Ready, aim, have fun

Two years ago, we went to Sportsmen's Days at Carpenter's Brook Fishery and had a fun time...except that Aidan could have had MORE fun if only he had been twelve years of age, the minimum age to shoot the firearms. When we saw the notice for this year's event, he excitedly announced that this year he was old enough to shoot and could we please, PLEASE go?

Sunday was the perfect day to spend outdoors. We arrived just before the event started at 11 am and we went directly to the skeet shooting booth. Aidan eagerly listened to the instructor:

And then took aim at his first clay target:

And he hit it! He did far better than me or James; once again, the skeet had nothing, NOTHING to fear from us.

While we were skeet shooting (or pretending to shoot skeet, as the case may be), we could hear the loud booms coming from the muzzleloading station and were eager to give it a try. James went first and was excited to hit one of the targets. Aidan took his turn, once again listening carefully to instructions:

He listened very well because his shot hit the wire holding up that entire line of targets, bringing the whole setup down! The men running the booth didn't seem too thrilled that they had to repair their [flimsy] target structure, but everyone looking on applauded Aidan's shot.

It took them about twenty minutes to get the targets up and ready again, and I got to take my turn. Shooting a muzzleloader is great fun because of the noise and the smoke:

The targets were, however, completely safe from me.

We each took a turn at shooting a crossbow:

I am familiar with the expression, "photos or it didn't happen" but truly, I hit the bullseye with the crossbow and James very nearly matched my shot. Sadly, there is no photographic proof.

Both James and Aidan spent time in the fly fishing area - James to pick up some pointers from the experts and Aidan to try it out:

Aidan also used a rod and reel to fish in the pond and soon had one on his line:

One of the nice ESF students was right there to help him bring the fish in (before gently releasing him):

Our last stop was archery, where James and Aidan took a turn:

Aidan probably wouldn't win a head-to-head competition with Katniss but he did manage to hit the target two out of three attempts. During our time there, we also shot BB guns (which seemed downright dull after the thrill of muzzleloaders and crossbows), ate lunch, avoided annoying people and soaked up lots of vitamin D.