I magine lying in a hospital bed and being told you’ve had a terrible accident and may never walk again. Where would your thoughts be? Certainly not on shooting. After a period of recovery the urge to break clays would surely return, but where would you begin? How would you know which grounds might be suitable, or even accessible? Who could you turn to for advice? Will you need a change of shooting style? Or even someone to help you to the stands?
After suffering a life changing motorcycle accident in the late 90’s, Jean-Paul Gaudin faced all of these questions and more. Now, with two decades of experience as a seated shooter, he is on a mission to provide answers and to educate the shooting community on how to make our sport more accessible to all.
Jean-Paul Gaudin, The Seated Gun
© Jeremy Pascoe,
Walking-Gun.com Jean-Paul began his shooting career in the most idyllic fashion. “I started shooting when I was about 15 years old, with my grandfather from his home in Southern France. In the UK we have wonderful driven days, whereas in France the majority of the shooting is walked up, or from a hide if aiming for boar.”
“As a young man I enjoyed many days with the family, strolling through forests and vineyards shooting the odd bird that setters flushed out. Clay shooting grounds in France were vastly different from the grounds we see in the UK today. They were casual affairs, run by guns for guns, with simple manual traps throwing targets in an inaccurate manner and with a clubhouse consisting of little more than a cool box and an honesty jar. Oh, and they tend to be on a ‘hill’ that even the hardiest mountain goat would struggle to climb! I would often find myself standing on uneven ground, in a bush, trying to get a shot off in the vague direction of where I thought a clay might appear. Don’t get me wrong, there are some wonderful grounds in the major cities, but the rural clay grounds tend to be much more rough and ready.”