoot, John explained the correct way to stand, how to shoulder the butt of the gun, tilt the head so that the cheek is resting on the stock, to lean forward, “otherwise the kick back could land you on your bum� and how to eject the cartridge over your shoulder once the shotgun has been fired - it has an auto eject, so is best to move your head out the way unless you want a flying cartridge in the eye!
Kitted out with a cap to keep my hair from obscuring my sight and ear protectors, to stop me from being deafened, John got me to fire the gun into the air to get an idea of how it felt. Wow! It’s a very exciting feeling to fire off that first shot, loud, even with ear protectors and the gun was much heavier than I expected, but you forget that as you squeeze the trigger and feel the power of firing a gun. I could see the attraction of shooting!
The next objective was shoot at a clay and try to hit it. The trick in clay pigeon shooting as opposed to target shooting is movement. There are three types of shooting – the Pull Away, this is the method the British CPSA promote, it is where you follow the clay and move ahead of it just as you pull the trigger, the Sustained Lead, where you stay in front of the clay at all times, this is the method is commonly used by professional shooters and the Churchill or Swing Through, where, strangely enough, you swing through the clay. We were trying the first method. I was told to focus just past the trap tower and then follow the clay until it reached about halfway then move slightly ahead of it and shoot. I missed the first one, but jumped up and down with excitement when I hit the second one. I missed a few and then winged a few more, before having a rest and letting Delia have a go.
On my second attempt I am proud to say I hit five out of the six clays, I was enjoying this!
Next we moved on to have a go at Trap Shooting. This differs from Skeet as the clay moves away from the shooter and is ejected randomly from the trap, which means it can be at varying speeds and varying trajectories. I really struggled to hit the clays at this discipline, Delia on the other hand was far more successful at Trap than Skeet.
John and Tony gave us a most enjoyable and exciting couple of hours and it was done with great patience and enthusiasm, it is something I think I would like to try again, once my shoulder has recovered from the kick back!
There is no minimum age to start shooting, however it is dependent on sufficient stature. The cost is 10YTL to shoot a round of 25 cartridges and a box of cartridges costs 10YTL. Anyone interested in trying clay pigeon shooting should contact John Bosley on 0533 877 4531.

by Claire on 14:42 on 8th May 2007