Exploring Okanagan Valley BC, with fellow IFGian

[xl_target]

Kalyan,
This is great! What a trip.
Baljit and his family's hospitality is incredible. After living away for so many years, I tend to forget how hospitable we Indians actually are.
So you finally got your wish and found out how to load ammo. Looking forward to the range photos.


Baljit,
That is a beautiful area that you and your family live in. You are indeed a lucky man.

[Vikram]

Baljit and his family's hospitality is incredible. After living away for so many years, I tend to forget how hospitable we Indians actually are.

+A million.

[Baljit]

Baljit and his family's hospitality is incredible. After living away for so many years, I tend to forget how hospitable we Indians actually are.



Baljit,
That is a beautiful area that you and your family live in. You are indeed a lucky man.

Thank's xl , what can i say , we are far from homeland but no matter where we are after all we are Indians.


Baljit

-- Fri Sep 16, 2011 9:30 am --

+A million.

Thank's vikram

Baljit

[ckkalyan]

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Day 4 = Mon 12th Sep:
Day at the range 1pm to 6 pm

Video at:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KnDQ4f0R ... e=youtu.be

Images at
https://picasaweb.google.com/ckkalyan/E ... directlink

Baljit along with his son Sunny and I got together for a fun filled day playing with Baljit’s Toys (Khilona in Kelowna). The venue was the very venerable Kelowna and District Fish and Game Club (KDFGC), of which Baljit is a life member and appointed Range Officer.

This is one of the oldest clubs in British Columbia (Est. 1904). I was very impressed by their security systems at the entrance. Just tap your membership card on the console beside the gate and you get logged in and the gate opens. You do the same thing in order to leave the facility and you get logged out. This way the club has a track of time-in, period of stay and time-out of each of their members. Once you enter you can pay for a guest member all on your own, on a simple, manual, envelop deposit box system – there was no one in sight while we accomplished all this. Guest member fee is CA$ 15/- for the day.

The club is situated in large premises (several acres in size – I am not sure exactly how many) ringed by wire fence with warning boards “Danger Rifle Range” placed at regular intervals on the perimeter. Besides a state of the art indoor range the club boasts outdoor ranges for Trap and Skeet, Silhouette, (ISSF), air and target pistol, IPSC, and Archery. They also have 100 and 200-yard rifle ranges as well as a shotgun range.

For more details of the club visit http://www.kdfgc.org/

The objective of the visit was making noise, having fun with the selected guns and getting one’s rocks off!

The day turned out to be a real scorcher and along with the large number of ammo boxes we emptied, we also ended up draining several bottles of Dasani Water!

Most of the weapons were a first for me. I had some anxious moments identifying the features of each weapon before firing as I had so many to familiarize with and enjoy in such a short time. Just looking at the weaponry lined up reminded me of Irene Cara’s song ‘What a feeling…’ in the movie “Flashdance”

Guns selected for firing on the range were as follows:

50 Yard Rifle Bay:
* M14, 7.62 NATO or 308 – macho, kick-ass rifle, tons of attitude!
* M1-30 Carbine – brought back fond memories of firing my dad’s weapon aeons ago. Since it had no scope, I was very comfortable with it. I guess it takes a long time to get used to peering through scopes and figuring out what you are looking at. Wearing prescription glasses does not help!
* Russian SKS 7.62x39 – ditto as the M14 – very macho rifle
* SR22 in 22LR – great fun, very fast - amazing how quickly one can empty a 25 round magazine, wonderful for plinking (though I never got a chance to hit any cans – my favorite target)

100 Yard Rifle Bay:
* Remington 700 SPS Varmint in 5.56 NATO or 223 Rem.
I truly enjoyed myself with this lovely weapon, so easy to aim and fire from a bench and achieve reasonable success, with the right ammo, for a first timer on such a scoped weapon. The first set of 5’s was pretty good grouping. The second set with the American Eagle Ammo – well you can see for yourself on the target – huge difference! Low recoil, fine trigger

Target images of Baljit (ammo testing and finalizing), Kalyan and Sunny uploaded.

25 Yard Shotgun Patterning Range:
* Remington 870 Express Magnum, 12 GA Pump Action Shotgun, capacity 7 + 1.

Very smooth easy recycling action, fires great from the hip too. Kicks like a mule at the shoulder (Ouch - I still have the bruises to prove it)! Fantastic feeling of authority to have a fully loaded pump action shot gun in your hands – it really can blow a hole clean through a solid door jamb! On close examination of the shell - I was astonished at how shot shell technology had progressed since the days of my simplistic, crimped, cardboard tubes.

25 Yard Handgun Range:
* Para Ordinance 16.40 in 40 S&W – felt very powerful, seems like it can decimate any target, needs a steady arm and firm grip, kicks a bit and takes longer to bring back to level
* Para Ordinance LDA in 40 S&W – same as above
* GSG 1911 in 22LR (firing impression for XL - very light trigger, low recoil, fun to shoot and very fast...although need to allow for full trigger release before depressing again – smooth rhythm can be gained with practice)
* Smith & Wesson 38 Special – I love revolvers, so dependable and simple to bring into use – completely enjoyed letting off steam with this weapon.

My bonus for the day was that I got to meet a real star - Nick King; Baljit made the intros and I was thrilled to bits. Nick is four-time Canadian IPSC (International Practical Shooting Confederation) Champion and thirteen-time BC champion. Nick is scheduled to attend the IPSC world shoot as part of the 32 member Canadian Team in three weeks in Greece. He was on the range practising hard that day.

Overall we all had a great time…..unforgettable experience for me!

[Sakobav]

Ckalayan Great travelogue thanks for photos..Baljit and his family is remarkable host and you guys had a great time..Kelowna is a gods country and Baljit is lucky to live in such a place..

Thanks for sharing

Cheers

[Vikram]

Kalyan & Baljit,

That was an awesome range time. So many toys to play with.You guys are lucky.But,luckier to have found a good friend in each other.

Once again, many thanks for sharing these good times with us.


Best-
Vikram

[Baljit]

Thank's guy's, ngrewal and Vikram.

Baljit

[prashantsingh]

Wow.
Amazing.
Here we have a guy originally from Punjab who has lived all his life in Canada , and one from Bangalore who has spent most of his time (working) in the middle East .
Men from two very different parts of India.
Men who would call themselves Punjabi /Kannadiga when in India.
Men who have taken out time from their (otherwise) busy schedule to meet each other and have a great time together.
Men who share common interests.
Men far away from their motherland.
United by one forum.......
I.F.G.
An example of National Integration for all our Netas to follow .

[winnie_the_pooh]

Punjabi hospitality at it's best.But then it invariably is

[xl_target]

Thanks a lot, you two.
Great narration and photos. Enjoyed the entire post very much.

[dr.jayakumar]

this is what you call''living in paradise''.

[kanwar76]

Nice..

[Baljit]

My deer friend Prashant,
what can i say , i can say only one thing i wish you are with us then we can spend a night in the jungle and have a fun in jungle like we all ways said ( jungle me mangle ) . i am so thank full to all the member who like this post and i wish to have a good time with other fellow IFGain.
From bottom of my heart many thank's goes to ckkalyan who pen down this thing.

Baljit

[Katana]

Cheers to your friendship!

[Peashooter]

Kalyan, I wish you find a spot and settle in the Okanagan. Nature is your atmosphere, don't get into the razzle dazzle of the city. Someday me too.