The rifle is an impressive piece of kit and one that requires you to lay flat on your stomach to operate it The bullets are vicious-looking projectiles and six of them are loaded into the chamber. As the instructor casually announces: 'Any lower and you'll probably just take his jaw off.' We're shooting at a regulation target, informally known as the Hun's Head, with the prime area marked by a circle in the middle of his face. The rifles are at least authentic, and first up is a Russian affair, which despite being around 100-years-old, apparently may have been used in World War II. The game is set during the final Soviet advance of Berlin during World War II, but we're going to have to settle for Suffolk. Ostensibly, we're here to recreate the action of Sniper Elite, the Rebellion-developed title recently snapped up by Ubisoft. Probably the only one without (human) blood on their hands is the farmer's wife who knocks up a beef stew while we await our turn at the firing range.

Even the old duffer at the gun club tells a story of shooting an Egyptian policeman in the head. It's advice that we strictly adhere to, but it's clear that pretty much everyone involved has seen action. As the man says: 'Don't ask us how many people we've killed and don't ask us what it's like to take a human life. It's the usual scenario: a bunch of ex-army sorts running corporate days for people who like to fire guns but aren't keen on the whole blood and death aspect.

As the identikit short angry man announces at the briefing: 'We don't do political correctness.' They certainly don't, and over the course of the day we're subjected to concepts and language rarely heard outside the confines of a 70s sitcom. It's just over an hour out of London, but it might as well be another century. I'm In A Field near Ipswich surrounded by cold-blooded killers.

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