Friendship in the Shooting Range

(This post has been written by my coursemate from NDA, Sanjay Thate. I have included this here after getting his permission. Sanjay joined the Indian Navy. He is one of our most loved coursemates. Never the one to pull punches, he shoots to kill, literally. His powder is always dry and ink from his pen is always brimming over.)

I was inducted into the Navy Shooting Team (NST) in 1984 and went for my 1st National Shooting Championship in Jan 85 in Madras, as a rifle shooter. Changed to pistol in 86, but that is another story.

Those days the officers in NST used to come to INS Agrani, Coimbatore on Ty duty for around 2 months trg prior to the Nationals & then go back to their parent unit. The sailors in the team were based permanently.

At the Madras Nationals, I met Capt ADS Gill (Para) for the 1st time. He is 63rd regular. We developed a great friendship. This got cemented further when both of us were called by the National Federation for a month long Coaching Camp cum Selection Trials in 1987 for the World Shooting Championship. We were arch rivals on the field of play and great friends off it .

Gill was (& still is) a tall, handsome, well-built cut sardar. When in uniform, he looked like a handsomer version of Sunny Deol in Border, the maroon pug adding to the aura. On the Range, we all wore track suits, Gill too had been inducted into the Army Shooting Team (AST) the same year. Later, when I shifted to pistol, both of us used to fire the same events - 10 Metre Air Pistol and 50 Metre Free Pistol , on which both of us concentrated, like every pistol shooter who had specialised into 'precision shooting'. The 50 M Free Pistol is the ultimate test of a pistol shooter's skill.

I am attaching a photo of me firing the Free Pistol. For a more detailed view of the pistol grip on the 'other side', you can google Hammerli 150 Free Pistol. I bet you wouldn't have seen a grip like this!

The incident I am relating happened in the early 90's during the National Shooting Championship. Gill and me were firing in adjacent lanes on the 50 M range. Those days paper targets were used by all, whether or not you were a paper tiger! The electronic targets came in much later.

The match consisted of unlimited sighters and 60 record shots, in a total time of 2.5 hrs. Behind each shooter sat an observer, whose job it was to put a tick on his marking sheet to ensure that the shooter fired only 60 shots. This was to ensure that if a shot was a complete washout (even outside the target frame), the shooter couldn't fire an extra shot, on the quiet! The Free Pistol has a very sensitive trigger and can be set as low as 5 grams, so accidental discharge is always a possibility. The Butt party changed the target after every 5 shots using a pulley system. Every shooter had a spotting scope on his table to see where he had hit.

As I have mentioned earlier, I and Gill were firing in adjacent lanes. During the course of the match, Gill whispered to me "मैंने तेरे target पर मार दिया" ^*, a cross fire !

Cross fire can happen even at the highest level, the most famous (or infamous) case being that of US rifle shooter Matt Emmons, who was heading for a sure shot Gold, at the 2004 Atlanta Olympics. He fired the last shot of his match on his neighbour's target in the Standing position of the 50 M Free Rifle 3 position event, thereby losing 10 points and dropping out of the race.

Back to my story .

I asked Gill "गोली कहां लगी?" ^**. He says "3 o'clock 9. Fire your next shot on my target, पर अट्ढे के बाहर मत मारना!" ^***

Now, 8 is bad, but not too bad a shot in Free Pistol. You have to shoot an extra 10 to 'cover up' this 8. Those days if you could maintain an average of 90/100 (per series of 10 shots), getting you a score of around 540/600, you were more or less assured of a podium finish. (These days the Indian standards have gone up tremendously).

You can't shoot an 8 on purpose. You always try for 10 ; imperfections take the shot to some other ring. It is however, entirely possible to aim for and shoot in the white. (1st to 6th rings are white , while 7th to 10th rings are black).

So I told him I'll try for 10 & he promised me a beer. Well, I missed 10 and the beer, since my shot went to 8. Both the observers (his and mine) had 60 shots on the marking sheets at the end of the match, so no one was the wiser.

Gill was happy with the 8, since he got 8 points instead of losing 10 points (which would have happened if there was anyone else in my lane, who would have claimed a cross fire).

And that was that! If I had cross fired on his target, I'm sure he would have done the same for me.

*"मैंने तेरे target पर मार दिया" :  I hit your target

**"गोली कहां लगी ?”:  Where did the round hit?

*** पर अट्ढे के बाहर मत मारना: But don’t hit outside the ‘Eighter’.