On Saturday 3rd October nine cadets from 966 (Wallingford) Sqn joined over thirty cadets and staff from other squadrons to spend the day clay target shooting. Clay target shooting in the air cadet organisation is a civilian sport. It is an excellent sport for cadets as it helps promote self-discipline, hand-eye coordination and gives the young person a great sense of achievement when they begin to master the sport.
Sgt Morrison described the day, “upon arrival at Buckley Barracks we hopped off the bus and had our introductory safety brief to clay target shooting. We were then taught how to use the shotgun and learnt some details about the sport.”
Then the shooting began. The cadets quickly began to put the marksmanship theory into practice. Starting off with some easy clays which came up towards the firer, all cadets had a great amount of fun shooting – even if they did miss a couple of clays here and there! After lunch, the second set of traps launched the clays away from the firer presenting more of a challenge.
“I had a great time and I would definitely go again. I managed to hit 80% of the targets and would thoroughly recommend it to other cadets” added Cdt Judd.
After the clay target shooting stopped, some of the range staff gave a demonstration of two types of muzzle-loading shotguns. All of the cadets were intrigued by the different types of guns on show. After the final shot was fired there was a mass collection of unbroken clays and a tidy-up of the range equipment. We then took a group photograph, said “thank you” to the range staff and began the journey back to Wallingford.
Plt Off O’Riordan RAF VR(T)