Araw ng Barilan
June 29, 2003
Yesterday, Sunday the 29th of June 2003 we had the Araw ng Barilan (Firing Range Day). This is an event that had been conceptualized late last year and has only been realized now, 6 months later. After yesterday, all of us that had participated believe that this is something that we should've done a long time ago because all of us had such a grand time at this event.
The day started off at Country Waffles at Eastwood City, Libis where I was first to arrive punctually at 7am. A few minutes later I was joined by the barkada of heavyweights, Zaffy, JR, Alfie and the "kusinero" Collins who were already in high spirits joking around as they entered. We proceeded to order our food but JR and Alfie took a look at the menu and were disheartened. They then enthusiastically resolved to head next door to McDonald's. I was dumbfounded -why?! JR tells me that he prefers to have a triple decker at Mac. I go, "there's no such thing at Mac." "Yes there is!", he says - it's a customized sandwich in which he orders a Sausage McMuffin and an Egg McMuffin, take out one side of the muffin portion of one of the sandwiches and put the two sandwiches together - voila! Triple decker!!! Masarap daw!!! Being the fast-food gourmands that they are, I believe them. Certainly creative, how in the world did he even think of doing that? It definitely sounds interesting and one day I will have to try it.
Keith follows and Manny Alvarez who is
a welcome addition since he hardly joins our events, then Santy, then ChitoF and
Caloy (revenge! mwahahahaha!) then JojoO and finally Edsel Frondoso, ChitoF's
brother.
We proceed to Taytay, Rizal to the PNP Provincial Command Camp thereat in which
the Rizal Shooters' Club firing range is located. At the gate we're met by JunZ,
the trip took about 20 minutes at a slow pace with Keith in his now
intercooler-less supercharged Miata as lead car since he'd been to that range
before and knew where it was. There we're introduced to Brendo Villasanta who is
the President of the Rizal Shooters' Club and the Range Officer thereat.
Introductions are made and we gather around classroom style for a lecture
delivered by Brendo. He begins with gun care and maintenance and asks everyone
to bring out the guns that they had brought. I thought that the problem that we
would have was that we wouldn't have enough guns for this occasion. How wrong I
was. When the guys first brought out their guns, there were already quite a
number of them. Later, when the guys got more comfortable, even more guns were
brought out, in fact, despite an attendance of only 13 members, when all the
guns were displayed we had a veritable armory. For security reasons I can't
mention which guns belong to whom. We had a teeny-weeny little .22 revolver
about the size of a key chain, a variety of revolvers and semi-automatic pistols
ranging from marks such as Tanfoglio, Smith & Wesson, Walther, Sig Sauer, Para
Ordnance, several Colt 1911's, Glock, and Armscor in a variety of calibers. We
even had an Italian made Mark VI fully automatic sub-machine gun and a Ruger
.223 semi-automatic sniper's rifle (with which some of the guys were absolutely
smitten). Much later some of the guys said that had they known that they would
have so much fun they would have brought even more guns.
After inspecting the guns, shamefully
we're told by our lecturer that most, if not all of our guns are dry as a bone
and are badly cared for inasmuch as they're not lubricated at all. So he, with
his staff proceeds to take the guns apart and applies lubricant to them. While
he's doing this he's conducting a lecture on different kinds of guns and
ammunition and to what they're suited for. Afterwards it's gun handling and
safety. All the guys listen attentively and are engaged in the discussion almost
riveted because it was delivered so well and the topics were indeed interesting
interspersed with stories of his personal experiences. Even I'm engaged to
deliver legal opinions on homicide and murder and their justifying, mitigating
and exempting circumstances in case a person is shot. I can't even remember all
the topics because there were so many and there was so much information being
delivered all of which seemed important.
After
about an hour of the lecture, we proceed to the range where target boards are
set-up and we're lined up to engage first in some dry-firing then in some
practical shooting. Most of us find out that what we've been doing before going
to a range, aiming and firing guns, where you can let go of a hundred rounds
easily is a big waste of time and ammunition. One can learn to shoot well,
accurately and instinctively using the techniques that we were taught which can
be practiced even without ammo. After much practice of drawing, finding our
"natural point of aim" and dry firing, by the time we got to firing live ammo,
within less than 7 rounds all of the guys were shooting well. Because of our new
found skill and the desire to hone it further, it seemed that all of us were
inquiring how to join their
club.
By then all the guns were laid out on the tables for anyone to just pick up and
try out. Keith displays his bag of tricks for his toy and displays the high
capacity magazine for his pistol, talk about high-capacity this magazine he had
was almost a foot long! Later on, as the guys got more comfortable the
sub-machine gun was brought out and the sniper's rifle, both of which were tried
out by each of the other guys.
