So I hopped on a 17hr plane ride to Manila to help Noli take care of the shop and our export orders. Rough, but I had to do it. He mentioned in passing that I will be just on time to make the trip to the 1st Calaca Batangas Metallic Silhouette Mayor's Cup. What I wasn't expecting was it was the day right after I arrived in Manila hehe.
Turns out, the MS competitions around here are really fun and exciting events. There was a big turn out by some of the best shooters in the country. It was nice to see families show up to support their own. There was even a whole family of shooters too! It was also exciting seeing the different rifles brought by the competitors, there were side lever co2 rifles, custom compressed airguns and air pistols, the works! I had with me a .20 cal Caiman in a sporter stock that was assembled the day before hehe. To digress, when I was telling my dad about this event afterwards, he reminded me about the movie, The Ghost and the Darkness, where the protagonist took an untried rifle to hunt a lion, which eventually misfired, almost causing him to be a lion's lunch. That was just my dad's nice way of calling me "stupid" for competing with a brand new rifle with a brand new barrel. Hehe. I told him I just had a lot of faith in our guns...but yea, note to self, PRACTICE.
The shoot went off well, according to Mayor Nas Ona, they had a preliminary round for beginners the day before, and they had 60 shooters turn up with their foot pump pcps hehe. It's a great way to get people into the sport. The next day it was our turn as about 40 - 45 shooters showed up to compete. We sorta ran out of daylight near the end, as the re-fires piled up, but all in all, it was a great experience. Especially when you have to pass by picturesque Tagaytay on the way home and eat that special bulalo ... yum!
On to the pics:
Noli and Calaca Mayor Nas Ona
I had to squeeze in there hehe...
One of our clients, Rowell, with his Tornado dressed in royal jacaranda laminate...
Randelli with his Caiman in black/pepper laminate, in a new gloss finish, verry nice!
Rico Laurel and his custom sporter stocked Caiman, one of the lightest rifles we have. Note the cool pellet holder/dispenser.
That's me gettin' ready to shoot. In my hands is a walther .20 cal barreled Caiman flinging 14 grain Crosman Premiers at 970 - 980 fps. Its trajectory was almost laser straight, dead on from the chicken all the way to the boar, and a pellet's width hold over on the ram's back. Scope is an Elite 4200 6-24 with target dots.
Our "automatic" sillywet resetters ... they automatically reset the sillywets when Mr. R.O. Kit Ello tells them to go.
Maaaaaaster Kit Ello and his weapon of choice...
Our official Re-Fire King, Wilson Katanus, who is going to go on to win 4 trophies before the day is done. He's using our totally beat up Tornado prototype.
The Bigboy Caiman Carbine that Noli was using ... also newly assembled hehe. We should call ourselves Team No Practice.
The firing line, note the active wind flags...
Some shots on the practice range. That's a Caiman rifle with a Bigboy tank in the foreground, and a Tornado in Royal Jacaranda Laminate in the back.
A nice side lever c02 rifle ...
A handsome stock, called "Kamagong", or ebony wood...
Some of the nice hardware present ...
A Filarms Trio on the firing line...
Mayor Nas Ona giving out the trophies. He graciously purchased a Caiman to be raffled off at the end of the event.
The lucky winner of the Caiman...
Wilson and some of his trophies...hehe.
Kudos goes to Richard Fernandez and crew, Sir Kit Ello and most especially Mayor Nas Ona for hosting this event, it was a blast and I can't wait for the next one.
