Monday, November 06, 2006 Rama: Of long shots and out-of-town games By Karlon N. Rama Stage five
BEING asked to engage targets located at distances will trouble most people taking shooting classes at the range. But the feat isn’t as difficult as it appears.
While it is true that accurate and consistent shots are easier to make on targets located 10 yards away as opposed to on targets set 20 meters away, physics says the level of sighting and control needed to accomplish the former is about the same required in performing the latter.
Bullets from a properly held firearm, after all, travel at a straight line within the effective range of the caliber. The only difference is that targets set at a distance appear smaller than those set midway.
Thus, if a shooter can shut out the perception of distance and the illusion of the difficulty and maintain proper stance, grip, control and sight alignment, faraway shots will be troublesome no more.
A target set-up that shooter and instructor Adrian Tadena designed for friends at a fellowship lunch at the Front Sight Gun Club yesterday proved this point somewhat.
The set-up had three strings but could be accomplished from two shooting positions. In one position, a shooter is made to take down a standard-sized metal plate set 15 yards from the charge line. And in the other, the shooter is presented with the head of a metric target also located 15 yards away.
Shooters took the metal plate down with ease at 15 yards but, faced with the 15 yard head-shot, many opted to sacrifice a few seconds more to their time and run to a third shooting position that brought them 10 yards closer to the target. The head of a metric target measures 15x10 centimeters and is smaller than a standard round plate, which is 20 centimeters in circumference.
Buglasan. Over a hundred sport shooters from all over Cebu and the rest of the Visayas trooped to peaceful Dumaguete City the other week to take part in the annual Buglasan Invitational, a Philippine Practical Shooting Association (PPSA) sanctioned shootfest.
The five-stage event, hosted by the Dumaguete Shootists Association (DSA), is part of the Buglasan Festival of Negros Oriental Province.
The competition offered action in five divisions - Standard, Production, Open, Modified and Revolver - and handed out awards for the top-scoring contenders in each category. Special awards were likewise given to the highest scoring junior, senior, super-senior and lady shooter, as well as the top three shooters in the Standard Division that competed using single-stack pistols.
It was a superbly organized match with a course of fire that was intensely challenging while enjoyable. The opening stage featured all metal targets reminiscent of the steel challenge events that used to be the rage. Shooter Paulo Rojas of Bacolod City topped the Standard event, outgunning 77 other contenders in the division.
Francis Arada, a newcomer by way of the host club, landed in the second spot followed by Bob Anglo and Josever Somaylo. Steve “Tiba” Lim of Cebu, Jerry Las of Bacolod City and shooters Noel Udani and Filomino Lim, for their part, walked away with the special awards for the single-stack subcategory.
In the Production event, shooters from Cebu made a clean sweep beginning with Lyndon Solatorio, shooting for Kamagong Gun Club and Roble Shipping, in first place. Atty. Ismael Trinidad, who had been shooting revolvers in prior competitions, took second place followed by Manuel Tan of NS Shooting Range in Mandaue City.
In The Open division, the top spot went to Inno Solon of the host club, followed by Lito Ladroma of the Casey Gun Club in Lapu-Lapu City. The third spot again went to the host club courtesy of the quick-shooting Rae Solon. Gaga Canonigo posted the highest score in the Modified division but the category didn’t attract many contenders.
Cebu City posted back-to-back wins in the Revolver category courtesy of Christopher Panes and Benjun Herbias of the Cebu City Police Office.
In the special division Lady championship trophy went to Maria Victoria Gonzales while the junior trophy went to Paul Arnel Inoferio.
Lito Ladroma was the highest scoring senior shooter in the match but it was Napoloen Oracion who scored the highest in terms of points from among those who had the highest in terms of age.
