TRURO - Backwater hicks may not stand at the top of all social circles but you won't see Sgt. Caleb Dickie turning up his nose to them.
And, if the hicks can handle a rifle, they might actually be preferred company.
Backwater hicks, you see, as Dickie jokingly refers to himself and some other members of the 1st Battalion Nova Scotia Highlanders reservists, apparently make good competitive shooters.
"Maybe it's because we're backwater hicks out here," he chuckles, in reference to the reputation his team is receiving in military competitive shooting circles.
"We've been raised around rifles."
On Sunday, Dickie and Master Cpl. Neil Benvie will head off to Bisley, England,alarge village in the Surrey region, which is noted for rifle shooting, as part of this year's 12-member Canadian contingent.
Besides Dickie and Benvie, another member hails from Springhill while the rest of the team is spread out from across the country.
And if the Canadian team shoots as well as the local unit did in recent national competitions, Dickie will be quite happy with the results.
"We had three (shooters) in the top 10," he says. "That's the best finish out of any regiment in Canada (including the regular force army and navy members)."
Dickie doesn't consider himself the best shooter on his local team, preferring instead to place that mantle on Benvie's shoulders. But as the coach of the 1st Battalion group, he does hope to pick up enough new skills and pointers that he can share with his shooters when he returns home.
"I personally like coming back and raising our team more and more," he says. "Like our regiment's team finished by far the best in this area (in the Atlantic region competitions)."
Dickie and Benvie both enjoy participating in the shooting competitions and, especially so, now that the events are evolving into more of real-life, battle scenarios.
"Every year they try to advance more to the contemporary battle field," he says. "Year's back, we always used to call it a gentleman's club. Like, you know, the old guys, 'how ya doing Joe, how ya doing Sam, haven't seen you since last year.' But now, they're always trying to advance to the contemporary battlefield which we face in Afghanistan ..."
One type of match they have been practicing has targets suddenly appearing at distances that range from 100 metres to 300 metres, as opposed to the more traditional competitions in which shooters lay on their stomachs and aim at stationary targets.
"You have to guess the distance they're appearing at," Dickie says of the new targets. "You have to make the proper sight adjustment, so it becomes more complicated as we go."
The run-and-shoot competitions are what Benvie excels at, and while he doesn't use the same backwoods hick term that Dickie chooses, he does credit growing up in the farming community of Upper Stewiacke for lending him a laid back attitude.
"That certainly helped," Benvie says. "I guess the general outlook on life helps. You can't let things get to you. Otherwise it just don't work."