Such a gracious host JunZ was. Not only did he provide in excess of 500 rounds
of ammunition for us he even brought a large cooler already filled with drinks
for us.
While most of the other guys were oohing and ahhhing over the Ruger Mini 14
sniper's rifle in stainless steel which only fires semi-auto; being the
war-freak that I am, I was having a ball lettin' loose, full auto rock-'n-roll
with that machine-gun! FFFRRRRRRRRTTTTTTTT!!!!!!! Yaaaahhoooooooooo!!! I yelled
out, "CARLOS, YOUR BONY BEE-STINGIN' BUTT IS TOAST!!! GET OUT THERE ON THAT
RANGE AND RUN FOR YOUR LIFE!!!" It was at this point where ChitoF and Santy
snuck Carlos out of there pronto. I'll get you next time Jackal.
That Ruger which fires .223 armalite rounds lets off a really earthshaking and
thunderous boom! I was told that it's a very special gun because it fires so
smoothly and is very well balanced with nary any recoil.
We were also treated to a demonstration of JunZ's skills as a shooter. This guy
is good. One of the best, and we are proud to have him as one of ours! With time
pressure, at the buzz of the starter he lets go of several shots from his race
gun which almost seem as though they're being fired from a fully automatic
weapon, his targets fall sequentially and almost simultaneously as he pivots on
the ball of his foot sweeping them down with deadly precision. Amazing.
I, on the other hand, with machine-gun in hand spraying at full-auto mode, am
wasting ammo completely missing my targets and leaving them standing ;)
Then,
Manny comes up with the bright idea of a little competition of shooting down
these standing bowling-pin shaped metal plates called "poppers". At the buzz of
the starter, draw and fire, first guy to bring down his popper wins. One on one
competition, elimination style. I'm up against Alfie and I win, only because I
was using Jun's race gun which allowed me to easily fire off several rounds in
rapid succession, rock-'n-roll! One of them was bound to take down the target ;)
Collins and Zaffy draw and each take down their respective poppers with one
shot, but Collins' target goes down first. I can't remember fully how the others
fared but Manny has promised to send me the results and standings which he took
down on his phone. What was most remarkable to me was when I went up against
Manny, who's an avid gun enthusiast. He only beat me by a split second in which
I made the mistake of releasing the safety when the gun was already leveled and
not as I was leveling the gun. Oh well, next time. . . In the end it was Manny
versus Collins and Manny won. Perhaps we can make this a regular event with
trophies . . .
By then we had almost finished off all the ammunition (that's how much ammo Jun
prepared for us, we were having a hard time finishing them) and we realized that
we had been obliviously having all this fun under the scorching heat of the
noontime sun. I think that alone speaks volumes of how much fun we were having,
we were utterly mindless of the heat! We said our good-byes and expressed our
gratitude to our new friend, whom we hope to visit again soon! We invited him to
lunch with us but he declined, as he had another group to teach who were on
their way.
We then proceeded to a local restaurant there at Taytay for a very late lunch.
As we were leaving the camp, for no apparent reason Zaffy, who's immediately
ahead of me, stops, steps out of his Pajero gets something out of the back,
walks towards me and hands me a cold beer - aahhhhhhh, hot and
sweaty from all the activity we had just had, and
in my car which had been sitting in the sun for the past few hours, that beer
was indeed heaven sent. Thanks Zaff.
Jun takes us to a native restaurant called Bahay Kawayan so we can absorb some
of the local color. Looking at the menu, I was having a hard time deciding what
to order and how much. Zaffy goes, "hwag mo na gawin 'yan, pabayaan mo na 'yung
kusinero natin ang mag-order!". Collins, snaps to and without giving it much
thought, orders up almost everything on the entire menu. We have lechon manok,
inihaw na baboy, inihaw na pla-pla (humungous tilapia!), pinakbet, spare-ribs,
bulalo and lots of rice, in two orders each of all that I'd mentioned, and there
were only 8 of us left!!! Everything was good, but definitely the bulalo was
exceptional and is something that I'd like to go back for even if on a special
trip just for that! Since this was Manny's first experience to dine with us, he
was absolutely flabbergasted and overwhelmed at the spread of food before us!
But he enjoys just as much as the rest of us do despite having to ditch his diet
for that day. The big boys were their usual selves at mealtime quiet but
progressive, thorough and voluminous.
A grand time was had by everyone. Our heartfelt gratitude for the hospitality
and generosity of JunZ and his friend Brendo Villasanta, who is our new friend,
for not only sharing their tremendously enjoyable, interesting and fun hobby
with us but also for being such a gracious hosts. Thank you and we hope to do it
again soon!
joeyb