Indians For Guns

Pictures from the meet...
More to follow.

More to follow in a few days.

Folks,

Sorry for the delay, but I have been really busy on the work front. Nevertheless, I have put up a few photos and will do so again tomorrow. Meanwhile, I would like to apologise to Siddik Patel, since he could not be with us on the 12th. Moreover, another member, who was accompanied by a few more people could not attend too due to a close relatives demise. I have been under tremendous pressure at work lately and was under the impression that he will make his way to Ahmedabad and join us thereon. Unfortunately, that did not happen and he could not attend. Please understand that there is no bias nor politics involved and that I will make sure it is not repeated again in any future meets.

I will give a full write up tomorrow

Katana

Lovely snaps Katana.
Hats Off to you for organising such an event single handedly

Guys greats pictures congrats to Katana ( nice to next young shooter and the original one), Pritam, jaswantsinghji, et al

Thanks for sharing ...

Pritam shooting does create issues at home..persistence pays guys ..looking forward to more such meets and pictures

Cheers

OK folks here goes!

People who met up on the 12th. IFG members Jashwantsinhji, Pritam Patel, Krushang Patel and myself, Non members were Vinod Gajjar, Pritam's cousin, my father and my son Ratnaditya. Unfortunately two of our members, AVR and siddikpatel, could not make it. Weapons were .32 IOF Rev. belonging to Jashwantsinhji, .32 Webley MKIV and .22 Brno Mod1 belonging to my father, my own .30-06 IOF, and Pritam's .22 IOF, .12 bore Khajuria with 28 in barrels, Diana 48 in .22 and a Feinwerkebau pistol in .177 and Krushang's Morini 162, altough without the compressed air.

About the venue, it is a farm belonging to my mother's family and I had purposely selected it because its a natural range. In other words about 200 meters of flat open fields in front of a hillock and for the handguns a 'khai' or ravine. I had fabricated metal stands for the targets and got some target rings from our local club in Ahmedabad. People in the village were advised not to come to watch, that being a safety issue and I had kept two of my staff to help out in case of any needs with strict instructions to keep behind the guns, although they already knew that

We arrived about 10.30 am and got busy with checking the ideal placement of the targets. Meanwhile, we got a call from Pritambhai that he was running late and we decided to try our hand at the revolvers in the 'khai' at a measured 20 meters. My father explained to everyone the stance to be adopted, the safety issues while firing and quick ejection and loading techniques. Jashwantsinhji was a good learner and he got a lovely chance to practice with his revolver. A comparison was made among both the revolvers and the consensus was that IOF has a stiff trigger due to which one has to be very steady to maintain aim while firing, unlike the smooth action of the Webley. My father has had the Webley since the late '50's, bought for a princely sum of Rs.357, and still swears by it.

About 1 pm we moved to the rifle ranges and the Brno was brought out first. It's a sweet shooting rifle and everyone tried it out. Member full-circle from the US had just sent me Warne rings for the Brno and I had changed the original Savage/Anshutz 4x scope (fogged out after all these years) to a Tasco Pronghorn 3-9x40, which I had changed the previous night. I then lasered it at an approximate 75 meters with a bore sighter and adjusted parallax with a few shots. This got everyone hooked onto the rifle while we received word that Pritambhai had reached the village and went over to escort him over to the venue.

Now Pritambhai is an absolute bundle of energy, and on arriving immediately asked for bajre ki roti and baigan ki sabzi! This is typical gaon ka winter fare in these parts. I had originally thought of shooting early in the morning and packing up at around 1 pm so I had just snacks on me. So these were brought out and chai made in the field, which everyone just gulped because of a hurry to get back to shooting! Anyway, my son was taken in by the Diana 48 and got busy shooting with that while Pritambhai took a fancy to my IOF .30-06 which he wanted to try out. Now I was not leaving the side of anyone with a gun in hand and my attention was to my son with the Diana while Pritambhai decided to let off with the .30-06. In the corner of my eye I saw pritambhai with the wrong stance and before I could correct him he had already shot off. Now he was sittiing on his haunches while firing, in an almost crouching position, and it is the whip up that causes imbalance, so he went about 6 ft backwards while the rifle was in the air which I just about managed to grab! Decietful thing this rifle is. Always gives a surprise to anyone firing it for the first time. Surprisingly the Pachmayr Recoil pad sent over by member full_circle really works, feels almost like firing a .22. Only the whip-up has to be controlled now.

The rest of the day was spent in banter, jokes some really serious firing of both the .22LR rifles and the .30-06. Pritambhai got a chance to zero both his rifles and try out and pattern his shotgun.The targets did come in handy and are now a permanent affair for me. We broke up rather reluctantly after avoiding phone calls from our wives and family at 5 pm. My only regret was that I could not arrange a trap machine to try out the shotguns. Maybe sometime next year.

Once again thanks to everyone who attended and helped out and my apologies to siddikpatel . We hope to meet once again before the onset of the summer and our ammo stocks are repleted once again!

Katana

In short we all had a great day out with our Loves (of course Guns nothing else), ( though most of the ppl attaining the meed had some how managed to have time for them self)

Salute all participated ones and specially to Yograjsinh for making this happen, I know it takes lot efforts and co-ordination

regards

Pritam

ngrewal wrote:Guys greats pictures congrats to Katana ( nice to next young shooter and the original one), Pritam, jaswantsinghji, et al

Thanks for sharing ...

Pritam shooting does create issues at home..persistence pays guys ..looking forward to more such meets and pictures

Cheers

ngrewalji
thnx for the advise advise

usually she don't minds but same day happened to be a wedding reception of her nice. we both were to reach at 6:30 pm and I arrived home at 7:30 with dust all over me,
As usual I din't gave any excuses,ignored her anger n just got busy with cleanup- dressing and drove off with her
Night was spoiled co's I was at fault and she did't got a chance to properly argue with me

Some more pics of the day taken from Pritambhai's camera

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Video of a shot from the IOF .30-06

Reminds me of good ol' days seeing people shooting without rests and shooting sticks.

Nice escape Pritam and thanks for great write Katana...
Talking about stance years ago fired Garand M1 - gun went one way and I other with swollen lip..luckily my uncle had loaded with single bullet..
Agree with shooter ..
Cheers

ngrewal,

Watch the video carefully and you will notice me slightly leaning forward. This absorbs a bit of the recoil provided the butt is firmly placed. The idea is not to stand absolutely ramrod straight while taking the shot.

All of us learn through our mistakes. Moreover there is always a first time to everything in life. Now thats when well wishers advise is to be taken.

Katana

Great going Katana.....
good writeup and Lovely Pics. Thanks for sharing.
All the Best for your future meets.
regards
Happy.

Happy, you don't seem to be very far from us. Care to join us next time around?