RNBT Clay Shoot

I am not a massive fan of clay shooting, but I was cajoled into taking part in the Royal Navy Benevolent Trust Clay shoot.  It was thought that it would be good for those who had  paid a lot of money to shoot, for a Uniformed team to be there.  Our remit was to chat, and be a good example, but we were not to win!!
The Royal Navy team had won the previous year and would again this year.  There team included an English International shot.

Well, there was no danger of us winning, as two of the team shot clays regularly and myself and another chap rough shoot and are not good with consistent clays.  However when it came to a flush, 50 clays released to four guns.  We had discussed tactics but these when out the window as adrenaline hit.  We two rough shooters had found our niche and blasted away.  The ladies loading for us had a great time reloading and spotting for us and did there job really well.

When the smoke cleared we had hit 49 clays!  Needless to say we won the flush shoot.

What is interesting is why did we rough shooters do so well at the flush but not so well at clays?  Two things occur to me; When the clays were consistent we over thought how to shoot them, instead of just reacting.  And when clays did un-natural things such as dropping down towards you we tended to miss.  The flush however was more like rough shooting with limited time to react, so we tended to follow through rather than leading with a gap.

Hunting in the zone

As a teenager with a 410, a couple of ferrets and a terrier I had a blissful up bringing. Able to shoot, trap, and ferret to my hearts content, apart from the inconvenience of school, which attempted to turn me into a useful, and compliant tool of society; happily they failed.

In my work helping those who have anxiety and stress I use a thing called mindfulness; its a technique to live in a calm and engaged way.  What has often struck me is how this happens naturally in field sports, picture the course fisherman attentive to the twitch of the line and float, aware of the movement of shadows; clouds above and carp moving through the water.

Waiting hidden in a hedge, for rabbits to creep out of their burrows, so I could get a clear shot.  I would wait hours lost in nothingness, aware of the breeze and the movement of the sun, such as it was in Wales. I would see nothing and everything, sight lost until movement triggered the synapses in the brain and my focus would zoom in the movement, discerning the shape of rabbit, hare, fox and badger materialising out of the hedgerows at dusk.

Wordsworth perhaps had a clue what was going on when he penned "What is life if full of care, we have no time to stop and stare."  It is this ability to drop in attentive meditation, which some call the Zone, this leads to a calmer, and more contented outlook on life.

Hunting being a natural pursuit, it is not surprising it feels right, calms anxiety, and gives us a break from the stress of modern life.

Bees in the wild

Reading Brother Adam's book Bees at Buckfast Abbey, he makes an interesting comment about starting bee keeping when Isle of White disease was prevalent and bee keepers were predicting the end of bee keeping in Britain.  With the new bee diseases around today I often read something similar and have even read there are no 'wild' bees left.  I am not sure what is behind this apocalyptic vision, but honey bees have survived and awful lot in their history and I am confident that they will overcome most of what is thrown at them.

As I was walking the dog, I saw this wonderful old oak, with, yes you have guessed it, honey bees flying in and out, they had come through the winter in fine fettle and are now working oil seed rape with gusto.

I look forward to watching them progress through the summer.