On the wings of skepticism

Post by **dev** » Mon Mar 17, 2008 12:32 pm

This year I made a bet to myself, not just this year but since the last two years. My goal was to discover how rocky is the path to being a shooter in the current scenario.
The trick was not to grease palms use connections etc. in other words to be like the normal jhonny on the street who has his eyes set on the X ring or the clay.

It has been a strange ride, I began by competing in air pistol and quickly learnt that yes it is a doable sport atleast around Delhi. The Siri fort complex has the air rifles, pistols and gas and air that you need. So without even importing an air rifle or pistol you can shoot your socks off till you hit the mark that you desire. This chapter has improved even more thanks to the enlightened govt. allowing the import of .177 duty free.

So I decided to move to the cartridge or firearm level. To begin you have to be a member of the Dr.Karni Singh range, its a 'catch 22" situation cause to join you have to have a firearms license. Okay since I have my humble .22 license I decided to make a go for it. We have spent several weekends just shooting for fun and blowing up our own ammo. Now, we in our group decided okay lets compete in something and so .22 prone ISSF it was. This weekend I discovered I still couldn't hit the broadside of a barn with iron sights (Mack The Knife I can hear ye chuckling), all right blame was quickly passed to the non-match nature of the Marlin etc and so we went and got our hands on an Anshutz .22 rifle. Cost of hire is Rs 20 per hour, pretty fair so far but there were three or four of us with two rifles and eighteen bullets. So we think," happy times" since we are DSRA members we can buy cartridges at the range. And so high on the smell of Stingers we get to the armoury.

Here is where the fun begins the DSRA rep ain't coming cause he says that there is no ammo and puts the blame squarely on the NRAI. So we sing ,"Hopeless romantics here we go again...Jhonny come lately..." And then the range in-charge informs us that the President of the DSRA is at the skeet range. So feeling like Lobsang Rampa when he is under his Lama's tutelage we hike over to Mr. Bedi.

Spying us he leaves what he is doing and ambles our way. We talk about the sad state of affairs and he informs us about his plans for the DSRA. Lot of good ideas that I shall write about next. In between I look at the lucky guys breaking clays and comment," That looks like fun." Mr. Bedi reacts like I had touched a common chord, he says that it is fun and inquires whether we had experienced it ever. Since we sadly sighed," Once maybe..." He springs into action.

Urging us to follow him he takes his own ammo and shotgun and takes all of us to a station. Here he coaches me on what to do and lets me have the gun, I holler pull and just see the orange disc and without realising it pull the trigger. Damn! I dusted that bird pretty good. Getting pumped by Mr. Bedi I try another one and miss. I confess that my eyes had wandered off the target. Anyway then Ollie gets a try and dusts one bird and misses the next. Then Nishant steps up to the plate and does us proud. He shatters both the birds.

We leave after thanking Mr. Bedi and walk to the .22 range. Sadly, OUP and Sid were left doing dry fires with the .22. I am still bowled over by the kindness I had experienced. There definitely is something to this sport, it reveals both the good and the bad side of the organization. So I am going to research this some more heck will prolly try what Mundaire had been suggesting all along ," Lets go bust some clays and have fun, screw the MQS."

Sid_kapur30 · Post by **Sid_kapur30** » Mon Mar 17, 2008 3:10 pm

It was fun (barring the part that literally made me loose my hearing for a day)

Here are some pics
http://i266.photobucket.com/albums/ii26 ... C00103.jpg
http://i266.photobucket.com/albums/ii26 ... C00098.jpg
http://i266.photobucket.com/albums/ii26 ... C00097.jpg

After actually firing i have decided to get my membership and rifle/shotgun -

thanks a ton dev, anupam, and olly it was one hell'va day

Cheers
Sid

p.s. olly i'm gonna tame that devil

Post by **Mack The Knife** » Mon Mar 17, 2008 4:26 pm

dev";p="40469 wrote:Urging us to follow him he takes his own ammo and shotgun and takes all of us to a station. Here he coaches me on what to do and lets me have the gun...

Unfortunately, there aren't too many of his kind in India now. The prevalent attitude is "I, Me, Mine". You'll actually realise what I mean when you go for a major comp. Then you will be able to distinguish between the gentlemen and true sportsmen from the gong hunters and guttersnipes.

Post by **dev** » Mon Mar 17, 2008 4:56 pm

True Rusty...this gent made me remember what it was like some twenty years ago. And the best part is that the .22 lr ammo is almost extinct in Delhi. The great IOFB hasn't felt the need to manufacture any. The option left is expensive phoren rounds. I'll try for another week or so and maybe go back to AP, Tim has a Baikal 46m ready for me. Yeah I reserved it already and am waiting to have it shipped home.

Dev

OverUnderPump · Post by **OverUnderPump** » Mon Mar 17, 2008 5:29 pm

Yep, it was a mixed day. But we had fun, no denying that. Reality did hit me bang in the face, like the hot dusty wind blowing that afternoon. This was no sport for the faint hearted, we have a real battle on our hands.
Anyways !!
Sid provided the antics

and the pictures good on him.
Thanks to Dev,Olly and Nishant for a wonderful time.

