3 Guns!

So now we were the proud owners of 3 guns. 

It took quite a bit of research but something to be very aware of, if you are going to share a gun cabinet then you must 'share' ownership of the guns otherwise legally speaking you are not allowed to open the gun cabinet unless you are both present!! ... who would have thought it.

This is not a difficult thing to do, you simply fill each anothers certificate in with your gun details and state 'shared' so that all guns are on both certificates.

The next thing to think about was maybe thinking about shooting them??? 

Preparing for our first outing

We didn't want to just rock up somewhere unprepared and looking like complete numpties so needed to do a bit more shopping and preparing.

Ear defenders and baseball caps were on the list, plus, of course cartridges.

Cartridges can be bought from most shooting grounds but the prices vary and the choices can be limited, there is always a poitive cost implication for buying in bulk, so we found an online supplier who offers good prices and is only one of only a few who can legally deliver to your door. Just Cartridges.  They have a large varied selection.

Apparently - so I was told endlessly... I needed to practice mounting the gun and emptying it so snap caps were a definite requirement, these are also used to protect the firing pins if you accidentally pull the trigger.

Beware cheap offerings .... they can come up undersized falling beyond the ejectors and jamming the gun!! 

Snap caps in and ready to learn, I spent the next week lifting and swinging the gun around at home for a few minutes every hour or two. Pete helped the best he could with my gun mounting, opening and closing the gun, which was really unnatural to me. The ejectors scared the hell out of me, snap caps pinging around the room when I opened the gun, so aiming them at a bucket was how I went forward.

This gun handling at home was, as it turns out, very valuable.  My muscle memory improved and soon the weight bothered me less and everything started to feel easier and much more natural.

 We bought some cracking ear defenders which enhance speech but cut out the bangs – if I could wear them all the time I would – my hearing is getting worse with age lol.

Baseball caps and prescription glasses for protection and we were ready to go!

We got a very warm welcome at Headley, a bacon roll, tea and coffee.

We walked down to a small clearing and were given instruction on safety, signed disclaimers and then were looked at for eye dominance etc. by a giant of a man called Ollie. (I think I came up to his belly button lol)  I actually have monocular vision so decided that I would shoot right handed with my left eye closed and Ollie was happy with this.  We practiced mounting the gun starting with the gun pointing up to about 10 o’clock pushing into the shoulder and moving it down to horizontal to get it in a good position.

It was decided at this point that I have a ‘funny’ shoulder and my stock was a little too low for me.  I started to deflate a bit with all my oddities but was advised that I should pay Aaron a visit at Southdown Gun Club (our local in Findon) for gun fitting advice since I was so ‘special’ lol.  This would not affect today but would be a worthwhile thing to do.