D-Day Memorial Shoot
Today I participated in my first-ever organised shooting event, the
Aurora Gun Club’s D-Day Memorial Shoot, in which the only guns
used are those of WWII vintage. What, when did Bob start collecting
guns?
you might ask yourself. Actually, I’ve not: my good
buddy Martin (who’s on the Board of Directors of the club) invited
me, lent me an Enfield and gave me the 35 rounds of British .303 I
shot.
It was a lot of fun. The course of fire was 5 practise rounds, then 10 rounds prone (that’s lying down, for those of you unfamiliar with the lingo) in 10 minutes, then 10 rounds prone in 80 seconds, then ten rounds either kneeling or sitting in 10 minutes (I opted for sitting). The Enfield is a wonderful weapon to shoot, with a nice bolt action. The rounds do have a slight tendency to get a bit stuck loading, but that's relatively easily fixed. I wonder if the rounds I was using are not the same form factor the originals used—indeed, they almost certainly are, since I’m pretty sure that jacketed hollow point ammunition is illegal to use for warfare.
I didn’t shoot very well, but then I’m no marksman. Still, I didn’t do too badly, all things considered, and of course it’s just a fun shoot.
One of the cool things was that a fellow brought three WWII-era machine guns for a demonstration shoot: two American guns (an M2 and something whose name I forget) and a German (a MG23 or MG43?). I’d never seen a machine gun used, and it’s very cool. They do eat ammunition very quickly: in a matter of seconds he had spent over $100. But man are they cool! I didn’t know this, but each weapon makes quite a distinct sound; IMHO it’d be very easy to distinguish them on a battlefield.
It wasn’t a completely perfect day, for someone had ordered authentic weather: cold and rainy. It was so wet that we were all soaked through-and-through by the end, and so cold (beyond chilly) that when Martin & retired indoors to finish scoring that our hands could barely write. But it was all fun anyway, and of course it really just helped add some atmosphere. I gotta say that the last relay rather hurried through their final set, though: one would swear that it’d been a speed-fire event…
Afterwards we’d a raffle and door prizes: I got a free hour at K2 Firearms Training Centre as well as a beer cosy shaped like a T-shirt. And I got my Civilian Marksmanship Program certificate, so now I’m eligible to purchase old surplus guns at a nominal cost. All in all a very fun day!
