A man has been shot near Churchill Downs. The man was taken to a hospital with non-life-threatening injuries, police say.
On the surface, it might seem incongruous that a politician and military commander was also a first-rate game shooter and grouse moor hunter. Yet Churchill was all of these things, and in some ways even more.
He was a brilliant commander, a courageous leader and a devoted sportsman. Churchill was a man who liked danger and seemed to thrive on it. Indeed, he had a reputation for shooting anything that moved and was said to have shot a number of elephants in Africa with his own bow and arrow.
Churchill was in a different sort of danger on 15 November 1899 when he and his regiment were ambushed by Boer field guns on an armoured train near Estcourt in KwaZulu-Natal. The ill-fated train was unaccompanied by mounted troops and a rail line that sloped steeply upwards put the train at the mercy of the Boer guns. General Sir Redvers Buller called it “inconceivable stupidity.”
Thompson was Churchill’s bodyguard at the time. He was a tough-minded Scotsman and a skilled soldier who had served in the British Army for more than 20 years. He had been a captain in the Seaforth Highlanders and, at 40, was looking forward to jump school to qualify as a paratrooper.
He had a reputation as an expert marksman and was a fine shot with both a smoothbore and a breechloader. He also had a good knowledge of tactics and was well-versed in sniping.
In 1929, when Churchill lost his position as Chancellor of the Exchequer, he left his Scotland Yard protection since statesmen out of office were not entitled to such bodyguards. But he asked Thompson to accompany him on a lecture tour of America and Canada.
Churchill’s book is aimed not just to help the experienced shooter who might be puzzled by why he misses but also to assist novices handling a gun for the first time. It is full of detailed advice and a wealth of tips that will improve anyone’s game-shooting abilities.
The Churchill method is an instinctive one that focuses on hard focus on the target and trusts in the eyes and hands to move the gun where it needs to go. Perkins says, “There’s no conscious lead; you move the gun to the bird as it comes to your face.” There’s no need for extra lead because you match the speed of the gun with the speed of the target. A faster bird requires more lead than a slow one, and the gun will move itself to create the necessary lead automatically. Perkins says if you learn to do this, the lead will feel natural. The Churchill Method works for all types of targets, including chandelle and sandbag. Churchill used a set of short, tapered barrels in his Churchill shotguns that were marketed as the XXV. His nephew Robert later deemphasized the longer barrels and developed the more famous Churchill shotguns with 25-inch barrels. Churchill shooting