Bang! Bang!

One fine sunny morning in February 2005, I headed to Subang Shooting Range for a shooting competition. Eventhough this was not the first time I ever held guns fully loaded with live bullets, I shivered uncontrollably. 

Greeted by a bunch of long time friends comprising of sharp shooters, police officers, bodyguards and frequent hunters I felt my fate was forecasted already. No way I could win this competition. Before we started with any event we were given the 4 rules of gun safety.

The 1st Law of Gun Safety - The Gun Is Always Loaded!

The 2nd Law of Gun Safety - Never Point A Gun At Something You’re Not    Prepared To Destroy! 

The 3rd Law of Gun Safety - Always Be Sure Of Your Target And What Is Behind It!

The 4th Law of Gun Safety - Keep Your Finger Off The Trigger Until Your Sights Are On The Target!

The competition started with the .38 Smith and Wesson Heavy Barrel. It is a revolver cartridge developed by Smith & Wesson in 1877 and uses a 148 grain (9.6 g) rounded nose lead bullet. Six small tables had been arranged in one line about 10 meters away from the target. Each one of us were asked to stand behind a small table. There, lying on each small table was a revolver. When the marshall blew the whistle we had only 5 seconds to pick the revolver up, aim at the target paper and pull the triger. Prit!Bang! Prit! Bang! Prit! Bang! After 5 shots, we inspected our targets. Hmmm… I had one shot that almost hit the bull’s eye, one that punched through in the black area, one that strayed outside the black area, and the last two that might have hit the birds. 

We proceeded to the second event, the Semi-auto 9mm Pistol (which was introduced in 1954). There were pistols on the small tables infront of us and we were asked to load the bullets into the magazines. The target papers were changed to new ones and placed 15 meters away from the tables. Again we were given 5 seconds to fire each shot. With an unsteady hand I aimed and pulled the triger. Prit! Bang! Prit! Bang! Prit! Bang! After 5 shots, I could see no sign of bullets found on the target. What a waste! 

The last event was the falling plate event for 8-bore pumpgun. So heavy and bulky the gun was, I thought I had grown some muscles after lifting it. The way of handling it was to place it perpendicular to your shoulder with your chest bent forward. The gun must be placed very firmly on your shoulder so that the impact when the triger was pulled would not hurt or bruise your body. Improper handling can sometimes be so hurtful. I managed to hit 5 out of 10 plates which made me the third winner.

I left the shooting range with a third-place medal in my hand and blue marks on my left shoulder.