Indians For Guns

Dear friends,

I am using this pistol since one year now and during the last one year, one of my shooter friends had graciously lent it to me for shooting the 50m free pistol discipline(we had agreed upon that I would buy the same once I will have my license). And yesterday, it became mine officially after it was transferred in my name by the local police station. YESSSSS! I got my first license in France yesterday only.

For the license part, it was butter smooth. I applied on the 3rd of January 2013. A cordial welcome by the officer in our local police station, no interrogation, no interview, no phone calls in between and the license was granted in February by the Police Commissioners office of our district (prefecture de police) when I was in India. A covert enquiry was surely done but I did not know anything of it. But the funny part is that I learnt yesterday only that while applying, I could have asked for 3 weapons at one go. But being a submissive Indian, I had asked for one only
For your information, long guns (except for semi automatic and automatic guns) do not need any license in France; the membership card of either the French Shooting Federation or the Hunting Federation suffices to buy as many long guns as one may wish . However, all types of historical replica muzzleloaders are sold freely across the counter against age, identity and address proof.

Now, here is my Hämmerli FP60, made in Switzerland before Walther took over the company. It has a 32cm long barrel with 6 grooves (a jewel!!! the original Hämmerli barrels were of superlative quality). The barrel is 14mm in diameter. The overall weight is below 1.1kg which makes it the lightest free pistol in the market. The trigger weight is adjustable from 10g to 100g. There is a Rink grip fitted to it. It was overworked by the seller. Hence, I had to also work a lot on it with the Opinel and ready made quick fixing wood paste. It is, alas, no more beautiful as it was earlier but who cares .

It has a hair trigger (please note the same just below the loading lever). This once engaged reduces the trigger weight to a desired weight between 10g to 100g. One can simply engage the hair trigger without cocking the gun (by pulling back the loading lever fully). This way, one can do dry firing without damaging the firing pin; just engage the hair trigger by pulling it down and press the trigger to release. Simple!!!

The sights are adjustable in all ways; lateral windage, vertical, both width and depth of the rear sight notch. The markings are also very simple to understand. Believe me, it is very important during a match; simplicity of sight adjustments. I have seen more than one who had clicked in the opposite directions out of stress during a match (on Morini and steyr) including me on a Toz 35 free pistol.

best regards
tirpassion

Congratulations on the purchase buddy, it looks like a real beauty, enjoy
/S

snIPer wrote:Congratulations on the purchase buddy, it looks like a real beauty, enjoy
/S

Thanks friend, it really is a piece of beauty .

Congratulations tirpassion!

Congrats!! Now you have given me an excuse to travel to France to check out your beauty!

by tirpassion » Fri Mar 29, 2013 5:23 am
Dear friends,

I am using this pistol since one year now and during the last one year & it became mine officially after it was transferred in my name by the local police station. YESSSSS! I got my first license in France yesterday only.

For the license part, it was butter smooth. A cordial welcome by the officer in our local police station, no interrogation, no interview, no phone calls in between and the license was granted in February by the Police Commissioners office of our district (prefecture de police) when I was in India.

Hi tirpassion,
> Mon Deiu mon cher
> Congrats mon ami
> It looks beautiful & am sure you'll enjoy many many happy years shooting it.
> Your handiwork with the Opinel is commendable

Briha

Looks like a laser gun from star trek:-):-). Congrtulations dada. A dumb question if I may. Why are competition firearms or air arms so radically different than conventional weapons. I mean improving on the accuracy is one thing, but why such a radical change in design?

Best Regards
Moin.

Tirpassion,
Congrats brother. From what you said when we met I knew this was coming. The pistol is a real beauty !!
Now let us wait for the other two pistols....

Take care

TC

PS: I am still waiting for THOSE photographs you promised me

The 50 m free pistol has very few rules and the pistols are made to give you the best possible accuracy. This is no more radical a design departure than a 50m rifle.
Every design element is incorporated to increase accuracy.
Conversantly, in real life, these pistols have no to negligible use. They are quite simply long distance paper punching machines!


Quite a lot like competition free rifles!

A hunting rifle/handgun will sacrifice a lot of features to be more robust, user friendly, and practical

Congrats on the acquisition tirpassion.
With the ban on military calibres in france, what are the popular calibres there?

Moin. wrote:Looks like a laser gun from star trek:-):-). Congrtulations dada. A dumb question if I may. Why are competition firearms or air arms so radically different than conventional weapons. I mean improving on the accuracy is one thing, but why such a radical change in design?
Best Regards
Moin.

Moin
> The same reason as to why 'Kitchen Knives' look different from 'Hunting / Survival Knives'
> You should see the difference between 'Sporting Rifles' & 'Match Shooting Rifles' - Most of them look like 'Contraptions' with several adjustable features & gizmos
> BTW the gear the match shooters wear makes them look like 'Moon Walkers'
> In other words in Sporting Rifles - It's shouldering / aiming / shooting - Whereas in 'Match Shooting' the movements are akin to the 'Ceremony' that precedes 'Sumo Wrestling' - the time taken to shoulder the weapon, aiming and shooting takes a whole lot of time.
> Hope you are sufficiently enlightened
> For further Gyan - you can invite me to a beer & sub-way sandwich session!
Briha

Dear Moin,

Arjun has said it all. The weapons are meticulously made with a fine adjustable trigger, adjustable sights etc. The grips are also to be finely adjusted to hand individually for better shooting accuracy. All these features make these weapons look so different. On the contrary, with a conventional weapon (handgun) you will never get the same accuracy as these guns at 50m when shot with one hand without support.
Arjun has rightly said that free pistols are in fact smaller rifles without the buttstock, with highly adjustable pistol sights incorporated in it and with a very fine trigger mechanism.

best regards
tirpassion

Conversantly, in real life, these pistols have no to negligible use. They are quite simply long distance paper punching machines!

Dear Arjun,

Personally, I shoot more on paper targets than in real life, so to say . So I prefer better paper punchers .
Although I am not a hunter, I have a .22LR hunting rifle at home and I have not even shot 500 shots with it in the last 6 years only because I have better paper punching machines. But it is at home in case... .

With the ban on military calibres in france, what are the popular calibres there?

The good news is on the way for all collectors and gun lovers (rifle shooters specially). A new law has been adopted in parliament and it will be in effect from September 2013. If I understood correctly, most of the military calibres and guns (barring assault rifles) will be available for civilians without special permit/license.
I heard that most of the hunters use the .222 Rem??? or .243 Winch???. There are lots of others; 7x65, 7x64, 7-08, 270W, .300 Winchester Mag, 7RM, 9.3 x 62, .338 Lapua Magnum etc. etc. I am sorry, I do not know anything about rifles and all these are Chinese to me . All the above caliber guns are available as of date without license/permit (you need to be a member and produce your French Shooting Federation or Hunting federation membership card/hunting permit; There are 1.4 million hunters in France. So you understand that it is not very difficult to have a hunter's permit) which I believe is a big advantage. When you become a member of a shooting club, you become automatically a member of the federation. Now more calibers will also be added to the shooters' pleasure.

best regards
tirpassion

tirpassion

Congratulations....

M.

Tirpassioin,

Looks very nice. Congratulations!


Best-
Vikram