Shooting on a Cold Day

It was f-f-f-f-flipping cold outside first thing this morning. Our weather station tends to under estimate how cold it is: when it says 1°C there's actually a frost outside so we reckon it's about 2°C high.

Yesterday morning it said is was -1°C so probably -3°C really, so pretty cold compared to the temperatures of late. This morning it was claiming -3.7°C when we got up! So that's probably nearer -6°C (and looking at the figures recorded by the University this morning that's probably about right).

Despite this we put on multiple layers and went shooting today at Shepreth Air Gun Club and had an excellent time.

I took some rather uninspiring photos. The photo I should have taken of the café area, rather than this shot of some club members sitting about gossiping was of Sarah, who does the catering, with her new guide dog. Sarah lost most of her sight some years ago and this is her first dog. She was proudly telling me that she had walked to the pub on her own for the first time since she lost her sight.

Here's Beth preparing to take a shot with her HW97K. For a change I actually beat her today, scoring 48 (out of 60) against her 47. I had a weird day: in the "other" wood I got 20 (out of 30) dropping points all over the place. In the wood these photos are taken I only dropped two points - if I'd had that form throughout I'd have got 56 and probably taken first prize in the springer section. Still 48 is a good score for me with a springer so I'm not complaining, and beating Beth is a rare thing.

There were a lot of people firing springers there. This is a fellow firing a low re-coil gun: the whole barrel slides back in the wooden stock when you fire a shot!

And finally here's Darren who went around with us. He was firing an EV2 pre-charge and dropped only three points all day: two on "the cage", which is always a lottery, and another on a target with a reducer (which I got down, hurrah!).

Anyway, a good day - although I had to have a doze when we got back.