When my best friend got married earlier this year I took charge of planning her hen party, which meant organising a group of 16 of her closest friends and family. After speaking to the bride-to-be's sister we decided to choose something a little bit different for her hen party.

The bride is a bit of a country girl at heart and loves anything outdoors, so we decided to book a clay pigeon shooting experience. None of us had ever been clay pigeon shooting before, and even though the group included a couple of mums and aunties everybody seemed to love the idea of a clay pigeon shooting experience.

The day of the hen party soon arrived, and after meeting the rest of the girls at the shooting ground we signed in and got ready for a morning of clay pigeon shooting. Before we were let loose with the guns though we were given a full safety briefing, as well as protective glasses and ear defenders to wear whilst we were shooting.

Once the safety briefing was over the excitement really started to build and we couldn't wait to smash our first clays! The instructor taught us all the basics and made sure we were all comfortable using the guns provided. A couple of us swapped for lighter guns which made holding them a lot easier, but meant we had no excuses for missing!

Because there were so many of us we took it in turns to shoot, which was nice because it meant we could cheer the other girls on when we weren't shooting. Even though we were all new to clay pigeon shooting experiences we all managed to hit a couple of clays, and you can't beat the feeling of smashing your first clay.

The 25 clay package we'd chosen was perfect and gave us a real taste of how much fun clay pigeon shooting experiences can be. We seemed to face clays from all directions, and even though we missed a few clays it made hitting them even more enjoyable. The bride-to-be was a natural too and ended the day with the best score by a mile.

When my best friend’s fiancée popped the question, I couldn’t believe it- I was over the moon and so happy for them. She immediately asked if I could be the lead bridesmaid at her wedding and I jumped at the chance. Nothing would make me happier than being in charge of her last night of freedom! I had plenty of ideas for what to do a night out, but then she told me I was in charge of planning the day too.

My mind was firing blanks when it came to choosing the best activities to do. We weren’t exactly the type of girls who would go out for a lunch date, or for a pampering session at a spa. I got in touch with her fiancée’s best man, to see if he had any ideas for activities. He was surprised we were even asking him; he knows us that well, he was surprised we hadn’t already booked to take part in some extreme sports activity!

I had already got the night in the city planned out, so I couldn’t choose an adventure sport that was too far away from the centre of town. This is when I came across The Big Shoot- we’d never though about clay pigeon shooting before, but on her final night of freedom, it would be rude not to take part in a completely new experience. Plus, she’d also know how to handle herself if her future husband ever stepped out of line!

Joking aside, this was perfect. There were plenty of shooting ranges just a short drive out of the city, so we had plenty of venues to choose from, all just minutes away. I called the girls and we decided this would be a great time, even though our loud hen party would stand out from all the other shooters! I called up the Big Shoot to book a 25 clay shoot for the whole gang, when I got told that Hen party packages included great deals on the evening entertainment and nightclub entry. This would get the entire night planned in just moments, so I jumped at the chance.

Just like that, I had the entire day sorted- and it took less than ten minutes altogether. The venue asked us to wear country clothes when we went to shoot, so we tried to find the most ridiculous outfits possible. Why wait until we went out at night to put on the fancy dress? We would definitely be turning quite a few heads when we rocked up to the shooting range, especially the bride to be, who we were planning on surprising with the most ridiculous costume of the lot.

When we got to the site, the staff were incredibly friendly and were over the moon we chose them as part of our Hen experience. Then we met our instructor, who couldn’t wait to train us up. To our surprise, we were all really good when armed with a gun- so you really don’t want to mess with us! Then the clays started feeling and none of us could believe how amazing it felt to smash them to pieces. Every time we hit the target, we couldn’t help but loudly celebrate. We weren’t your average shooters, but we definitely planned to return for more.

After the day we had, I know that booking with The Big Shoot ensures it only takes minutes to organise the perfect day out. I highly recommend it to everybody- and we are definitely returning for round two.