Aye, that’s me in so many different ways. What prompts this story? Well, packing to go home, (see below) I realised that one of the pairs of socks I had thrown in my bag are my fancy elasticated ones for the long haul! Fortunately I had enough other pairs – you can never have too many right enough – to get by, and still have a clean pair to wear on the way home.
These flights socks are great but a bit of a bu^^*r to get on and off. Fortunately I don’t have to bother. I don’t fancy arriving at Glasgow tomorrow night with no sockies on. Gey cool methinks!

Not guns. My bag. Getting packed to go home. Good.
I am taking bookings for the upcoming grouse and pheasant season though, as the time flies by.
Get your dates in pronto.

Nah, lads, not nylons (does anybody call them that nowadays?), gunstocks. Hakaan – see below – has the latest gear in them fancy ergonomic stocks that the Double Trap shooters like so much. His are an advanced model with recoil reducers fitted. Important for DT as it makes the 2nd shot very much more manageable.
There is a stockmaker in Malaga that we will have to go and see – maybe next time – just to make contact and get to know the man. Stocks, apparently, come in at 400 – 600 euros (ish). As ever I’m sure it will depend on the quality of the wood.
Spain has a long history of gunmaking and they turn out good gear. None better than my fine AYA No 2 side by sides. Oh well, I suppose the No 1 model is actually better – but, at this minute, I do not choose to afford them.
We shall try and fit in a visit in February and see what goes on.

New people in the restaurant at Jarapalo now and, I would say, an obvious improvement in the quality of the food. Very Spanish of course and tripe and pig’s trotters is maybe not our first choice – but they also had kidneys (yum, yum), prawns, squid, fancy eggs and so on. Two coffees and a brandy (just to keep the cold out you understand) = 4 euros. That, to me, (miserable Scots git) is a bargain.
A further tasty tale is that I had a fruit cocktail yogurt tonight. Yuk. In fact it tasted like soap. Scented soap indeed but not very nice. Ho hum. When a boy is on the Dukan diet he just has to do the best he can. The trout though, was good.

Isn’t it great how shooting sport brings people together? A fine mixture at Jarapalo today. Spanish of course in profusion – much busier than normal today – Swedes (or one Swede anyway as Haakan Dhalby – excuse the spelling) has turned up to get some quality training in on Laporte machines, Germans, a Pole, a Norwegian, the brave Scots, an Italian. Just wonderful.
Some of the troops have had a dire time however, as, apparently, Spanair went bankrupt yesterday and caused these shooters some hassle. Not all the guns and bags have arrived and there was talk at one point of them having to drive to Barcelona to get their stuff. Now, how far is that? A damn long way I think.
We’re off home in the morning anyway after a good solid week of shooting in polo shirts. Not me of course. I’ve stuck to the 6 or 7 layers for safety sake. Can’t be too careful when you’re old and grumpy!!!

Saw this for the very first time this afternoon at Jarapalo. Very interesting. So many different things attached to the experience. Like it or not, it does exist and generates big bucks for some.
As somebody said, a helluva lot cheaper than shooting pheasants!!!!
I’m hooked and I’ve never even tried it.
Plans already being made to bring a group out.

It’s quite amazing what’s discussed at a training camp. New cars, old cars, diets, clothes, obese people in unsuitable clothes, cakes, fish, washing machines, dishwashers, coffee grinders – or the lack of them – cheap shoes, bath mat bargains, how many 5 litre bottles of water can two women get through in a week, how to remove lime scale from loos (cider apparently), etcetera, etcetera. It’s not just ALL shooting thankfully. You do need some time to clear the brain.

“The Olympic Disciplines are hard” – discuss. Now that may take the rest of our lives, but I’ll tell you one thing – look at the target HARD and very quickly you will see what a difference it makes. I mean HARD, like your life depends on it. Not staring, that’s not good. Quiet eyes, gently, gently, then look at it HARD.
It only works.
Trust me. Please.

Not in this case some of Santa’s reindeer, more like some of the weather on the range at Jarapalo today. Schlecht indeed. However we managed to get a few rounds in and scuttled off back to the hotel feeling that we had done our best.
Fortunately there is a second hand bookshop in Torremolinos with a wide selection available so it’s not difficult to get reading material – even if you do forget your kindle! Even better, they do a trade in deal. When you take one book back, you get something off the next one. Very suitable for this mean Scot. Well, off the pulp paperbacks anyway. Not the good stuff. I did buy a hunting book in Spanish one time. Good pictures – no idea about text!!!!
Hasta Manyana as they say.

5 ranges at Jarapalo. One and two have Mattarelli traps, three has Kromsons (so nice to see them again) four has Mattarelli and five has Laporte. Normally, of course, we shoot on range five.
Last time we were here the Mattarelli range, as we call it, range 4, was throwing horribly curling targets. Quite useless actually. Now though, because they are incredibly proactive, they are having parts fabricated for all three Mattarelli ranges to allow them to create a “windage” adjustment.
Even today things were better however, as they had taken out the Laporte targets and replaced them with Corsivia. They certainly flew better.
I recommend anyone to come here for OT training. The people are very helpful, you can come to Malaga by Easyjet who will take the guns, it’s 6 euros a round and IT’S SUNNY!!!!!