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Sunday, 7 November 2021

A deeply spiritual experience

A huge thank-you to Andy and Roman for inviting me to what was a very special day - a chance to get acquainted with firearms of yesteryear at the PM Shooter shooting range (ulica Krakowiaków 80A, Warsaw). 


We started off with handguns before moving on to rifles. [All photos by Andy Picheta]

"Well the high sheriff, shot Lazarus, well he shot him with a mighty big number 
Well the high sheriff, he shot Lazarus, well he shot him with a mighty big number
With a forty-five, Lord, Lord, with a forty-five" 

Below: shooting with a Colt .45 M1911 pistol
 

Below: firing away with the legendary Tommy gun - the Thompson M1928 A1 submachine gun. Barrel climbs off target in automatic fire.

"Tommy gun, you ain't happy less you got one
Tommy gun, ain't gonna shoot the place up just for fun" - The Clash


The Gun that Won the West - shooting with a Winchester model 1873, the oldest firearm at the range, with its characteristic lever-action reloading mechanism. A huge technological advance over muzzle-loaded muskets that needed ramrods as used in the Napoleonic Wars a little over half a century earlier.


The highlight of the day for me was handling and firing the M1 Carbine, a gun for which I felt the strongest sense of  're-acquaintance'. Familiar. Comforting, even. This was my deeply spiritual experience. Xenomnesia flashback - hunting jackrabbit in the Texas Panhandle scrub, Christmas 1950.


On to the modern stuff. An early AK47 Kalashnikov - robust, reliable, but not that accurate.

We also fired from the Vietnam-era M16 automatic rifle, and the classic German WW2 Karabiner 98k. Firing this rifle with its bolt action (you need to pull back the bolt to remove the empty cartridge and bring up the next one) makes one realise how a rifle with a faster rate of fire (such as the American M1 Garand) gives infantrymen an immediate advantage. It was my father's weapon during the Warsaw Uprising, although his lacked the wooden stock which had been replaced by a metal rod bent into shape. He only had a handful of bullets to use in it at any one time.

A gun that everyone liked the feel of was the German MP34 submachine gun, produced between 1929 and 1940. Manufactured from the best materials available and finished to the highest standards, it was so well made that it has often been nicknamed the "Rolls Royce of submachine guns". However, its production costs were extremely high as a consequence. Also impressive was a 12-gauge pump-action shotgun, which just shredded the target.  

Below: A farewell to arms. Blasting away with a contemporary Smith & Wesson M&P15, a lightweight semi-automatic rifle. It jammed twice as I emptied the magazine.


I found the experience of immediate familiarity of handling the guns surprising. The smell of cordite. The weight, the recoil, the action, all fell immediately to hand. Later that evening, walking to Wilanowska on my way home after dinner, I felt myself carrying a phantom M1 carbine as though I was on patrol...

The powerful extractor fans on the range gave a sense of security in the pandemic, although there were too many large groups of maskless people in the small reception area while we were signing in.

I don't believe in liberalising gun laws in Poland - they are fine as they are. Mass shootings don't happen in Poland, which has among the lowest rates of gun-related deaths in the world, on par with the UK. Being able to fire a variety of guns - historic and modern - in a controlled environment under proper supervision is a worthwhile and educational experience; for me a re-connection with my spiritual Past.

This time last year:

This time four years ago:
Gliwice's new station

This time six years ago:
Reanimated - my father's car 

This time seven years ago:
Defending Poland against hybrid warfare 

This time eight years ago:
Another office move

This time ten years ago:
PiS splits again - Solidarna Polska formed 

This time 11 years ago:
Tesco vs. Auchan

This time 14 years ago:
My father's house
at

4 comments:

  1. Anonymous8 November 2021 at 12:51

    A note on extractor fans

    Indoor shooting ranges are significant sources of lead poisoning among people who use them. Lead poisoning has long been known to cause neurological damage, a factor in violent criminal behavior and perhaps even in “rampage” killings. Ironically, overexposure to lead at shooting ranges may therefore cause some violent gun crime. 

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  2. Anonymous8 November 2021 at 19:20

    Michael, have you seen the scene from Miller's Crossing featuring Albert Finney. He really knows how to use a Thompson!

    https://youtu.be/vgz-CKRzs-4

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  3. White Horse Pilgrim8 November 2021 at 20:29

    What fun. But it looks like you didn't fire an AR-15. It's curious how long it took for the fundamental shape of the rifle to change to place the barrel in line with the stock, lessening how recoil makes the muzzle rise.

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  4. Michael Dembinski10 November 2021 at 20:23

    @ Gordon Hawley

    Thanks for that! Been a while since I last watched Miller's Crossing - certainly a memorable (if not particularly realistic!) scene! Watching it, I had a deja vu experience of the smell of cordite!


    @ WHP

    "it looks like you didn't fire an AR-15" - from Wikipedia: "the Smith & Wesson M&P15 is an AR-15 style semi-automatic rifle by gun manufacturer Smith & Wesson. Introduced in 2006, the firearm is designed for police and consumer markets" - one of many generic AR-15-styled weapons out there.

    @ Anonymous

    I'd guess that even three hours exposure to lead is nothing compared to what the instructor and the safety guy have to put up with, day in, day out. Again, I wonder how the concentration of lead in the air compares to what we had to breathe in our school playground facing the congested North Circular Road as it approached the Chiswick Roundabout in the days before unleaded petrol...

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