Target Practice

Matthew, Simon and I had the opportunity to take the Kentucky Hunter's Education class on Saturday. It began at 8:00am and lasted until 4:00pm and I was proud how well Simon paid attention the entire time. There was a 50 question written test at the end of the class and Simon scored a 94% on it, which I thought was great for an 11 year old who has not had many experiences hunting at all. It was a long day, but well worth it, and we had a lot of fun!

Squirrel season is set to begin next weekend, and we may go squirrel hunting the first day! It appears that squirrel population around here has exploded and we are thinking we will be able to really fill our freezers up with squirrell meat this year if we want to.

The class yesterday got us thinking about guns and hunting so after a wonderful service at church this afternoon it seemed that this evening would be a great time to get in some target practice! Matthew went with Rocky and John to shoot behind the fire house down the road and the rest of us went up into Pure Water Hollow to shoot at pop cans and pizza boxes at the clearing.

Simon likes the .410 shotgun the best because it is more his size. Here he is with some practice shots, first with the .410, then with the single shot 12 gauge.




Here Simon is shooting the big double barrel shotgun. You can tell that it is a bit bigger and heavier than the other two, and he has to stand a bit differently to support it. But he could hit the targets with it as well as he did with the .410!



Christina also got in some target practice. She prefers the .410 as well.




I wonder what Timothy thought about all this shooting?



We were using those foam ear plugs but Timothy did not like to leave them in his ears. He preferred using his hands! He actually did not seem to mind the loud noise and would yell "boom!" after the shot was fired. You can see him covering his ears again in this next picture taken from the other angle.



You got a peek of Lisa in that last picture, sitting with Timothy and Christina on the bench. I didn't take one of her shooting, but she is very comfortable with guns and is a good shot!

Simon fired off more rounds than the rest of us, but between the 4 of us, we went through about 40 cartridges. I think some of our shoulders are going to be a bit sore tomorrow!

Here is one of Christina shooting from the other angle. I'm glad she is not afraid of shooting a gun!



We had a lot of fun with the target practice and then did a bit of walking around looking at the various wild plants up in the hollow. Here is what the mint looks like at this time of year. I think it is pretty and it is very aromatic!




These next two pictures don't go along with the idea of target practicing or wild plants, but I thought I would put it up here anyway. For the past couple of days Simon has been working on carving a head out of the dirt mound next to the house. I thought it turned out pretty cool and decided to take some pictures of it today. Sometimes I am amazed at what a creative fellow Simon is! His finger can pull a trigger dozens of times and destroy the targets he is shooting at, and his fingers can also delicately carve and create a masterpiece!