diamond & firearms 2009 April 6 19:54
Posted by diamond in : Random , trackbackToday, i got my first experience of shooting firearms. A group of us from the office went to a local shooting range, just outside Zurich. It was located in a rather bizarre place, off of the 5th floor of an underground car park beneath a shopping center, down a maintenance tunnel. I was pretty nervous when handling the weapons, as i was well aware of the damage they could do, but not of what not to do. Thankfully the instructors were very patient and clear (with one of my colleagues acting as an impromptu translator). I learnt many things about guns today:
- revolvers are not a subset of pistols (from poking around later, it turns it, as usual, it depends on where you are)
- what single-action and double-action means (single-action means the trigger only releases the hammer. double-action means it can also raise the hammer)
- .50 cal bullets are 13mm in diameter (yikes).
When it was finally time to have a go, i braced myself for the sound. I’d be warned not 5 minutes beforehand by a friend who’d had army experience that it was going to be louder than i expected. So i expected Loud. It was much louder than that. I was very grateful for the ear protection -) Here’s what i can remember firing, in order of calibre:
- SIG Sauer P226 (pistol, 9mm)
- HK USP (pistol, .45)
- Desert Eagle (pistol, .50)
- Super Redhawk (revolver, .44 magnum)
and another .45 pistol. I shot 25 rounds with the glock, and 5 rounds each with the others. My favourite has to be the USP, it was so easy to shoot, and deadly accurate. The recoil on the .50 cal firearms was enormous, more so for the revolver, as it doesn’t have the semi-automatic mechanism to absorb some of the force. Those around the desert eagle got blasted by the shockwave, even if you were 3m away. Scary stuff.
After all my years of playing FPSes, i was curious to see how well (or not) that might translate to real life. As it turns out, i was a natural at it, surprising the instructors. On my last go (which was 5 rounds with the desert eagle), the instructor put up a clean target for me (previously we’d just patch up the exist targets with stickers to cover the holes). When i managed ot put all 5 rounds through the center of the target, he asked if i’d like to take it home, which i happily accepted -) So, here’s the evidence:
Coincidentally, 7m happens to be the longest range required as part of the Swiss gun license practical exam. I’d just chosen that as it seemed about the right distance to stretch myself a bit, but still be possible to be accurate.
Comments»
If you think I’m coming to visit, you can forget it. You’ve now crossed the line from “slightly unnerving” into “absolutely terrifying. Well done.