The most pathetic bullet-proof armour...

I'm going to talk about the slightly obscure sport I do today. Target shooting. No! Not shotgun! Yes! At paper targets, not people/animals! The number of questions I get when I tell someone I shoot is incredible (unless they too are a shooter). But on a dress-up-like-a-sport day, when I came in in all my shooting kit, I got a new question: 'Is that like bullet proof or something?'

(Picture from edinkille.co.uk)

This is literally the only picture I could find so I'll describe it. The jacket and trousers are made of stiff canvas/leather that is really inflexible. Really, really inflexible. The trousers often has grippy stuff that looks like the soft tarmac they put in kids' playgrounds.. The jacket have buttons which have some overlap (to fit the rules) but are still quite tight. Some jackets need a special spoon to do up the buttons, to give you an inidication of how tight a fit it is. The shoes are ankle boots that look like they have a rectanglar bit of plastic stuck on the sole so that the sole is flat with a square toe and heel. All of this is also really uncomfortable to wear at times - try wearing a leather suit for a hour and a bit in the middle of summer indoors! This stuff is really hard to move about in and looks a little odd to say the least. In fact, in order to stop shooters waddling around like penguins and looking ridiculous, rules have had to be brought in saying that the shooter must be able to walk properly! So I suppose, it isn't too unexpected that people might think it is some sort of bullet proof protection.

But really?! We aren't going to be shot in this sport - it's really safe for one thing and the targets are at least 10m away with all the shooters far, far away from the dangerous bullets. Admittedly, it might be bullet-proof but I certainly don't want to find out soon. Nope, the reason we have this (seemingly excessive) kit is to stop any movement. Any movement whatsoever. With air rifle, the nine ring (shooting is scored out of 10 by the way with 10 being the best) is the size of the pellet you are shooting. And when you get really competitive, a single 9 makes a big difference to where you are on the results list.

The flat soled shoes stop you rocking back and forth or side to side on your feet (theoretically - I still bounce on my heels), the stiff trousers support your back and help your knees - this back support is really important in shooting where back injuries are one of the more common injuries - and the jacket holds your upper body in the right place. Zero movement is the goal. Elite shooters even try and get their heart rate to a minimum! All of this to get the perfect shot, and from there, the perfect match (600/600 or 400/400 depending).

So next time you stumble across someone in shooting kit (as common as that is...), you now know why they are wearing that slightly bizarre outfit!