Deep River Sporting Clays ~ Raleigh, North Carolina

I have always had the opinion that the wonderful folks of America are a bit crazy with the whole ‘right to bear arms’ thing. I know we all want to protect what’s ours and all, but I just thought it was silly. I’d never shot a gun, never hunted, never had to chase a thief away. While in North Carolina recently though, I did some shooting. With a shotgun.

We pulled up to the Deep River Sporting Clays parking lot in the pouring rain. POURING! Raining bullets…haha, get it? Now, I’ll admit I was definitely not the most excited person on our tour bus so I prepared myself for the most boring 2 hours of my life. I thought to myself what a horrible wonderful way to spend a Friday morning! Guess I’ll just break out the camera and shoot things my way!. We headed into the clubhouse and got set up with all the necessary equipment needed to start this ridiculous super fun outing.

Shotgun shells, eye protection, ear plugs and gun in hand, we started out on the course. This particular shooting club was set up similar to a golf course (I may have kept referring to the ‘next hole’ and not the next station. They even had golf carts to get you from hole to hole station to station. In case you’re wondering…we walked the course. In the rain. MmmHmmm.

As you can imagine, here I am standing at the top of station #1, dripping with the rain and shivering with the cold. I hold the gun up and get ready to shoot. I say to our guide Tim Parker in my teeniest voice “PULL” (which means let the clay fly!).  The clay shoots out of the dohickey,

I follow it and aim through my left eye and……KA-PAW!!!

Nailed it first shot!  The poor clay never saw it coming! What a rush! Now, I’m going to tell you something you probably already know about me and sports, especially if you’ve ever seen me curl. I tend to peak early. EVERY. SINGLE. TIME. What does that mean? You guessed it, I missed my second. Then my third. And the forth clay. But then, I started to hit stuff. With bullets! Our guide, Tim, even started calling me Dead Shot. At the 10th station I even outshot every single big tough guy person in our group! 3 out of 4! I maybe starting bragging and razzing some of the men people about me being a hunter and them being gatherers since they couldn’t shoot anything. Maybe. Everyone had a ton of fun!

All in all, we had a great time traipsing through the North Carolina woods in the piss pouring rain! A huge thank you to Debbie Michielsen at Michielsen Meadows for organizing this outing. If you ever find yourself in Sanford, NC, make a point of visiting the fellas at Deep River Sporting Clays! Thank you Tim and Scott!