There were pigs at Barmeath, before my time, but I remember the sties. In the autumn they lived in the woods eating beech mast and the like.
My grandfather wasn’t much interested in farming and certainly was not the sort of chap to read Whiffle (sometimes Whipple), author of The Care of the Pig. He read The Shooting Times and his Whiffle was Ruffer, Major, Retd., Royal Marines. Ruffer and my grandfather believed in good technique. This was why my grandfather was still shooting aged ninety and there’s every likelihood my brother will do the same.
Although a devotee of Ruffer and prepared to adapt his shooting style he hardly needed instruction. He represented both England and Ireland shooting clay pigeons and was a fine sporting shot. When The Field magazine celebrated its 150th birthday my grandfather was in their list of 150 best shots.
I started shooting circa 1970 when he was eighty. I shot with a Valmet (Finnish) 12 bore belonging to my grandfather. I expect my brother still has it. The forend had primitive notches carved into it. They marked where my grandfather should put his thumb when wearing coats of different thickness. It had a boxlock and over and under barrels. I think it had chopper lumps. He took pleasure in teaching my generation how to shoot with a special emphasis on safety. He would say cars kill but guns are more dangerous – they are made to kill. He kept a scrapbook of newspaper stories about shooting “accidents” caused by lack of disciplined safety routines. Here’s a snap of my grandfather watching me shooting with his Valmet. It was published in The Drogheda Independent in 1970.
Ruffer’s mantra was shooting is easy. “Shooting is an art which can be taught and learnt quite easily: it depends not on any special gift, but on instincts which are common to us all, if we only knew how to use them.” Correct stance is critical. Front foot forward carrying one’s weight, rear foot slightly raised. Then follow the target with the muzzle of the gun, slowly and smoothly raise it to the shoulder and when the stock comes into the shoulder pull the trigger. Common mistakes are to stand incorrectly and to keep the stock in the shoulder for too long before shooting. Ruffer’s technique meant there was no need to “lead” – this means firing ahead of the target to allow the shot time to arrive – although my grandfather admitted some lead is necessary for very high birds or clays.
This was more than fifty years ago and today I am seventy and Major Ruffer is largely forgotten although his book, The Art of Good Shooting, is easily bought online.