The Day Jason Handled A Steyr AUG
6AM. 22nd July, 2006. Saturday.
While everyone was still sleeping like a dead log, I had to get up and get myself ready for work. After a light breakfast, I left my house and picked up my colleague, Vincent Tan. After 30 minutes drive from Vincent’s place, we reached our destination - Kem Terendak at 7.35AM. Kem Terendak is a military base camp at Sungai Udang / Masjid Tanah. Publics are usually not allowed to enter, but I was there to cover the army’s shooting competition, held every 2 years.
How is the shooting competition conducted?
A team of 4 marksmen will compete with another 4 marksmen, from diffent divisions, forces or brigade.
Teams will get ready at the starting point, with field marshalls and safety marshalls right behind them. They will load their guns and await for the signals from the marshalls.
“Sedia…!”
“Pandang… hadapan…!”
“Pheeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeetttt…!” (Whistle)
Then, the teams will run for 100m.
Upon reaching the 300m point, they will lie down, unlock the rifle, and shoot the targets which are 300m away from them. The fastest team to shoot down all the targets will be the winner.
Here is a video of the shoot-out.
Then, the marksmen will have to unload their bullets and hand it over to the field marshall; while the judges will count the score and then announce the winner.
While waiting for the competition to end, I snapped a few pictures.
They are from Australia, who came to Malaysia under an exchange programme for 3 months. They came all the way from Butterworth, Penang.
Some of the rifles being displayed at the press conference area.
These are the live bullets that they use everyday, in the competition and during practices.
That’s me posing at one of the armed jeeps.
After the shooting competition, marching, speeches, prize giving, parades and flag off ceremony had ended, finally came the session that I had been waiting, which was also the main reason why I chose this assignment over a food carnival.
Before we were allowed to shoot, we were given a short briefing on how to handle the rifle and safety issues.
After about 15 minutes of briefing, we walked to the shooting range, 100m away from the target. On the ground was a rifle - Steyr AUG, an empty magazine, 2 empty bullet casings and a display unit. The display unit will show the result of your shooting, without going up front. From there, you can adjust your aiming for better accuracy.
This is an empty magazine, which you can load up to 30 bullets in it. That’s me learning how to load bullets into the magazine.
Vincent getting ready for the shoot out.
Then, it was my turn. Vincent is not a blogger, hence, only 2 pictures of me in action. If Jolene was the one to take picture for me, at least 10 - 20 pictures.
This was what I saw (my target) at 100m from the zoom in scope; just a slightly bigger dot (target) in my view finder.
My shooting wasn’t accurate, but consistent.
The whole experience was simply awesome.
The moment I pressed and released the trigger, the explosion sound was very loud. My ear had this “yiiinnnnggggg…” sound even after I finished shooting. Then, when the empty casing was unloaded from the rifle, I could hear “ting ting ting” sound too, just like in the movies. All the mechanism sound effects were utterly cool and totally new to me. The recoil wasn’t as strong as I had expected. We used live bullets, hence, my hand had gun powder smell too.
I don’t even have to join National Service to have my hands on rifles.
It was indeed once in a life time experience.
Related posts:
July 24th, 2006 00:01
This is all very interesting ! And do you have more pictures here than your newpaper report?
Being a reporter is so shiok in this sense…
But have you checked if these contents are classified? I suggest you be extra careful, where military gadgets are concerned.. Just a gentle reminder.
July 24th, 2006 00:01
fuck cool :)
July 24th, 2006 01:04
That’s awesome, so coooool man, I also want T.T
July 24th, 2006 01:19
bestnyaaaaaaaaaa
July 24th, 2006 01:40
At home play gun not enough, go out also wanna play gun ah? Keekke…
July 24th, 2006 02:37
aiyo.. you know me too well:D if i was there playing guns, my post would be triple the length of urs man.:P
but damn cool!!!! got big momentum or not when the gun fired???
July 24th, 2006 08:35
Deng lo..Like dat cannot bully Jason ard lo..Coz he know how to handle Steyr AUG ard..Make him angry, he go and shoot me…Whahahaha
Syok playing with this gun…When the country need ppl to go war, u can join in
July 24th, 2006 09:36
ok this i tell you is a conspiracy …
now they’ve got ur prints on the steyr, so later on they will stage a breakout and 20 steyr rifles were stolen … and later an attack in the public …
and u’ve also got gunshot powder on ur hands … thats it la, but then when u say it was during a shooting competition u were covering u handled the gun, it will all be denied … and this site will be shut downed …
and this is Jason’s last entry … muahahahaha
July 24th, 2006 10:15
Earthtone : I have checked already. My supervisor wants a simple story only, probably she will choose 5-6 photos out of the 150 photos, and only 1-2 will be published. As for the military gadgets, the soldiers said its OK. So everything is OK.
Mun Kit : Nyek~!
Jee : Hehe! Maybe you can join the military forces? :P
Acquiescence : Jealous leh~! :P
Bryan : -sweat-
Jayelle : Triple of my post? -pengsan- Isn’t that abit too long already? The recoil wasn’t as bad as I expected, very small only.
Young Brat : Even before I don’t know how to handle Steyr AUG, I still can whack you up. :P
Earl Ku : Conspiracy sial… :P
July 24th, 2006 10:31
so are you saying that your shooting is consistently inaccurate? LOL! I only got to shoot in Counter-Strike :(
July 24th, 2006 10:43
Way cool man! I wonder how many monkeys died behind their shooting targets lolx. must be alot…
July 24th, 2006 14:42
Holy cow… Jason become a 揸枪既人! if you stick this gun to my head, I sure give you the password LOL….
July 24th, 2006 15:10
Walao yeng!!
Sigh, I might have the chance to “play” with gun next year. :\
July 24th, 2006 19:12
hey Jason, you look really cool with your rifles!! envy..but i dun dare to touch it, I scare 走火。。 ^^
July 24th, 2006 19:50
wah damn cooll
jason can be our modern day hang tuah
July 24th, 2006 21:15
Egghead : Yeah, my aiming was towards the lower abdomen, instead of the chest.
Shinky : Use target board lah, what monkeys. -.-l
Twinsmom : Haha! Better give before I take bubble gun and shoot at you. :P
CLF : NS isn’t as bad as you think lah.
Pianonee : Aiyer, got instructor there. Nothing to wrry about.
Boss Stewie : Haha. By the way, am not going to the gathering.
July 25th, 2006 09:34
Wow…shiok-nya! What an experience!
No wonder u cannot come to meet me lar!
July 25th, 2006 14:27
Your job is very interesting ler.. Can handle such an activity~ =D
~J~
July 25th, 2006 14:29
Wah….Looks like you are having lotsa fun. Wish I could experience shooting with a real gun. The olly gun that I’ve every played with is watergun or those plastic guns.
July 25th, 2006 17:54
Wow.. shiok for you huh?
Either way, they are fun. You either have food to eat, or something to play with.. Aigh.. what more can some one ask for in a job.
July 26th, 2006 13:05
Wah wah damn cool!!! Truly an amazing experience.
Wish I can hv that chance too. I’ve got some enemy that need to be ‘killed’…hahaha
July 26th, 2006 15:47
Jesslyn : Yeah, that’s why didn’t go meet you loh.
Jason Siah : Haha, just lucky only.
Sabrina : Yeah, it was a whole new experience for me and it was my first time shooting with a real gun also.
Zara’s Mama : Yaloh, 100% satisfaction indeed.
Che-Cheh : Hehe. Who you wanna kill? :P
July 27th, 2006 11:34
Eeek!! Coolness!!
August 9th, 2006 19:44
Laynie : Hehe.