Monday, September 15, 2008 Rama: Outgunning Dino By Karlon N. Rama Stage Five
I WAS not able to attend the Mamang Pulis Single Stack and Revolver Classic, which closed last Sept. 7, owing to things that needed to be done at the office, as well as my wife’s emergency surgery.
However, I received a call from Cebu Pistol and Rifle Association director Roger Uy who reported that Dino Cinco, that dynamite of a shooter who hails from Guadalupe, Cebu City, beat all comers in the Standard Division of the event that had entries from parts of Luzon and Mindanao.
Moreover, Roger said, Dino also outgunned all other competitors in the parallel shooting tournament that CPRA hosted on the day the classic match closed.
Undoubtedly, Dino is the best shooting athlete Cebu has produced in recent years.
Given the right break and backers, he will hold his own against the best the rest of the country has to offer, and may win all the way to the World Shoot.
For some reason though, he hasn’t been as active in the shooting circuit.
The last major competition I saw him join was the Philippine National Police Alumni Association Inc. match held, also in CPRA, last June. He shot the event using a single-stack pistol, his first time to do so, and promptly went home with the Single Stack champion trophy.
Also, despite having shot the match with an eight-round per magazine handicap, he still emerged third in the Standard Division’s overall standings.
The Mamang Pulis Single Stack Classic and the parallel tournament CPRA hosted was his next competition after that—a two-month hiatus.
Dino shot with an STI Trojan 1911 pistol in .45 cal. that came paired with eight-round magazines from Wilson Combat.
Almost all others who competed against him in the CPRA match, all of them he beat fair and square, were shooting high-capacity guns chambered for the smaller and less-recoiling .40 cal.
Talk about skill. I’ve watched Dino in the range since 2003. He was still seeing action in the Open Division, with those race guns that come complete with red-dot sights and ear-splitting compensators, and was already making waves, outgunning people twice his twice his size, twice his age, and twice his experience.
In 2006, he picked up a .40 cal. pistol from Para-Ordnance, and began competing with the big boys in the Standard Division. His first big match in the Standard Division was the 3rd Gov. Lyndon Barbers Cup held in Surigao City. He landed first in the event and quickly established that he was the person everybody else would have to beat.
And he has shown that he is still the person to beat. Will shooting handicapped by the limited capacity of a single stack pistol make it easier? Only time will tell.
E-MAIL. I was very happy to find in my inbox, Thursday, a message from distinguished shooting instructor Rob Pincus (vscrob@msn.com), who wrote to express his appreciation on the article we printed here (June 23, 2008) to review his Combat Focus Shooting method of armed self-defense.
Rob, who formerly headed the Valhalla Training Center in Colorado but who now runs the I.C.E. Training Company, travels frequently to teach his shooting method to law enforcement people and civilians alike.
Thanks for taking time to e-mail, Rob.
PERSONAL. My wife, Ann, checked out of the Perpetual Succor Hospital, where she was confined for a few days last week, and is now at home recuperating. My heartfelt thanks go out to those in the hospital’s staff, Drs. Rogelio “Pars” Kangleon and Bede Ilano most of all, who took very good care of her.
Likewise, thank you to those who prayed with me for her quick recovery and to those who went out of their way to send words of encouragement—Pastor Boy Baguio, Engr. Frederick Ygnacio, Simon Cinco, Tinni Macachor, who celebrated his birthday yesterday, Andy Chua, whose dad also just got out of the hospital, Jade Ponce, whose wife is expecting a baby really soon, John Melendres, whose wedding I was sadly not able to attend, Dr. Manny Barcenas, who is always just a phone-call away, and those others space in this ink-stained sheets no longer permit me to name.
In my family’s time of need, you made me feel not alone and that everything was going to be all right.
