Monday, March 03, 2008 Rama: Scattered facts of the scattergun By Karlon N. Rama Stage Five
LIKE the nineteen-eleven semi-automatic pistol, shotguns had its debut in military service at the hands of American troops, trying to make a headway in the thick jungles of Mindanao in the early 1900s.
The US Army, wrote Chris Bishop and Ian Drury in Combat Handguns, a 1987 publication of Chartwell Books Inc., found itself struggling against Muslim fighters in the Moro Rebellion of the Philippine-American War that young American soldiers tossed their Krag-Jorgensen rifles aside and wrote stateside, asking momma to send them their shotguns from home.
The guns, the firearms these same dough boys hunted dinner in the bushes with, turned out to be so effective that the US Army adopted one model, the 12-gauge five-shot Winchester 1897, for service use.
Designated as the M1897, the army brass took the pump-action shotgun and cut its single barrel to about 20 inches to make it even handier in the boonies and to keep intfrom catching in vines and branches.
With its relative success in the Philippines, the US Army fielded the M1897 when the United States entered World War I and used it in the trenches.
The gun, to suit the almost hand-to-hand fighting conditions in the mud, was given another modification—a lug from which to mount a bayonet.
World War II brought the shotgun back to the jungles. The M1897, this time, was given a new modification—a take-down feature for easier field-stripping and cleaning, a stronger stock and a tougher Parkerized finish.
The Viet Nam conflict again had the M1897 seeing action; alongside the Ithaca M37 and the Remington 870, the M10 and the M11.
Since the time of the M1897, little has changed in the basic design of the venerable scattergun.
Other than the loss of a visible hammer, much of the changes have to do with the materials used in the manufacture and to details of the mechanism.
Locally, shotguns are more commonly seen in the hands of blue-guards, its civilian deployment masking its capacity to serve a military purpose.
In the United States, however, they remain in the federal and state law enforcement arsenal ready for use in the middle of a crisis.
In efficiency in the defense of the home, the ubiquitous shotgun are second to none in the hands of a sufficiently trained wielder.
SCATTERGUN CHALLENGE. Shotgun shooters from all over the country will see action starting Wednesday, March 5, as the five-day first National Range Officers’ Institute (NROI) Nationals kicks off at the Cebu Pistol and Rifle Association (CPRA) Firing Range.
The shotgun match unfolds in four separate stages that require shooters to engage metal gongs as fast as they can while moving from one shooting position to the other.
The set-up reminds me of the shotgun competition in the Chief PNP Cup also held in CPRA last Jan. 28.
Stage One that requires the shooter to engage six metal plates from a distance of 10 to 15 meters from three shooting positions.
Prior to shooting, the competitor is asked to dip his hand on a cup placed behind him. The cup contains ping-pong balls each painted in one of two colors. He is then asked to hold on to one.
Upon start signal, the competitor first needs to determine the color of the ball he chose and then shoot the metal plate of the opposite color.
The rest of the stages proceed as a regular speed shoot.
Stage Two and Stage Four, for example, require shooters to engage a string of metal plates from different shooting positions.
Stage Three is worth mentioning separately.
The way the stage was designed forces the shooter to engage his targets using the weak shoulder to support the shotgun.
The first National Range Officers’ Institute Nationals, however, remains a pistol shooting event. As such, the match offers 15 stages of shooting action to any interested competitor.
