After a marathon session watching spaghetti westerns, we feel it's high time we mosey over to the Caracal Shooting Club at the Armed Forces Officers Club and Hotel to try our hand at a little shooting.

We feel a little overdressed as we arrive in the cool of the evening. For a session of shooting we think we should be wearing camouflage or cowboy boots at the very least, but since we’re going to the über posh Officers Club we might as well look the part.

We need to look nice enough to get into Kennedy for dinner later, after all.

We start with a quick briefing with range officer Danny who explains the ins and outs of holding, aiming and firing the UAE made Caracal brand 9mm. We're using the larger of the two that are most commonly used for target shooting, the F model, and it’s heavier in our hands than we would expect.

On the range at last, we give it a whirl. To our amazement we rock, hitting in the black zone with almost every shot. Three of our bullets hit smack in the bull’s eye. We find ourselves getting more steady as we blast our way through our ammunition and we can’t stop ourselves from thinking we love the smell of gunpowder in the evening.

We're not really sure when we'll ever need this skill – then again we don't plan on becoming a race car driver but that doesn't keep us out of the go karts either – but as we head over for a great meal at Kennedy, we're also pretty sure the outlaw Josie Wales has nothing on us.

Laura Fulton

What? Target shooting
Where: Caracal Shooting Club at the Armed Forces Officers Club
Cost: AED 180 for the .22lr and AED 205 for the 9mm for civilians plus AED 50 for the first time briefing session – price includes 25 bullets, but you can get more .22lr rounds for AED 50 and 9mm rounds for AED 75
We say: As much fun as you can have with pumps on
Contact: 02 585 4441