TESTING TIMES FOR EVERYONE!

Gary’s shooting has assumed therapeutic qualities, but will these SMKs turn out to be just what the doctor ordered?

- GARY WAIN

Have you ever noticed that when you’re shooting a perfect calm descends over you? You could be grieving for a loved one, getting divorced, facing financial ruin, or as we are at present, coping with a global pandemic. When you’re shooting, though, none of this seems to enter your head; all is calm, all is focused, and all is good, all of the pressures and worries just melt away.

Writing for Airgun World is a real honour, and as much as both you and I would like to hope that it keeps us writers in lobster, champagne and foie gras, the truth is that those of us who write do so for love, and out of a passion for our sport. Most, if not all of us writers have a ‘day job’, the one that pays the bills. My day job is as a radiographer for the NHS, and one of the main methods of confirming Covid 19, and in particular pneumonia that often develops, is through imaging of the chest, so it means that we’re experiencing some pretty scary times.

The reason I’m telling you this is not to engender sympathy or support, but because like all of you at this terrifying time, shooting is a release for me, and as I’ve alluded to above, a way to let the pressure out, a way to forget about what is going on, if only for an hour or so. For me, this release comes not just in shooting, but in the form of some more ballistic testing. This isn’t just a hobby sport, it’s also therapy.

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