Shooting star Can’t hit a barn-door at twenty paces? Then perhaps it’s time to enlist the help of a shooting instructor, as the Bath family did at Hopetoun Clays

Anyone who shoots has been there at some stage. Things didn’t go well at your last shoot, and even if you’re not the butt of your pals’ jokes, you know you soon will be if there’s not some rapid improvement. Or maybe you don’t shoot, but would like to – or have been invited by a client or prospective in-law – and have no idea how to reach first base. Or perhaps it’s the same L-plates conundrum you get with teenage drivers, where they and you are keen but you know that parents teaching their offspring risks ingraining bad habits or, more likely, results in the sort of volcanic blue-on-blue unfriendly fire tantrum that guarantees family discord for weeks to come.

In all three of those instances, the sort of help you need comes in the imposing form of Stewart Cumming. A former Scotland clay pigeon champion, the burly ex-forester is now in charge of the shooting instruction at Hopetoun House and specialises in helping everyone from novices to experts, and all points in between via hopeless cases. Whether you are an experienced shot seeking all-round improvement, want to hone your skills at a particular type of shot, are an absolute beginner or a nipper with a shotgun, the chances are that you will benefit from his services.

‘If you were a golfer, you wouldn’t dream of playing without ever going to the range,’ says Stewart, ‘and if you were shanking the ball into the rough off every tee, you’d go and take some lessons. Why do people think shooting is any different?’

As it happens, the Bath family is a microcosm of the sort of clients that take shooting lessons. I’ve shot a fair bit, but want to keep my eye in over the summer and also want to address a weakness on really high