REBECCA MOORE dons Tweed and ducks innuendo to see if she can join the growing number of women proving they can handle a weapon as well as any man...

When Shirley Florent first took up shooting, she was told two things. Firstly, that she was too skinny. Secondly, that she was too female.

Today, Shirley runs The Oxford Gun Company, along with husband Doug. And more women than ever are proving themselves pretty good shots.

Not being too skinny, but hopefully female enough, I’ve come along to see whether I can be one of them. First stop is the gun shop on the 200-acre site the couple have owned for 25 years.

I’ve never shot a gun, but have a sneaky suspicion I could be a dab-hand. After all, what’s to it? You point, and PULL. I can do that.

Shirley kits me out in a Tweed waistcoat, which, to my surprise, befits me rather well; maybe I’ve found my calling, I muse, as I undo the bottom button according to her instructions on tweed etiquette.

The shop has everything (I imagine) a gunslinger could wish for: from clothes, and wellies, to the all-important guns. Standing only 5ft 2in, a lot of the weapons seem substantially larger than me.

They even have a replica James Bond Walther gun, eagerly demonstrated by Shirley. Being an expert in neither Bond nor guns, this means little to me.

“We don’t do boring here,” Doug proudly tells me, but with this amount of ammo in a ten-metre space, I’d happily do boring.

As I’m led to one of the many shooting huts, I’m told they also offer archery tuition. I console myself that if the guns don’t work out, at least I can attempt to be Maid Marion, if only to pick up a suitable Robin.

The Company also caters for corporate ‘team bonding’ days that involve ‘blindfold driving’ – where the driver is unsighted and an unlucky colleague directs the ordeal.

I’m organising a friend’s upcoming Hen Party soon, and wonder out loud whether we’d all survive such a gig. “Hen parties are the best – and the worst – fun, because they’re so rude,” says Chief Instructor, Robert Kelwin. “Show a group of women a gun, and everything becomes a euphemism.”

This is the man charged with placing a loaded shotgun in my hands. I don’t want to tell him that since he handed me his weapon, I’ve fought a similar battle.

Before firing a shot, I’m forced to wear oh-so-glamorous ear defenders. I get off to a bad start by calling them earmuffs. A worse blunder follows when I can’t even untangle them over my hair. Robert tells me putting them on is a ‘real test of intelligence’. I fail, miserably, and resort to asking one of the other men for help. Is this a taste of things to come?

Never load until you’re ready to shoot, he says, looking at me, pointedly. A list of dos and don’ts follow. This is important but makes me more uneasy, because I know myself: any attempt to avoid catastrophe usually ends in chaos. But I press on; I got me some clay pigeons to shatter, and by the Lord of Tweed, I shall prevail.

At first, Robert has me shooting ‘pigeons’ that are flying straight towards and over us. The first time, I don’t even realise I hit it, so hard am I focusing on trying to stay upright. The second blast strikes the clay directly, shattering it to the ground.

This time, I nearly give poor Robert a heart attack by jumping up and down wildly, waving my still-loaded shotgun in the air. Shot after shot rings out across the range.

I can see what Shirley meant when she said this is addictive – the smell of spent shots is giving me an unsettling sense of power. Finally, Robert prises the gun from my hands.

“How’d I do?” I ask, as we stroll back. “Better than I thought you would,” he replies, appearing to have aged somewhat in the last hour.

I’m not entirely sure this is a compliment, but after my debacle with the ‘earmuffs’, I decide he has a point.

I had to clear one thing up before I left. Are women worse than men when it comes to shooting? Not at all, he says. Natural ability’s completely even between the two, he claims, it’s just that but men come here to practise more.

I may know nothing about James Bond, but seeing Shirley play 007 with her Walther, I’m convinced we women can show the men a thing or two when it comes to firepower – we’ve just got to get down to the range, and PULL!

 

ESSENTIALS

* The Oxford Gun Company offers tuition in a range of country sports, such as clay pigeon shooting, archery and cross bows, and air weapons.
* You can also take part in off road activities, including its quad bike skill course, Oxford quad safaris, and blindfold driving.
* Ladies Days run throughout the year. July 30 and September 24 are still open for this year.
* For further information, contact company, based in Oxford Road, Oakley on 01844 238308 or visit oxfordguncompany.co.uk