A day in the life of Lady’s Wood Shooting School

Read on for a behind the scenes glimpse of a typical Saturday at the shooting school…

8.00     Staff arrive for a busy Saturday at Lady’s Wood Shooting School. We’re expecting lots of customers through our doors today, with families, regulars and a hen party booked in! Lady’s Wood is also hosting the BASC Level 1 Deer Stalking Certificate, run by Corinium Rifle Range. This is the second day of a four-day course and the course instructors arrive early to prepare our meeting room for participants.

The hour before customers arrive gives us a chance to get the shooting school ready for the day. This includes lighting the fire, checking emails and, most importantly, putting the coffee on! Our grounds manager Rick sets up the traps and makes sure the shooting grounds are tidy before tuition commences.

8.30     The DSC Level 1 participants start to arrive, ready for day two of their course. Our meeting room is the perfect venue for courses like these, with its screen and projector, large table and toasty fire!

9.45     The first customers of the day start to arrive. Saturday’s are always very busy for us and with back-to-back bookings all day, we have three clay shooting instructors out in the grounds.

Out first with Lady’s Wood manager Chris are two gentlemen back for a second clay shooting lesson with us. Some great shots were made, with a mixture of driven clays, rabbits and a few shots at the 60ft tower thrown in for good measure. We tailor our shooting instruction to suit each individual. The instructor gave a few pointers on stance and form and both customers were hitting the clays successfully and with improved accuracy.

11.00   Once the clay shooting lesson is over, customers head back to the lodge for coffee and cake in front of the fire. A shooting instructor will clean guns in the gun room.

We’ve also got some regular customers today, who visit us once or twice a month. They head out for an hour’s practice session before lunch.

12.30   Once we’ve said goodbye to the last of the morning’s visitors, we have time for a quick bite to eat before welcoming the afternoon’s visitors.

1.00    A father and his young son arrive for their clay shooting lesson with Lady’s Wood owner, Ernie. It’s great to welcome the next generation of shooters and we love getting the chance to introduce juniors to the sport!

2.00     The hen party arrive! The group splits into two teams and heads out into the grounds with two shooting instructors. Clay shooting always goes down well with hen and stag parties; it’s a sociable activity and a great excuse to get outside and engage in a little friendly competition!

Both groups spend an hour on the grounds with their shooting instructor with great fun had by all. Many members of the party had not shot before. They were thrilled to be hitting clays by the end!

3.30     Once everyone’s finished shooting, it’s back to the lodge to compare notes and carry on the fun. There’s no need to rush off after your clay shooting lesson. Groups often find the lodge to be the perfect place to unwind after being out in the shooting grounds.

4.30     The last of the day’s customers leave. We have a chance to tidy away and reflect on a busy and successful week at Lady’s Wood.

5.00     We surprise Rick, our grounds manager, with a personalised Croots cartridge bag for his birthday, before heading home for the weekend.