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Monday, July 31, 2006
Rama: Women and shooting
By Karlon N. Rama
Stage five
STARES of disbelief are all I get whenever I tell people—of both sexes—that shooting is a feminine sport. It is.
In fact, a woman who has never touched a firearm in her life before, given a proper shooting lesson and a medium caliber handgun, will outshoot in target practice a man of the same background who took the same lesson.
I've seen this happen countless of times in the firing range. But if somebody wants and manages to prove me wrong, the next 100 rounds of reloads are on me.
The pickup rate is faster with women because they tend to focus on the process of shooting—stance, grip, sight picture, sight alignment, breathing, trigger control and follow through—and good shooting is simply a product of all these.
Men, on the other hand, just want to get their shots off.
About the only advantage men have over women as they start out in shooting is physique. Because of the male person's heavier build, he is less sensitive to recoil and can sprint faster.
But even this isn't established. Body mass differ and an athletic lady can outrun a potbellied Dick any given Sunday.
Likewise, this only matters in IPSC where shooters, excluding those in Production, are required to make Major. (IPSC competitions have five divisions and four require shooters to use ammunition that pass a given flooring rate.—Ed)
Shooting, according to one authority, is among the very few sporting events where women and men, when they finally get the process right, can compete on equal terms.
And for a woman walking in the dark, damp and dangerous streets of the real world, being on equal ground makes all the difference.
Justice league. The Kamagong Gun Club is hosting the 1st Lawyers, Judges and Court Employees Pistol Match on the 20th of next month at the AFP Central Command Firing Range.
The five-stage competition is sanctioned by the Philippine Practical Shooting Association (PPSA) and requires a minimum of 105 rounds to finish.
Courtesy of Armscor Shooting Centers, a sixth stage is being made available for court personnel who simply would like to try out shooting.
Trophies are up for grabs in the affair, said businessman Albert "Jun" Liao, who designed the course of fire that is now available at the forum section of the club's www.kamagonggun.org website.
There will only be two divisions—Standard and Production—but a total of five handsome championship trophies will be given away in the event.
Three will be for the highest-ranking shooters in the Standard, Standard-Tyro (beginners) and Standard-Senior categories, while the rest will be for the top guns in the Production, Production-Tyro, Production-Senior and Production Ladies matches.
Liao said the club will also give away first and second runners up trophies to shooters in the Standard, Standard-Tyro, Production and Production-Tyro match.
Stage Four, dubbed Hard Way, is a devilishly simple yet challenge-filled medium course requiring 24 rounds for 120 points.
Standing in a designated shooting box, a shooter is made to engage a string of targets composed of six pepper poppers are lined up in between two eight-inch round metal plates about 15 yards away.
Behind the six metal poppers, meanwhile, are six no-shoot penalty targets that, in turn, cover the lower part of four static targets that the shooter, after taking care of the metal targets, now need to engage.
The course is designed in such a way that a missed shot will land in a no-shoot penalty zone. To call the stage hard is an understatement.
Erratum. What a difference a word makes. In last week's piece, the third paragraph under the last subhead—the verdict—should have read: "But the Norinco was not far behind. Its tritium night-sight also made accurate shooting possible under ambient lighting."
The word "not" was inadvertently deleted when the piece was edited and nobody noticed the slip when the page was put to bed—our jargon for stories being readied for printing.
I woke to the ring of my mobile phone Monday morning, with Aldy Tanchan and Fred Ygnacio being among earliest few to point out the error. We were able to make corrections on the online version of the piece but nothing could be done to the copy already on the streets.
(knrama@gmail.com)
For Bisaya stories from Cebu. Click here. (July 31, 2006 issue)
Write letter to the editor.Click here.
Join the Sun.Star message board.Click here.
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