Clay Pigeon Shooting

I went for Clay Pigeon Shooting on a team outing some days back. I had never done any clay pigeon shooting before and I was quite excited by the prospect of shooting some.

This particular shooting range is one of the oldest in Europe and is in active use by the army and professionals. People say the shooting event for the 2012 London Olympics would be held at this particular shooting range.

We were briefed on what we would do over our stay at the range and were formed into groups. Our instructor was a fine chap named Chris. We were 4 in a group (the others had 5) and Chris gave us 2 shotguns. These shotgun are double barrelled "vertically", so two cartridges load one above the other. I always used to think that shotguns were double barrelled "horizontally"... just as they show in Hindi movies.

Chris showed us how to hold the firearm (there are at least 5 different ways to hold it in a safe manner) and carry it around the shooting range, how to cock/uncock, load/unload (no pun intended ;-)), how to always make sure the barrel is empty of cartridges, how to never point the barrel at anyone (it is considered a serious insult and a mockery of the sport), how not to get emotionally charged after scoring a hit, and a hundred other do's and don'ts of the sport.

We walked over to a small enclosure, similar to a vantage point, and Chris proceeded to show us how a clay pigeon would start its flight over the trees. He asked us to look closely at a particular spot in the treeline and pressed a button. Suddenly, a circular clay disc in the form of an inverted saucer came flying out from the tree branches from one side and proceeded to go towards another area amidst the treetops. That clay disc was our pigeon and our task was to shoot it in its flight.

Sounds simple enough....aye?

After some more instructions on how to hold the shotgun, he asked me to uncock the gun and popped in two cartridges into the barrel. I then lined up my cheeks nicely against the gun's butt, closed my left eye and took steady aim on where the pigeon was supposed to come out. Chris pressed a button and the pigeon emerged from the treecover as expected and I could see the target from the end of my barrel. I moved my gun along the pigeon's trajectory....and 'boom'.... pressed the trigger at that point in its flight path from where it would start dropping down into the branches.

The impact of the shot took me by surprise and needless to say I missed the shot....one smoking barrel and one more shot to go.

I grunted, Chris grunted and pressed the button again to let the pigeon fly. This time I had a better idea of where the pigeon would be as it flew in its trajectory and ...'boom'....I fired at the correct time. The shot found its target and the poor pigeon was blown to smithereens...... yeeesssssssss....my first hit.....Lock, Stock & Two Smoking Barrels!!!

I uncocked the shotgun and the two empty cartridges popped right out from the smoking barrel. Chris picked up the cartridges and gave them to me....a souvenir of my first shot. And I blew into the smoking barrel a.k.a. Clint Eastwood ishtyle in my own version of a Western.

I expected the cartridges to be smoking hot as they popped out of the barrel, but I was surprised to see them quite at normal temperature.

We then shot more clay pigeons with different flight patterns such as one going away from me at knee length, one flying flat and turning away just before descent, one climbing rapidly and dropping sharply over a narrow trajectory, etc. etc. It was great fun, I managed to score 16 hits out of a maximum of 24 hits over 4 different vantage points and flight patterns.

Finally, we all had a medley where many pigeons would start flying together and we got to empty a whole box of cartridges (around 20 cartridges or so in a box) while loading and unloading at the same time. It was swell...the repetitive action of uncocking - loading cartridges - cocking - lining up on a particular pigeon - 'boom' - hit or miss - lining up against another pigeon - 'boom' - uncock - cartridge flies out - strong smell of cordite - blow into the smoking barrels - load new cartridges....what an excellent experience.

I didn't know it would be so much fun....and I am definitely going back again to shoot some more clay...

Blimey....let's go Pub Crawlling

Pub-crawling (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pub_crawl) seems to be an inherent part of the British culture. I have definitely done this in the past unknowingly - having a pint of beer in one pub and hopping on to the next one - without knowing that there exists a proper term for this seemingly out-of-place behavior.

