Shooting range

Yesterday I came along with a friend to the barracks in Oirschot: the Generaal Majoor de Ruyter van Steveninck Kazerne. He is a member of a shooting association, and asked me to join him to the rifle range at the barracks. All arranged by the army, there was a bus taking us to the barracks from The Hague. At 10am we arrived with 15 student’s: so let’s go the the shooting range!

At a 25 meters range, I got a Glock (semi-automatic pistol) to practice shooting standing, in squad and lying. That was not easy at all! Every session of five shots, I hit the target three or four times each session. However, it was for my first time not bad at all.

After a nice lunch, also arranged by the army themselves, we went to a 200 meter range. With a Diemaco we shoot from 100 meters at the targets. A Diemaco is a Canadian rifle, very similar to a M16, which is used by the whole Dutch troops. First we shoot with support of a stand. When you control your breath very well, this is not hard at all. Most shots I hit the target. But then: shooting with no support. Ouch! That was much harder. From the five shots, most time I hit the target two or three times. Ok, that was bad. But it was my first time, so please be nice and don’t laugh at me ;) At the end, there was some time left to shoot in burst mode. When you hold the trigger (also not as easy as it sounds) you will fire three bullets instead of one eacht time. The rifle shocks very much and it is really hard to hit a target. But is was fun, and that was most important.

After all, it was a really good day. I learned a lot, and maybe, maybe I’ll join the association to do this more.