It’s nice to be accurate, but I will get no style points as I blast away on the Sporting Lodge shooting range on this overcast autumn afternoon at Fox Harb’r Resort in Wallace, Nova Scotia.

Peter Phillips—Director of Sport Shooting at the time—is trying to impress upon me the need to keep my weight further forward and to anchor the butt of the 12-gauge shotgun into the groove of my shoulder joint, against the padding stitched into my supplied vest. But I am about to repeatedly tilt backward as I follow the flight path of my clay targets.

“Pull,” I say, with barely a modicum of confidence in advance of my opening shot. Phillips, standing immediately behind me—likely to prevent his novice shooter from turning to chat, with gun in hand, as much as to offer advice and support—remotely releases the first flying saucer with the press of a button. I pick up the target and follow it through the range from right to left, leading the gunsight a hair to allow for time and space. And then I pull the trigger. The rifle jars back into my shoulder more than anticipated, but the clay, perhaps 200 feet away, shatters.

WORLD CLASS RESORT

Whether you are an experienced professional or just learning the proper handling of a firearm, it’s easy to see why this five-star resort is fast becoming a prime destination for avid sportsmen and sportswomen. “The thrill of hunting in the wilds of Nova Scotia, the challenge of target shooting and the rustic comforts of our Sporting Lodge wrap this entire experience into one extraordinary package,” the Fox Harb’r literature reads.

This section of the luxury, sprawling Fox Harb’r Resort also includes an impressive 15-acre sporting clay course, redesigned by world champion George Digweed, replete with 24 shooting stations. There’s also partridge and pheasant hunting packages, but I’m not into killing anything today, except, possibly, my future as a sniper.

This is a licensed shooting facility, so guests don’t require a permit. But our safety and orientation session in the lodge—plus the requisite signed waiver—prepares our small media party for what is to come as we step out to the five-stand shooting range. This is the ideal introduction for first-timers—a golf driving range sort of set-up, with six trap machines located in various spots downrange launching target clays at various angles and speeds.

For $70 per person, you get your firearm (available in different sizes to accommodate individual shooting styles), ammunition, targets and basic instruction.

I am emboldened by a smattering of cheers from my fellow media types upon my initial—and unexpected—success, and I give Phillips the nod for a second clay: “Pull!”

Despite my somewhat less-than-20/20 vision, I locate the target and gently draw the trigger back. The front half of the clay collapses and falls to the earth as the shell clips its path.

Multiple contacts follow in the coming minutes before my work is finally done here and I must move on.

I leave the Sporting Lodge confident that if Nova Scotia is ever attacked by killer clay robots, I will again be summoned into action.

For now, I need a few days to rest…or at least for the bruise in my right shoulder to heal.