To the uninitiated, there would be one definite question - C'mon, why can't one sit in one pub and guzzle as many pints as one wants?

There could be many answers to this, right from the seemingly innocuous reason of sampling different beers / ales in different pubs to the more bizzare reason of experiencing how it feels to have a zombie walk from one pub to the other after mid-night.

You will never have the satisfaction of knowing the answer till you experience one such pub-crawl.

I recently went for a pub-crawl with my colleagues, they obviously are of the "been-there-done-that" variety and know all the good pubs in and around Reading.

Following is a summary of what we did and the various pubs we hit that evening

Pint # 1 -> The Goose

• This is my favorite pub in Bracknell
• Also, one of our frequent hang-out pubs in town
• "Please can I have a pint of Fosters? I ned to catch the 6:42 to Reading"

Pint # 2 -> Pitcher and Piano

• This had the right environment and adequate space to catch up on a hard day's work while sipping on your favorite lager or ale.
• It also has a cash machine just outside, in case you are ever short of cash while buying your n-th pint at the bar. How people think of conveniences!!!
• "A pint of Fosters please and I shall be on my way"

Pint # 3 -> Hobgoblins

• Non-descript looking pub from the outside.
• I have walked beside this place many times in the past without realising that it would be a pub.
• Push the thick double doors into the pub and you are welcomed to the quintessential English Pub.
• The wooden floors, wooden walls, old faithfuls along the bar, the typical murmuring going around in groups, is an experience by itself.
• There was not an inch of space on the walls that were not covered with bottle labels (see picture).


• There were many people standing around 'coz there wasn't enough tables to sit on.
• We managed to find a table which could sit only 3 while the others stood around.
• "A pint of Budver, please". Budver is Czech original of Budweiser, so I have been told.
• I love Budver, it is my regular during my subsequent visits to this nice pub.

Pint # 4 -> Coopers Arms

• Encountered a drunk sitting outside, humming something in the cold weather and staring at the moon
• Don't remember who ordered drinks, but it was a pint of Fosters again
• Re-arranged the couch so that everyone could sit together
• Everyone munched away on many bags of crisps
• Cheers!!!

Pint # 5 -> Monks Retreat

• Very lively place, some hen parties had already started...obviously, many nice hens around
• Found a nice cabin where all 6 of us managed to squeeze in
• Some topics of our banter that evening was, nice things to do in India post office hours (for the benefit of my colleagues), non-work attractions in office, etc. etc.
• And since boys will be boys, we did some hen-spotting as well.
• What did I have here? Duh...who cares?

Pint # 6 -> Walkabout

• Just across the road from Pint # 5, theme is Australian.
• Obviously Fosters is the right choice here.
• Music was somewhat loud, it was getting difficult to converse
• Finished our pint as soon as possible and got the hell out of there.

Pint # 7 -> Purple Turtle

• Found a kebab joint and picked up some donner some dinner
• Another colleague joined in at this point, taking the total number of pub-strollers to 8...WOW...
• This particular pub had a buzz around it, looked crowded and manned by tough looking blokes.
• Heated beer garden at the back, that is where we headed to after getting our pints at the bar.


• Don't remember what we bantered about, but it was loads of fun
• The loo fairy called in between, wandered high and low, failed to locate the loo and came back sheepishly. During this time, I discovered that they also have a basement seating area as well. (Finally went to the loo after getting proper directions from my colleagues who had been-there-done-that)
• By the time we left, it was close to 1:30 AM but we didn't need any jackets.

So,

• 7 pubs over a period of 6 hours
• Guzzled down 7 pints
• Munched 1 to 2 packs of crisps
• Went from £30 to £5 without recollecting how much has been spent in which pub
• Wonderful garrulous colleagues for company
• Plenty of banter going around
• Missed the last train back home
• Persuaded another colleague to drop us home - bless his soul
• One colleague had to sit in the trunk (based on first-come-first-serve basis)
• Overall....AMAZING experience