On Shooting
(While learning how to shoot at Clark Air Field last Saturday)
... So there's the earmuffs I have to wear, which somewhat hinders my peripheral vision. Hearing my voice small and hollowed out when I speak my uncertainty to the gun instructor makes me think I'm watching television. A self-imposed tunnel vision.
The .45 caliber in my hand is light. I would have thought such a famous gun (from action star Fernando Poe, Jr.'s favorite gun to the American soldiers fighting against the juramentado Moros in Mindanao) would weigh more. Was it a scion of the Winchester family who created a labrythine house because of guilt and the idea that the victims of the said rifle would haunt them forever? But the pistol is light. I feel no oppressive anima in raising the gun before me.
"Steady," the instructor says. "The safety is here, click it off with your thumb." I had asked for only one bullet first, coward that I am. After all, it's one thing to write about shooting but another to hold the hammer of gods in your hand. But that's what fictionists are all about: to lie and lie about what we think we know.
I aim, one hand to hold, another to steady. I click down the safety located at the side of the .45. A slight, almost sensuous touch on the trigger jolts the gun in my hand. In my sensa-wunda wide-screen theater, I can see the flash slowly light up the front of the barrel (or was that my imagination?). I can see the gun jump, bringing my hand up (wait! that wasn't me!) and then the pistol drops as if spent, still dragging my hand like a reluctant groom. It's only later that I realized that there was a booming sound made small by the earmuffs. Damn useful, these things, but bulky.
The instructor is not happy: "Don't jerk the gun. It might go off again." Of course. Good thing I only had one bullet put in or else the bloody hair-trigger might have gone off.
...And people consider this a hobby?
11 comments:
Fascnating. So will you go for more classes?
Heh tell me about it. Unfortunately, bullets are a bit costly so it's doubtful. Likewise, if I can get over the fear of shooting someone in the foot (mine included), it wouldn't be a bad thing to learn. Especially since I think I DO have to learn this; someone's gotta tame the llama, if you know what I mean.
Do you know how to shoot?
No. My father had an air rifle when I was a boy, but that's the most exposure I ever had to firearms. I have a friend who is a competitive shooter, though. It certainly does seem like a costly hobby, but aren't they all!
ha! i think people like to shoot, y' know to vent out all that anger. heh. it'll be nice if you're shooting at something who lookis like, er..someone you really really loathe?
Gee, a gun-toting cat. What next, cowboy boots? :D
jp: Heh I've also tried an air rifle and good thing about it is that at least it doesn't buck in your hand when you fire. ;-)
fuhrer: Funny enough, I was kidding a reluctant friend that he only shoots "to kill". No practice shooting for this guy!
bee: Well, purty lady, this here cat aims ta be a marshall of this town. ;-)
(Hey, if there's a Spanish-speaking puss-in-boots, why not a cowboy banzai cat?)
Hey, at least when the zombies overrun the city, you know how to shoot yourself. And not, uh, accidentally maim you without killing you.
yah, try it some more banzai cat. you'll be surprise how much it can ease tension. i assume you fired a colt 1911, right? lightened trigger? try a stock version next time. better yet, try the 9mm next time... a glock maybe? i know someone who actually loves the glock, specially the glock 19.
charles: Heh I would like to think that for my cluelessness in a lot of things, killing myself would not be one of them. ;-)
deadman: Hahaha yeah looks like it. I wouldn't have minded trying the Glock. I do think that my fear of the bloody recoil would have been compensated by the slack in the Glock's trigger. I barely even touched the .45's trigger and bang!
The last time I ever fired a gun was in CMT, when we hied off to Bonifacio to fire five Armalite rounds at a butte.
i've tried airsoft guns but i'm interested in firing the real thing...altho the recoil sort of intimidates me hehe...
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