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.
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