The day I saw the pellet

Memoir

Author: Derick Hulley

Place: Kenilworth, Kimberley

Date written: 29 September 2015

The Day I Saw The Pellet

An awakening

This event took place in Kenilworth, where we lived. It is a little township, a few kilometres outside Kimberley. It belonged to the diamond mining company, De Beers, and consisted of three streets, each with a row of houses. De Beers employees lived in the houses, and were subsidised by the company, with regards to water, electricity, and rent. We lived in 3rd Avenue, the second last house in the street. It must have been around 1965, when I was about 13 years old.

I was always led to believe that a bullet is too fast to be seen. When fired, it reached the target almost instantaneously, and was so fast, it could not be seen. I was also told, that because it was so fast, it travelled in a straight line.

We had been taught to shoot with air guns, also called pellet guns. My step father, Jan Brand, went to South West Africa (now called Namibia) almost every year, to visit his family, and also to hunt. We would go with, and were given air guns, with which we were allowed to shoot birds, small mammals, like mice, rats, etc., or anything else we could find. My brothers, Hilton and Dicky, and myself, became crack marksmen, and could shoot a bird from it’s perch without a problem. We used to go out into the veld, alone, for hours at a time, hunting, and killing.

Although we were not allowed to shoot with the guns at home, I had taken the pellet gun one afternoon, and walked into the veld. I shot at birds, and anything else that moved. At one stage, I aimed, and pulled the trigger. For a split second, I thought I saw the pellet in flight! However, I was taught that it is too fast to see, so I did not believe that I had actually seen it. I stood in the same position, re-loaded, and fired another shot, concentrating on looking ahead to see if I could see it. Sure enough, I saw the pellet, following a trajectory, rising away from me, then levelling off, and finally dropping to the ground.

I was amazed! I thought that I had some super power, to be able to see a bullet! I was also confused, as to why it did not travel in a straight line! Why did it go up, and then level off, and then drop to earth? Why had I not seen it before? I had fired hundreds of pellets from the air guns, but had not seen it before.

I fired a number of shots over and over, and each time I was able to see the pellet. Each time, it travelled along the same trajectory.

Later, I was on the way home, and took a shot at some target. I could not see the pellet! I realised that the sunlight was not in the same position as before, and, when I faced the same direction as earlier, I could actually see the pellet, but barely so. I came to the conclusion that the light has to be just right, and behind me, to see it clearly.

I did some research as to why it followed a trajectory, and did not fly in a straight line, and discovered that gravity acts on all objects, even on bullets, despite the speed they are travelling at. I also then discovered the importance of adjusting the sights on the gun for different distances, and understood it, instead of just accepting it.

I finally had to accept that I did not, in fact, have super powers, and that anybody could actually see a pellet flying from an air gun, providing that the conditions were correct.