Lomography

Shooting Sport Center Bockenberg
written by vicuna on June 22nd, 2009 , 4 comments (2 votes)

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During past holidays in Germany, I had the occasion to try out a new sport activity: Ball Trap or shooting sport. You know, this kind of shooting with a rifle where you try to destroy a strange and colorful disc representing a bird (or a rabbit when on the ground) coming from anywhere and that you must shoot down (In french, they call this sport “Tir au pigeon” that means “Pigeon shooting”…)

A friend proposed us to spend our Sunday afternoon at a shooting club and try ourselves to shoot. The atmosphere seems a little bit strange at the beginning, a lot of “bang bang” noise all around, on a wide open air area. Could be a little bit frightening perhaps….. The people are very silent and you can see the concentration level is very high. They’re making this very very seriously, carefully, and the main aspect of this sport is really mental self control. Everybody knows how dangerous an accident with all these rifles and guns could be, so there is no place for a “funny guy” in here…..

After observing a little (and I already shot some pictures with my Horizon…) it’s my turn: I’m used to shoot with cameras but with a rifle….? I was a bit nervous and very carefully, I followed the instructions on how to stay and how to hold the rifle. Adjusting the eye on the target (like on a camera), the surprise comes from the “explosion” of the bang when you pull the “shutter” (and even the noisiest camera hasn’t this sound!! :) A little “back-effect” on your shoulder shows you how “physical” shooting is. And you’re happy if you touch the target, even if you don’t know how you made this…..

The “pigeons” and “rabbits” can come from every direction, from the air down to the ground, from ground in the air, from left, right, etc…. it’s very surprising and I understood the high concentration level of the shooters to touch every target wich such a precision.
I shot 25 times in the afternoon, and I touched 4 “pigeons” and 2 “rabbits”, and I think I’m better at shooting with cameras than with rifles…but it was a very good experience!

Look at the pictures and if you have the occasion once, just try it out! :)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shooting_sports
http://www.bockenberg.com/