Catching up

 A couple of weeks ago I was pinged by Gary. Gary was the one and only person I managed to form any sort of friendship with during the eight months I worked at DXC. I've already covered my opinion of my final months of employment, so feel free to refer back if you want a brief summary of how not to manage a virtual team.

Anyway, back to Gary's ping. Gary is a very keen rifle shooter and his Gun Club was having a friends and family day today. He wondered if I fancied a trip up to Derbyshire to come and shoot his latest acquisitions.

"It would be nice to catch up with Gary," I thought, so I found myself heading North on the M42/A42 at about nine o'clock this morning.

It was lovely to meet up with Gary and everything he said made me realise that I had made the right decision and retire back at the end of March last year.  Gary feels much the same way, and plans to make his exit next year ... unless some fuckwit really annoys him somewhat earlier!

As for the shooting, that's an interesting question. Gary has a keen interest in historic rifles and I tried out a WW1 German rifle and a Mosin from the second world war.  These rifles have iron sights and it is a real challenge to get a decent grouping on the target at a range of fifty meters, especially with my crappy eyesight.

The final gun to be tested was a modern combat rifle with telescopic sights. These are incredibly accurate and even I could manage a very respectable grouping around the bull's eye.

The interesting this is that these rifles have been developed for just one thing, killing people and I'm really not sure how I feel about them. It is impressive how rifles have been developed over the years, But I am conscious that this is just another way of saying that it is now far easier to kill with them.

I know that I have shotguns and they can be deadly, but they were designed to put food on the table, not invade a neighbouring country.

What I can report is that shooting at a rifle range is not for me. With enough cash and time one can buy a modern rifle with sights and get it perfectly set up. One can then hit the centre of the target repeatedly with little chance of a miss.* 

I must confess that I would get bored quite quickly, and much prefer the challenge and variation provided by a moving clay target.

But it was still lovely to catch up with a mate from work.

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* I accept that over longer distances it becomes more challenging