In the vast open fields, while the golden standing crops of wheat swaying in the breeze waved and beckoned these two visitors to come amongst their midst, their taller cousins - the fruit trees in the orchard, rained mulberries, betraying their apprehensions of a few hours to be spent together under their shade, by these two.
The 'open sighted' rifle made by the 'legendary' IOF was the only one available to test the skills. A Range Finder got the exact 100m firing distance and the boys took adequate care to check the backstop and make doubly sure that the high velocity bullets got buried into the mounds of oblivion with no possibility of ricochets. The slider of the rear sight was set to 100m in the hope that the IOF boneheads would have calibrated the gun and checked the accuracy accordingly, before delivery. A one by one and a half foot of florescent chart paper with a moderately sized leaf taped to its centre was designed to make a quick make-shift field target. It worked well as the leaf looked like the bull in the centre, except for its non-consequential oblongish curves.
First shot - BOOOOM and suddenly all the cattle started mooing and baying, having been rudely woken from their early afternoon nap; the beings of the feathered kind showed their displeasure with a lot of commotion, gossip and exit. The two or three 'jhadu-wallas' (read peacocks - they carry a broom like cluster behind them !) who were eyeing us suspiciously, also took off, refusing to be witness to unnatural activities that shattered the otherwise peace and quiet. Luckily there were no wolves around, especially ones that come in the khakhi clothing !! And as for the shot, well.... no where on paper !!! It was a flyer ! First thoughts - find excuses for missing the paper. Conclusion - maybe that age was taking its toll and the unsteady hands had lived past their useful life... The second one tried his luck on the same settings. BOOOM... and a second flyer... unbelievable ! What a shame - can't even hit the board and trying for a competition !?
But refusing to give up, and a Bore Sighter too rich for their blood, the boys tried the desi (read Indian) way to identify the problem. They opened and removed the bolt, rested the rifle on the first available bag and peeped through the bore to compare the alignment of the sights - through the bore and through the irons. Out came the fault - total misalignment - look here, see there and go where ! The rear sight calibration of the IOF's best product, was all bull shit. While the slider of the rear sight works, the IOF jerks apparently never zero the gun on the marked settings. So squatting at 100m and setting the gun's rear sights at 100 mark setting, the shot would go a clean 15-18" high....
Now confident of rectifying the problem, the boys pulled back the slide of the rear sight to mid-way and peeped through the barrel again to check if the two 'sights' met at the target. Yes, they did this time. The next couple of shots and a peep through the Spotting Scope, proved it so... dead on !!
But by now the caution (of holding the rifle firmly) had given way to jubilation. The younger of the two boys in the enthusiasm let off a 180 gr Sellier & Bellot round without the butt of the gun nesting firmly in the shoulder and lo, the gun unveiled itself to be some kind of a reincarnated mule ! It kicked back and up on the cheek and boy promptly laid it back with a grunt and a volley of curses ! Seems the dickheads at IOF never fire the guns they produce, else they'd realise that the cheap black plastic they call a butt pad, isn't even worth its name. Lesson - throw out the factory stuff and get a Pachmeyer or its clones instead !
A few rounds and Some time later, with bruised shoulders and a battered spine, the boys thought they had had enough. The shooting gala, like a magnet, had attracted many two-legged creatures - tall and short, who stared on with their bewildered looks, and murmuring amongst themselves - their own assessment of the unprecedented situation they were witnessing. It was thought best to disappear from there, before the few became a crowd !
Would the boys shoot at the Big Bore Competition of April/May ? No, not this time and certainly never before the rifle was made a 'match rifle' with its much required modifications.... or else the services of an orthopaedic with a stretcher would be necessitated... The next competition, YES, very much so... !!
Short of the journey back home, it was the time for the revolvers, brothers-in-arms, also from the same IOF stable. The chart paper again proved handy and was propped up with sticks. A rough pen-sketch resembling a de-natured human (Ajmal Kasab in mind ?) was drawn and left to be brought down with a volley of hot lead. The younger of the boys offered to take out the 'upper storey' while the elder of the two, offered to puncture the torso with a generous amount of lead in the groin so as to provide a free open vasectomy. Ofcourse, the cheeks of the younger still hurt - which showed on the target as well (most of his shots grouped at the cheek) !! How many rounds were expended ? Sorry - no count... !!
A couple of cokes and some fruit ended the boys' day out. Fun it was...
Some pictures that tell the storey :
Apologies for any inadvertent errors...
