LAIC #2 - The Shooting Stick

Continuing my first LAIC post on 18 March, one of the classes during those first eight weeks of class was one called “Workshop”. It was located in a building near the Tank Museum near the entrance to the camp. It was filled with all kinds of machines – grinders, sanders, metal-cutting machines and the like. It was definitely not my cup of tea.

I initially thought it was to give us a break from the standard classwork of calculus, physics and the like. There was probably a little of that, but it also had two other very practical objectives.

One was to provide us with an exposure, albeit on a somewhat smaller scale, how machines would make the parts of the vehicles we were going to be designing. It was a dirty business; so much so, that we had to wear our tank coveralls over our uniforms.

The second reason, and equally practical, was that each of us made a shooting stick. Shooting sticks were, and still are, very popular in England for use in watching horse races, cricket, rugby, football (soccer), and sometimes even shooting.

If you look it up online you will see that you can buy one from Amazon, complete with a leather seat, for $60-90 dollars. Ours didn’t have a leather seat, but where we sat had been smoothed down and was very comfortable. And it was free.

The circular disc near the top of the stick was removable by unscrewing it and placing it on the bottom of the shaft, again by screwing it on, to keep the stick from continuing to go into the ground once you sit on it. 

We used our sticks when we went “out in the field”, whether it was to tank driving or shooting ranges, weekend pheasant shoots, or my favorite, TEWTS.

The last was Terrain Exercise Without Troops”. This was really a walk over some chosen terrain where we would discuss tactics and pretend battles. Sometimes, if the land was similar, we even got to replay a famous real-life one.

I used my shooting stick when my daughters grew up playing soccer. I don’t think I will use it for any local Civil War battles down here.

But I was proud I was able to make it like Pop would have done.

(TNR 12)