For the first time in ages I took my wife shooting today. Not that she hates the sport, far from it in fact. Becca appreciates the mechanics of the shotgun and the theory of lead and different coloured lenses. She is adept at quickly calculating my score once I tell her how many seconds and losses I have totted up. Becca does not shoot however. The one time she tried her response was (to I must admit a rather over enthusiastic me) "yes I did enjoy it Andrew, but not enough to ever want to do it again". Some of the smuttier minded among you may well snigger at this remark. However this was all related to shooting and only shooting!
Anyway today we were at a local ground and I took her along because it is nice to have the company and actually spend time together and because I wanted to try out a new way of recording DTL scores and assess which type of shot I tend to miss. I'll post it on another blog entry and would appreciate any feedback on it.
All that aside, we were on a layout and I was putting on my shooting jacket, removing my watch and fumbling for gloves when I realised that I hadn't brought Becca any ear defenders or plugs. So I quickly walked back to the club house to buy a pair of disposable ones. On my way back I could see that some other shooters had pitched up at the stand and had got their guns out and were generally setting up. Fair enough I thought, I'll be able to shoot with them. Actually it's nicer to shoot in a group as there is a better rhythm and pattern to the shoot.
What actually happened was that they arrived and muscled in on where I was clearly going to shoot. They asked Becca if she could score and she said she could but that she was there with her husband and that I had just gone down to the clubhouse. It was also blindingly obvious that I was going to shoot because before I went back to the clubhouse I had unpacked everything and spread out; cartridge boxes were out, even my green leopard ear defenders were loose on the table top. Everything was set except for Becca's ear defenders.
Anyway, the three guys then proceeded to unpack and took up positions on pegs one, two and three and without checking for ear defence, the first one shouted pull (which was audio release) and started shooting. It was just as he shouted pull that I walked back onto the stand.
Now, this is where I would appreciate comments.
My response was to shout at the men and stop the shoot on a point of health and safety since neither me nor Becca had any defense on. They took this with some grumbling but stopped and we then we restarted the shoot and I scored for them.
I was angry with them because they did not check that a spectator (ie my wife) had ear defense - and she clearly didn't.
They were told and could clearly see that I was ready to shoot but had just gone back to the clubhouse.
It strikes me that in this situation they should at least have:
asked if they could shoot ahead of me.
or asked if they could shoot with me.
checked that Becca had ear defenders before starting shooting.
Or was I completely in the wrong and just being grumpy?
Comments please.
