jobleau

Air guns. These bring back so many great memories.

A friend of mine used to have shack on the shore of a northern lake encased within mountains. Very isolated, no roads. You needed a boat to get there. In the back of the shack, we had built a shooting spot using the mountain slope as a backstop. We had put all sorts of small objects like fishing spoon or other gears, clothes pins, rubber pieces and even a cow bell. Some were attached with strings or fishing wire and were subject to wind, making them more difficult to hit.

Boys did we spent many fun hours plinking with air pistols and riffles, making up all sorts of contests. We even shooted at night under the moonlight.

The most memorable event was the son of my friend first try at shooting. Late autumn, within the beautiful scenery that nature offers us at that time of the year, a bit cold, but plenty of sunshine. It was the last time we would go that year and my friend had promised his son, 6 y/o then, he could try one of the air gun that weekend.

The rifles were too big for him so he had him use a pistol. Even that was a bit too big for his small hands and I didn't think he'd be able to hit something. But I did not want the boy to be deceived with his experience and came up with an idea. While my friend was explaining his son how to use the pistol safely, I comfortably installed myself in my preferred spot and started shooting. After a while, my friend called upon me saying it was the boy's turn to shoot.

So I stopped but I still had a pellet in the rifle. My friend told his son to hit the cow bell, the biggest object on the range and the little boy started aiming. I did too. And when I heard the pellet go through the bushes, I fired and hit the bell. My friend had heard the shot from my riffle and turned towards me with an inquisitive look and I nodded to him it was indeed me who had it the bell.

But you should have seen the look on the boy's face! His eyes were so wide and bright it was unbelievable. He was so concentrated on his shot that he didn't hear mine and he was convinced he had hit the bell. I had made the boy's day for sure.

We all cheered with him but I said it was beginner's luck and he needed to shoot some more. For the next half hour, for every 2 or 3 shots he did, if he didn't hit, I would discreetly make one for him. Surprisingly though, he did manage to make a couple of hits by himself.

To this day, I don't think he knows what I did behind the scene because we talked about that day several times and he still seem very convinced he did all the hits.

Thanks tinydick4u for bringing me back that great memory.