Well, mags, for one thing, my CP is not that "involved".  I can still do
most tasks, even play the piano (sorta), fly a plane, etc.  I have problems
with my affected (left) hand and fine motor skills (can't button), but I've
made a lot of my own adaptive devices.  My mom's a retired Marine Corps
engineer and my Dad's a retired Marine sniper instructor, so I have a lot of
resources to draw from.

Shooting is not as much of a problem as you might think.  There are many,
many adaptive devices for wheelchair-bound folks to hunt and fish
independently.  Because I've done a good bit of outdoors writing, I've been
fortunate to meet a lot of these folks and see how things are engineered to
let them pursue their sport (btw--lots of women involved in both fishing and
hunting/shooting).  In my trap club (where we use shotguns to shoot at
flying "clay" pigeons) there is a blind--yes I said blind (as a bat)--man
who shoots with us.

This is how it works:  He walks to the "stand", unguided, and loads his own
weapon.  He mounts the shotgun to his shoulder and calls for the target by
yelling "pull!".  When the clay pigeon flies, an individual called the
"spotter", who is looking over the shoulder of the blind man and down the
barrel of the shotgun, calls out commands like "3-high" (point the weapon at
3 o'clock and a little high) so the blind fellow knows, generally where the
target is at the time.  Remarkably, he can also "hear" the flying disk and
can tell direction and speed from those cues as well.  A round of trap is 25
shots, and he can generally get 10 hits/round.

I guess it just depends how bad you want to do something.  Being out in the
woods and fields, hunting and fishing, is such a part of my life and history
that I can't imagine not being able to be there.

-----Original Message-----
From: Magenta Raine [mailto:[log in to unmask]]
Sent: Friday, February 11, 2000 12:01 AM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: north/south


ok, kyle, how does a pwcp shoot a gun?

;-)