Wednesday, September 14, 2011

A DAY AT THE RANGE

I AM A GUNLESS SOCIETY advocate but, at the same time, I teach people how to use guns. I may sound like an oxymoron and that I am. If you have another word for it, you may call me such. I don't care.

I have gun skills that have lain inert for some time and that skill is going to be used in the furtherance of my advocacy. The time has come for it to be imparted to other people provided that the principles of a gunless society are also discussed before the actual basic firing is even started so the participants could recognize the destructive power of guns.

An opportunity knocked on April 3, 2011. Security officers and office staff of a well-known local security agency availed of my services to conduct a Basic Gun Safety and Firearms Proficiency Training in a remote firing range south of Cebu City. I introduced the participants to the most fundamental points of gun safety; identification of basic gun parts and its main accessory – the cartridge round; general gun terms; the laws that regulate its proliferation; and the main government agencies tasked to enforce gun laws and its regulation, licensing and permits.

Then my lecture moved on to the “dominant hand and the dominant eye” principle; the different shooting stance; proper sight adjustment; breathing techniques; and how or when to squeeze the trigger. At the firing range, I assumed the role of range warden and refreshed the firers the basic gun-safety rules before the first participant came forward to grip a gun.

The course I designed is so simple and very basic and applies to both male and female. Five rounds for a firing stance at 10 meters distance with weak hand supporting dominant hand shooting a caliber .38 revolver; another five rounds for a firing stance at 5 meters distance with only the dominant hand firing a revolver. Same styles are repeated, this time with a 9-millimeter pistol at five rounds each.

Revolvers used were an Armscor 220, a Rexio Jaguar and a WORLD-MPC Lapulapu; 9-mm pistols were an Armscor GI 1911 and a FEG Kassnar. Ammo fired were reloads from a firearms trading store located in Salinas Drive, Cebu City. All five female and nine male fired twenty rounds each for both types of gun or ammunition. The activity ended at 4:30 PM after all nine male firers fired two buckshot rounds each from an Armscor Buddy 20 pump-action shotgun from 7 meters distance.

I also have my day testing all the firearms on use to include a palm-sized single-action RG caliber .22 revolver, a BUL Cherokee 9-mm pistol and a Colt Mark IV caliber .45 pistol. For a scale of one to five, I rate the following according to its easy operation and feel, mechanism design, recoil and target consistency:

      Armscor 220, Caliber .38, Revolver, Philippines 3.5
      Rexio Jaguar, Caliber .38, Revolver, Argentina 2.0
      WORLD-MPC Lapulapu, Caliber .38, Revolver, Phils. 0.5
      RG, Caliber .22, Revolver, Germany 0.5
      Armscor GI 1911, 9-mm, Pistol, Philippines 3.8
      FEG Kassnar, 9-mm, Pistol, Hungary 4.5
      BUL Cherokee, 9-mm, Pistol, Israel 5.0
      Colt Mark IV, Caliber .45, Pistol, USA 5.0
      Armscor Buddy 20, 12-gauge, Shotgun, Philippines 4.5

However, the rounds used during testing (except for the shotgun) were reloads and old ammo stock and that make operation of the above firearms very complicated and subjecting these to extreme mechanical vulnerabilities beyond what most are designed for.

It feels good to fire a gun again and I noticed that the holes I make on the cardboard targets are tight as was the time I last leave them many years ago. Some habits die hard so they say. I must admit it has stayed except the guns. I don't own one.

Document done in OpenOffice 3.3 Writer

5 comments:

Christina said...

I've never held a gun. Even the sight of it scares me :-/ but I'd like to try to shoot at least once in my lifetime. Hah! Where in Cebu can I find firing ranges? And how much do they usually cost?

PinoyApache said...

There are many firing range in Cebu. What would you fire at when you don't have a gun? Anyway, I could arrange one on loan and the cost you will find it in your email. :-)

lancealmekian said...

how's did the rexio jaguar hold up? i see you gave it a 2 out of 5. i think that particular model here in manila costs somewhere in the Php 8,000 to Php 9,000 range. do you think it's worth the money? also i read reviews of some spanish web forum translated via google, and the jaguar didn't get any positive feedback, they say the chamber is made of alloy and thus easily cracks open. what do you think?

more power to your blog. i'll follow your posts. :)

PinoyApache said...

First of all, thank you for visiting my blog.

The Rexio Jaguar is very cheap, true. It is made in Argentina by Rexioarms. Its frame is made of alloy but it has tempered steel cylinder and thin shim of steel inside the firing chamber. Another chip of steel is wedged above the cylinder.

Its mechanism is far from perfect. It is hard to squeeze if you happen to have small hands and you have to open the hammer to fire comfortably. You cannot slack the hammer like most popular revolvers do.

Besides, chips of lead fly away from the wide gap between cylinder and firing chamber and could cause eye accidents.

It is very heavy and its grip is not fitted perfectly. The screw that secures the swivel arm of the cylinder unscrew itself every time you open it until such time that it would fall without you knowing.

I hope my observations with this revolver would satisfy your curiosity. Have a good day!

lancealmekian said...

thank you for the speedy reply. i really appreciate it.

i love how detailed your review is. i think this is the very first real review of the rexio jaguar. now i won't have to buy one and make a review myself (i've been seriously contemplating about it).

i was ready to overlook everything but when i read that the screw that locks the crane unscrews itself everytime you release the cylinder, well, it made the decision-making bit easier. i just can't buy this gun. :D

looking forward to reading more of your shooting sessions, sir. thanks and more power to your blog.