FEATURE
P60
COLIN EDWARDS' TEXAS TORNADO BOOT CAMP
Five on a bike? No problem.
James Rispoli rides and
Bradley Smith looks scared.
can ride.
This Scherb kid
mit that I did shoot a shotgun at
something they call a clay pigeon
my first day at camp. And before
I get angry letters from PETA, try
as I might, the pigeon survived.
There was some sort of shooting activity on most days with
the majority of the campers taking advantage of blasting away
at targets with instruction from
Edwards and ex-Marine Gale
Tynefield, who is now a firearms
safety expert. I figured a firearms
safety expert in Texas is probably
a b ig deal. I did a lot of watching
and plugging my ears with Bradley Smith (remember, he's English so much more at home with
crumpets and tea than firearms
and ammo).
Mom should stop reading for a
second right here, but they've got
this gun like you've never seen
before. They call it a 50 caliber,
which I'm guessing is called that
because of the size of its bullet.
Anyway this thing is full freaking
Rambo and it's so big it sits on
a picnic table when you shoot
it. Basically it's some hard-core
sniper rifle that you could hit targets with from miles away. That
might be an exaggeration, but
you get my point. Gnarly stuff.
So I had to have a go… mainly
to shut up my gun-toting friends
back home. Now when they
mention guns, I can bring out my
iPhone, show 'em the photo, put
on my best dad accent and say,
"That's not a gun, this is a gun."
That'll show 'em.
What I was supposed to hit
was so far away I couldn't see it
without the scope. I pretended
to try and hit the target, but all
I really wanted to do was make
sure I hit the dirt embankment
so I didn't kill some poor bastard
fishing on Lake Conroe. Mission
accomplished and I'm bringing
home the shell to show you.
I'm probably not going hunting anytime soon, but at least I
now know which end the bullet
comes out.
Remember when I complained
after sailing camp that I didn't get
to sail enough? You won't hear
that from me when I get home
from this camp. I've ridden to the
point of near exhaustion every
day and I've got a serious case of
monkey butt. Let's put it this way,
I'm now addicted to this medicated Gold Bond powder that they
