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In a divided province, how do guns fit into Saskatchewan life? A Regina Leader-Post and Saskatoon StarPhoenix multi-part series investigates. Read our full coverage here

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CYPRESS HILLS AREA — Mathew Bohnet lies prone in a field of tall grass as he peers into the scope of a .22-250 calibre rifle.

He’s looking for a steel gong target at the base of a hill, some 300 yards away.

At 12 years old, Bohnet is honing skills passed down through the generations on this family farm in cattle country, where learning how to use a gun is considered as essential as learning to drive a tractor.

His father Randy cautions the boy to remember the wind is coming from the left, meaning the bullet will drift right. The key, he says, is to feel the wind on your cheek. Fire when the gust dies down.

The first shot echoes through the valley on Randy’s land in the Cypress Hills.

It’s a miss.

Randy tells Mathew he was dead even — but too high. The bang of the next shot is followed a fraction later by the clang of the bullet hitting the gong.