SOMBA K'E/YELLOWKNIFE
With the red flag in place, Mary Cairns slowly raises the pistol in her right hand up to the target 10 metres away.
Barry Taylor shows off a rare Alex Henry rifle from about 1865. The breech-loading rifle is accurate up to 1,000 yards. - Danielle Sachs/NNSL photo
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Eyeing the target she pulls the trigger, firing a lead pellet from her air pistol. Barely any movement registers other than the slight twitch in her finger.
Mary and her father, Scott Cairns, are spending a few hours at the Performance Shooting Centre, the 10-metre, 51 Street indoor range for air pistols and rifles.
Scott is president of the Yellowknife Shooting Club and Mary, who has been shooting competitively for only the past year and a half, is the junior Canadian champion in hunter rifle silhouette shooting. A title she'll have to defend this year.
"I think my chances are pretty good, I kind of beat everybody else by a fair bit last time," said Mary.
"It's a sport you can do your entire life but there's not many kids, so as a junior there's not much competition."
Although there may not be much competition now, that's starting to change, according to Mary.
"You either get into it because you like guns and think they're kind of cool or because someone you know is really into it," she said.
Mary started shooting because her dad was into it.
"It was kind of a no-brainer. In my little world, there's a lot of interest," said Mary.
According to the RCMP, there were 5,098 valid firearms licences in the Northwest Territories as of December 2012. The territory has the third highest per capita number of licences in Canada behind Newfoundland and the Yukon.
The majority of members at the Yellowknife Shooting Club are hunters, said Scott. The Yellowknife Shooting Club operates the outdoor location with five different ranges out at the Sand Pits, and the Performance Shooting Centre.
"Probably the bulk of our members are hunters who want to keep their skills up," said Scott.
"Then there are a subset of us, like myself, who are competitive target shooters and we have collectors who like to get their old guns up and running and have fun with them."
Barry Taylor, a big game outfitter and former president of the Yellowknife Shooting Club, is a self-described collector, shooter and gun fanatic.
"Guns are just tools that deserve respect and discipline," said Taylor.
"In my line of work guns are the tools you need for business and there are people out there that just don't understand that. Gun control doesn't work, it just becomes people control. You're never going to have a problem with registered guns. It's the people that don't follow the law that cause problems."
The current laws are vague and were made be people with no knowledge of firearms, said Taylor. Although critical of some of the existing laws, Taylor said he is pleased when the federal government got rid of the much-reviled long-gun registry.
"It doesn't make a difference if I collect guns or little glass slippers, neither of them are dangerous."
Taylor is well-known for collecting guns and he's often had people call him asking for advice or help researching the background on a specific firearm.
"When you get into collecting you start finding out more and more,” said Taylor. “There are guns that aren't even on record because there were only one or two made before moving onto something else.”
Each firearm has a story behind it and they are often passed down from generation to generation.
Barry remembers being told to stay out of his great grandmother's purse, no kids were allowed near it. It was only later he found out it was because she kept a small pistol in it, a pistol that has survived a house fire and which Barry now keeps in his collection.
"Guns were always passed down in families, they were art," he said.
Art like the intricate hand carving engraved onto metal plaques on his Ruger 1. The single-shot rifle has two metal plaques on either side, one featuring a lion.
"It's all hand-engraved under a microscope. That's how detailed it is, there are a lot that are machine stamped but this is quality," said Barry.
Barry collects whatever catches his eye and whatever has elements that he finds intriguing. Specifically, the mechanical aspects of firearms and slight improvements made from one model to the next. Because some of the firearms are so old, Barry has been making his own ammunition for around 30 years.
"I've probably only bought one or two boxes in the past 30 years or so," he said.
The art of shooting is a discipline that takes a lot of skill and Yellowknife is full of it, said Barry.
"For a little place Yellowknife has a lot of champion caliber shooters," he said.
"It's also a skill that can keep kids out of trouble because of the discipline and respect. It's a competition with yourself. You have to be physically fit and you will have good and bad days."
