Monday, October 23, 2006
Rama: Practice 101
By Karlon N. Rama
Stage five
MOST gun owners go to the Firing Range to blast off at designated targets until either all their ammo is gone or their gun turns red-hot. They call it practice.
Competitive shooters call this “spraying and praying.” And I must admit that it is highly entertaining. But this is most definitely not practice because the shooter has learned nothing from it except, perhaps, that guns go bang.
Practice, for competitive shooters, is a series of drills that may or may not even involve live ammunition. Dry firing is the most basic of all drills but many shooters swear that it can be the most helpful. Guns used here are not loaded. Thus, it can be performed at home.
In dry firing, a practitioner repeatedly goes through the process of drawing the firearm (from its holster, from a drawer, from a table top, etc.), making the presentation, sighting and pressing the trigger.
There are one-handed draw and fire exercises as well as dry fire variation that involve loading and reloading the gun with empty magazines.
The intent is developing muscle memory for the purpose of building consistency. Shooters like Chito Hernandez, Dino Cinco, Lito Ladroma, Roy de los Santos, Yogi Javier, for example, all make dry firing a part of their daily regimen. In fact, they dry fire more than they discharge their firearms.
Another very helpful shooting exercise is the Bill Drill, as developed by shooter turned gunsmith Bill Wilson. It is a live fire exercise. Therefore it can only be done in the range.
This drill involves a shooter, from surrender position, drawing his gun and firing six shots at a target located seven yards away as rapidly as possible. All shots must be placed in the “A zone.” Any shots landing elsewhere are counted as misses.
The intent, however, is not only landing all shots in the designated target area but to land all the shots in a much tighter group until, eventually, all shots are placed within a half-inch circumference.
The point of the exercise is to learn to shoot fast without sacrificing accuracy by learning to acquire and maintain sight alignment despite the recoil characteristics of sustained fire.
Asean League. The results of the five-day Asean League Championships, which culminated at the Cebu Pistol and Rifle Association (CPRA) have finally been released.
My friends Joe Montalvan and Simon Cinco separately emailed me copies of the results in PDF last Oct. 16 but, since Stage Five only comes out on Mondays, publication had to wait a week.
The performance of Filipino shooters during the competition was simply unbelievable.
France’s Eric Grauffel, as reported last week, won in the Open Division. But Filipino shooters – Jag Lejano, Stephen Hinojales, Lyndon Biraogo, Michael Ku, Carlos Panganiban, Mathew Cay, Kenneth Agustin, and Blairwin Ortega – took the second until the ninth spot. The only other non-Filipino to make it to the top ten was Thailand’s Wat Srijintaanggul.
There were 89 shooters from nine shooting regions - Thailand, Singapore, Hong Kong, Macau, Malaysia, Japan, the United States, France and the Philippines in that event. In the Standard Division, only one non-Filipino made it to the top 15 of 232 hopefuls.
The top spot belonged to Nelson Uygongco, followed by Edward Rivera, Wilfredo “Tootsie” Anglo, Kaewmuangpet Narongsak of Thailand, Benjie Belarmino, Roderick Cordero, Dino Cinco of Cebu, John Christopher Gotamco, Ed Martin, Rosendo Castro, Michael Lontoc, Bernardo Alejandro, Alvin de Luna, Raul Tolentino and Anthony Sy.
In the Production Division event, it was a clean sweep in the top 10 of 171. Emil Jardeleza clinched the top spot, followed by Leonardo Gino Jr., Ormoc, Danny Torrevillas, Benjie Siana, Cebu’s Dino Ang, Alex Lao, Wilcito Bayan, Adonis Rosales, Fernando Gonzaga and Arnel Ariate.
A similar sweep also transpired in the Modified Division event, with 27 contenders vying for the top 10 spots. Christopher Panganiban posted the highest hit factor followed by Rico Papa, Harold Paylago, Ramiro Alcantara Jr., Louis Panaguiton, Warnel Dellota, Eric Sardan, Joel Tan, Rene Maglasang and Louis Young.
And in the revolver event, shooters flying the Philippine colors were the dominating force.
The top spot belonged to Philip Chua, followed by the Cebu City Police Office’s Christopher Panes. Thailand’s Cholatit Chonboonyadej came in third, followed by Cebuano shooters Julius Legaspi, Jimmy Yu, Renante Cabasag, Carlos “Caloy” Antiligando, Sara Jean Recla, Manny Cruz and Ed Capangpangan.
(knrama@gmail.com)
For Bisaya stories from Cebu. Click here. (October 23, 2006 issue)
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