The air rifle

the air rifle in the shed, leaning against the kitchen wall, some of us were handed one at 11 though I knew few who had access to a weapon like this. 
Usually the son of a father who shot or a grandfather who like mine who had a shotgun, the law of the day allowed it.  A child of14 could have an air weapon, while somebody of 21 or overcooked supervise a boy of 14, at 17 a boy could buy one over the counter, you were shown how to check that it was empty before you were shown how to load it. The first lesson after that was carrying it broken over your arm, and there was no sacrifice because getting it wrong once was not a thing, what was a thing was getting you finger tip caught in the breech caught by a badly braized and modified spring I still bare the mangled finger top to this day.  For most their targets were cans lined up or paper targets at the end of the garden, for me, It was H3nrietta, my mothers beloved hen, shed had it for years, it skeot in a straw scattered dressing table in her bedroom in the daytime, father shot it, mother made him eat that tough old bird, to this day I still have the mangled finger but no answer whether I coldnt or wouldn't shoot the hen or of the thought of mother's reaction when she found out.

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