Went to the Melbourne
Indoor Pistol Club [mipc.com.au] today. It’s near the Newmarket train
station in Flemington. The building is actually an indoor rock climbing
place and a shooting range combined into one. They’re also an authorized
dealer for H&K handguns. After a quick registration and handing my
passport over to the counter (security reasons) I was off to the briefing.
I got to use the
Heckler and Koch USP 45 [hecklerkoch-usa.com], the
Beretta 92D 9mm [beretta.com] and a silvery .357 caliber revolver. I was surprised
at the weight of the handguns. I wasn’t expecting it to be that heavy. The
bullets are live bullets so the recoil was pretty strong. The first time I
fired the 9mm, I was puzzled by the strong recoil and the loud report.
There I was, thinking that the 9mm is a kiddy gun, but it’s pretty
powerful too. I know that guns can kill people, but it never really
registered until I fired a real gun with live ammo. You do feel respect
for the weapon after that. I do have some OCD tendencies sometimes, and I
had this disturbing URGE to put my hand in front of the muzzle. Good thing
I kept it under check or I would have blown my hand off. Heh. Looking at
the target, I wasn’t really accurate with the Beretta. Of course, it’s not
an accurate gun in the first place, but I must have overcompensated for
the recoil coz the shots were off center. The bullet ejection system is
pretty impressive. It comes out from the side chamber, and when the
bullets run out, the handgun does ‘reset’ and the muzzle is slightly
detached from the main chamber. Interesting. The .357 has an even harder
recoil. It’s one of those revolvers that rich old men use in movies. This
one was accurate, most of my shots hit the center of the target. The fact
that I started tapping the trigger instead of squeezing it (which skews
the bullet trajectory) might have helped too. My favorite gun is the H&K
USP though. It’s also one of the guns in Counter-Strike if I’m not
mistaken. Plus it’s a .45, and I’ve always wanted to fire one of those. It
looks pretty impressive, aggressive profile and nice weight. The front
sighting stump is easier to align with the back groove in this model too.
I also liked the hefty recoil. You get the feeling that this gun means
business when you use it. Very nice. It seems easy to get a handgun
license here, but unfortunately I’m not a permanent resident so I can’t
apply for one. Bummer. I would love to have that H&K.
All pictures are clickable to bring up a larger picture.
Taken thru the blurring window from the viewing area. Cheers Jimmy.
Another pic thru the window. The target is 7 meters away. Don’t laugh.
It’s supposed to simulate a “real life situation”.
Now follow as we ride…
The Beretta 92D 9mm
Making you an offer that you can’t refuse…
The .357 revolver
Keepin’ it real, thug style
The H&K USP .45. It would have worked better if I didn’t have a slight
smile from the previous photo.
I realize I will look pretty damn stupid if someone rips those photos and
starts forwarding them with “Fwd: Look at this wannabe gangsta HAHAHA” but
then, everything looks stupid when taken out of context. Oh well, by
posting it on the net I have lost my right to complain anyway. =D It was pretty fun
to think up captions though. Most of them are snippets of Tupac’s lyrics.
The scoreboard:
The big tears are made by the 9mm bullets, the star shaped holes are done
with the .45 and the compact round holes are .357s.
