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...
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