I'm going to get through to Tim soon for either an HW97 or an RWS 48. Would the 48 being magnum class have any issues with the 'Deal wood test' ? I'm having a major heartache deciding between these two beauties

. Shame I cant have them both...YET

. So which one should I go for first ?

regards

OUP

cherian.k.k · Post by **cherian.k.k** » Mon Mar 17, 2008 5:53 pm

Mack The Knife
what you wrote is true. 6 years back when i wanted to start parisipate it competions , i asked one person the cost of the coat,sling .the price he gave was so high i allmost fainted. then i made it localy[not perfect]. then i came to know for the rate i made the coat i could get the real one. this person is so selfish[sorry to tell that] he makes sure anyone who shoot good does not shoot in competion as his children is also into this.now actualy a cold war is going on as he want me what of the club.
cherian.k.k

HSharief · Post by **HSharief** » Mon Mar 17, 2008 6:53 pm

dev";p="40469 wrote:he takes his own ammo and shotgun and takes all of us to a station.

Bravo Mr. Bedi. I'm really glad for these folks who lend their own prized possessions for others to enjoy. The last time I was in Hyd I had a similar pleasure, Mark set it up for me, him and RK let me borrow their shottys and even gave me a bunch of ammo to shoot. It was really a great experience that I will never forget. The chief of AP RA was also there, Mr.Sanghi and he gave me a few tips to conquer the Intl. Skeet targets. It was great to see him practice. Seeing him, I realized how I should PRACTICE, not just go out there and shoot.

dev";p="40469 wrote:Sadly, OUP and Sid were left doing dry fires with the .22.

OUCH. Dry firing 22s is at least debatable.

hamiclar01 · Post by **hamiclar01** » Mon Mar 17, 2008 6:55 pm

OverUnderPump";p="40490 wrote: I'm going to get through to Tim soon for either an HW97 or an RWS 48. Would the 48 being magnum class have any issues with the 'Deal wood test' ? I'm having a major heartache deciding between these two beauties . Shame I cant have them both...YET . So which one should I go for first ?

there is no contest at all. the 97k rules, by miles. except that it does not have open sights, so you must use a good scope (and it benefits from a venom kit

). best of luck for your venture, and keep us posted

nagarifle · Post by **nagarifle** » Mon Mar 17, 2008 7:08 pm

hi Dev
really u have done well so far, i would not have the cool to going as far as u have done.

keep it up and lets us know if u reach the top 25 shot.

its good to know that there are few old gents left to encourge the yung ones. i take my hat off to Mr. Bedi.

Post by **Mack The Knife** » Mon Mar 17, 2008 7:24 pm

Cherian,

Your complaint is an oft repeated one. Infact, TenX and a few other KSRA members had to bear the consequences of just this sort of nepotism as recently as the Ahmedabad Nationals.

shutzen · Post by **shutzen** » Mon Mar 17, 2008 7:32 pm

HI! Well once you have "conquered" your state rifle assn. difficulties - then an even more bigger challange crops up in for of the DM office and the home secretaries office for getting your licence and ammo quota and area enhancement. Well Bharat Desh mahan hai....

Doosra peela card du kya?

Post by **Mack The Knife** » Mon Mar 17, 2008 7:34 pm

dev";p="40486 wrote:Tim has a Baikal 46m ready for me. Yeah I reserved it already and am waiting to have it shipped home.

Oooh... I'll have to dust off the old luftpistole and brush up on my shooting in anticipation of an online challenge then.

OverUnderPump · Post by **OverUnderPump** » Mon Mar 17, 2008 9:37 pm

shutzen";p="40496 wrote: Doosra peela card du kya?

Ailaaa, ye to football match ban gayela hai.

Jokes apart,

Rusty, I have found two HW97s one's with Tim, and another one with someone I know and he can bring it over on his trip back. But the the latter is an HW 97 MK II, from what I know it aint been used much but its seen a few birthdays.

Whats the difference between the MK II and the MK III performance wise ?

regards

OUP

Post by **Mack The Knife** » Tue Mar 18, 2008 7:21 am

Whats the difference between the MK II and the MK III performance wise ?

Weihrauch increased the internal cylinder diameter by 1 mm on the 77s and 97s bearing serial numbers 1446050 and higher. This gives a little more swept volume which translates into little more power.

The Mk.3s definitely have the larger cylinder but you will need to check about the Mk.2

Don't worry about the age if it has been well maintained. Mine's a Mk.1 but just as good, if not better than Ranjeet's Mk.3 in terms of power, consistency and accuracy.

Whilst each rifle has it's own pellet preference, H&N Field Target & Trophy and H&N Barracuda Match usually perform well in FAC powered 77s and 97s. Do not use the wadcutters issued at the range as they are far too light for a FAC 77 or 97 and will cause excessive piston slap. If you tune the 97 to 15 ft.lbs. or a little more, then stick to using the Barracudas.

I would seriously consider getting the 77k instead of the 97k as it would allow you to shoot open sight matches. You can do that with the 97 as well but you would need to buy a 77 rear sight and fabricate a front sight for it as I have done.

Mack The Knife

Post by **dev** » Tue Mar 18, 2008 11:18 am

Mack The Knife Bana";p="40497 wrote:
dev";p="40486 wrote:Tim has a Baikal 46m ready for me. Yeah I reserved it already and am waiting to have it shipped home.
Oooh... I'll have to dust off the old luftpistole and brush up on my shooting in anticipation of an online challenge then.

Heck, your last score was good enough to thrash me but wait till I get my ruskie beauty and give me a few weeks. It should be fun to shoot a postal match but then you might be off chasing moby dick sized Mahaseer, just to rub it in

.

Dev

Indians For Guns

Indians For Guns

On the wings of skepticism

On the wings of skepticism

Re: On the wings of skepticism

Re: On the wings of skepticism

Re: On the wings of skepticism

Re: On the wings of skepticism