Wednesday, September 12, 2007 Rama: Double tap (First of two parts) By Karlon N. Rama Stage Five
A COMPETITOR’S first encounter with a stage in a shooting match is a briefing that ends with a reminder—that among other things, all paper targets have to be shot at least twice.
In both IPSC and IDPA matches, the two most dominant competition formats in the entire “combat shooting” world, two shots hitting the “alpha” zone is the only way to gain the maximum 10-points assigned to a target.
A missed shot incurs a 10-point penalty regardless of where the other shot made impact. And forgetting to fire at the target twice incurs two penalties—a 10-point deduction for “failing to engage the target” and another 10-point minus for the miss.
Shooters have a term for firing two quick shots at a target: double tap. It’s apt and graphical enough to be quickly understood. Tap, tap.
I once asked another shooter the logic behind the two-shot rule and the answer I got was classic. “Anybody who deserves to be shot deserves to be shot twice.”
That you’re reading a Stage Five on a Wednesday is my version of the double tap and I’d like to thank Mike Limpag for the accommodation done on the month of this column’s birth four years ago.
Mail call. And what better way to kick off the maiden issue of our mid-week edition than by answering some selected emails?
From Joe Carvajal (jmcc458@-yahoo.com) of Mambaling, Cebu City: “I’m confused about .38 and .380 bullet. We know that .38 bullet is bigger than .380, but if we look at the vernier caliper or micrometer, there’s no difference between the two. If there’s no difference, then why is the .38 bigger than .380?”
Properly used, the word bullet only refers to that part of the cartridge that gets blown out the muzzle of the gun when fired.
As cartridges, the only similarity between the .38 special, which is mainly a revolver cartridge, and the .380 ACP, which is mainly a pistol round, is bullet diameter.
Both cartridges use bullets that measure .355 to .356 of an inch in diameter and tapers to .373 to .379 of an inch at the neck.
However, bullets for the .38 special and the .380 ACP don’t weigh the same. The approved bullet weight for a .38 special round is 110, 124, 125, 140, 145, 148, 158 and 160 grains. In the .380 ACP, factory-specification complaint bullets only come in 90 and 100 grains.
The revolver bullet is also longer than the pistol round although the length varies from one manufacturer to another.
Here is a bit of trivia. Other than the .38 special, the .380 ACP also shares the same bullet diameter as the .38 super (9x23mm), the .357 magnum, the .357 Sig, the 9mm (also known as the 9x19mm or the 9mm parabellum) and the 9x21mm, a round that is not widely popular here but is in parts Europe.
Assistant Cebu Provincial Prosecutor Jay Paradiang (jparadiang@yahoo.com) likewise dropped a line and he wants to know just how many firearms a private citizen can own.
“I was told that one could legally possess only one short and one long firearm. Adrian Tadena, Regional Intelligence Officer of the Witness Protection and Benefits Program, confirmed it to me. The exception is, according to him, if you are a gun club member. This is contained in Executive Order 256. I am trying to get hold of a copy of it. But if I recall it well, I once read in your column that there is no limitation as to the number of licensed guns you can keep. What is the rule in this matter?”
Lawyer and author Emmanuel Topacio, recognized as an authority on Philippine gun laws, cites Sec. 887 of the Administrative Code in arguing that there is no limit to the number of guns one can lawfully own. (to be continued)
