Wednesday, December 05, 2007 Rama: Going back to the basics By Karlon N. Rama Stage Five
IN SHOOTING, there is no such thing as too much of the basics. It is, after all, in the basics that the gun is purposely fired.
The so-called “advanced shooting course” is a misnomer. Lessons in this category cover what to do before a shot is fired—eed draw and flash sight-picture; and what to do in between shots—ansition and movement.
That a gun is fired in an advanced course is incidental only to the lesson and not the lesson itself.
Because to qualify for an advanced course, the gun owner’s skill must be that he or she can land shots exactly where intended, while expending the least amount of time. The gun owner must be able to display this level of proficiency on demand and be accurate 10 out of 10.
And since shooting is a perishable skill, a gun owner, even granting that he has reached a level where he can group his shots into one hole at distances of 15 yards, needs to go back to the basics after even the shortest period of range inactivity.
But even those shooters active in the competition circuit, shooters who see action on a weekly scale, return to their basics regularly. This is shown in the way they warm-up while practicing for a big match—dry fire the Bill Drill.
Dry firing, among other things, reinforces and refines the motor skills involved in the grip, stance, presentation and sight alignment. The Bill Drill, on the other hand, polishes trigger control and recoil management.
A gun owner who thumbs his nose on practicing the basics and says he has mastered it all, especially when even he can’t remember when he last had some practice, will never go far in shooting. It doesn’t matter if he owns an entire cache of guns in the basement.
101.9 CHARLIE CUP. So when Charlie FM president and Kapisanan ng mga Brodkaster ng Pilipinas (KBP) Cebu Chapter president Ed Abad came up with the idea of holding a basic shooting seminar for private gun owners, I was immediately on-board.
The seminar was to be supervised by Rey Abad, Chief Range Officer of the American Shooting Centers in Houston Texas and a USPSA-rated grandmaster-class shooter. The shooting session was to be held at the AFP Central Command Firing Range with the sponsorship of Kamagong Gun Club.
The seminar was carried out in two batches—Nov. 24 and 25 – and the closing exercise, a Philippine Practical Shooting Association (PPSA) sanctioned Level 1 match, was held last Sunday.
Obet Perero and Jun Liao, both of Kamagong, designed a six-stage course of fire with seminar participants, shooting firearms lent by Armscor, seeing action in four of them.
Shooters from Kamagong and the other gun clubs shot in all six and were grouped to form a separate division. There were a total of 87 entries though not everybody was able to complete the course because of rain.
The coveted 1st 101.9 Charlie Cup for the Tyro Group went to Rey Tomayao.
Medals went to the runners up who, in proper order, were Romy Kho, Ruben Hinagdanan, Edward Dampor, Jovito Lascuna, Arturo Alvarez, Warren Te, Oliver Romano and KBP’s Ed Abad.
The lone lady shooter in the Tyro Group, model Ira Custodio, walked home with the lady division trophy.
In the Pro Group, trophies were given in three divisions and five categories. In the Open/Modified Division, the championship trophy went to Cesar Ting while runners up trophies were given to Ric Bono and Ricky Buot.
In the Standard Division, Dino Cinco went home with the Cup as Yogie Javier, Nogie Biagan Benson Yu, Brandon Lariosa, Roger Uy, Arestil Famor and Warthin Degamo ran off with the runners up trophies.
Police shooter Lyndon Solatorio, competing for Kamagong and Team Roble Shipping, was the lawman category champion, while Steve Lim was the highest-scoring with a single-stack gun.
In the Production Division, the Cup went to Danny Torrevillas from Ormoc. The runners up were Keith Siao, Oliver Glodove, Dennis Panganiban of Kamagong, myself, Armscor’s Joel Concepcion, Casey Gun Club’s Jimmy Yu and policeman Cliff Ediza.
