(Image AI generated. no resemblance to any place, scene, equipment and any living or dead person)
The first toy gun I ever had was a present, from my
grandfather on Diwali day, when I was just 8 years old. The gun had a wooden
butt like a real gun, a trigger and a barrel. The barrel had a long slot along
the length from which a bolt protruded out. There was a long spring inside the
barrel, which would be pressed when the bolt was pulled inside towards the
butt. When the trigger was operated, this spring would be released. It would
expand in the barrel and hit a cork press fitted in the mouth of barrel. The
cork would fly off, but its travel limited to a foot or so only, as it was
attached to the barrel by a thread. This gun was thrilling enough for us young boys
for playing “Thieves and Police” (चोर-शिपाई, चोर-पोलिस) but, it was very
clumsy or unhandy to use. Another toy gun that was very popular in those days and
remains so, even now, is the Diwali time Pistol or revolver, which fired small caps.
It used to be shaped like an automatic revolver and when the trigger was pulled,
there would be a small bang with sound and some smoke. A later version could
accommodate a roll of caps and therefore could fire repetitively like a real
automatic revolver.
As I grew older, I found these toy guns no fun. Then a friend showed me a book that explained with diagrams about making a cardboard pistol. I found this pistol or gun just great fun at that age. It consisted of three cardboard pieces. Two of them of pistol shapes and the third one shaped like a trigger piece. These three pieces were held together with a brass split rivet usually used for pinning together loose paper sheets. This brass rivet ensured that the trigger cardboard piece would only move between two pistol shaped pieces over a limited range. A rubber loop, usually cut from a bicycle tube, would be attached to the front of the pistol and the pulled out to the other end snapped in a notch cut on two pistol shaped pieces. When the trigger was pushed, the other end of the trigger piece would move up and push up the rubber band, releasing it. A thick paper strip folded several times and then bent in a ‘U’ shape, would be kept hanging on the rubber band. When the rubber band was released, the paper ‘U’ piece would just fly off like a shot, and hit the targeted area.
The front and rear cardboard covers of our exercise books were of the right
thickness to make the carboard pistole.
It goes without saying that they all
were converted in pistols within short
time. For everyone in the classroom all exercise books were now left without
cardboard covers. Whenever teachers were
absent from the class, due to some reason or other, this gun used to be of
great fun to fight wars in classrooms. Surprisingly this gun is very popular even
today after eighty years or so, as can be seen from number of How to do it? Videos, that are listed on You Tube.
Even though I played with such toy guns, I was no stranger to a real gun. Ever
since I was a small boy, my father used to own a 12-bore single barrel shotgun.
Usually, I was not allowed to touch it even, except on one day every year. On
the day when Dusshera was celebrated, it used to be my duty, to clean the gun
with kerosene, polish the barrel with special wire brush provided by the
manufacturer and finally wipe it clean with a cloth piece dipped in special
oil. After that, I would do ‘Pooja’ (पूजा) of the
gun with flowers and then return the gun to its canvas carrying bag.
No one knew why this gun was called 12-bore. Later I found out that the barrel
diameter also had nothing to do with 12 as it was 0.73 inches. The
reason for it being called 12-bore is very funny. It seems that if you make
lead metal balls (which were used as bullets for this gun initially) of 0.73-inch
diameter, 12 such balls would weigh 1 English pound and hence the bore was
called as 12 bore and the gun as 12-bore gun.
My father’s 12 bore was made by B.S.A. (Birmingham small arms), a famous English company that made small arms, bicycles and even motor bikes. The bullets were made from thick cardboard tubes with a brass flange fixed at one end. At the center of this brass flange, there would be a small copper spot. The trigger hammer would hit this copper spot and explode the explosives packed inside the bullet. At the front end, lead or steel shots would be packed inside, and they would be sealed by a cardboard disc. There used to be a few options for bullets depending on number of shots and their size. For arming the gun for a shot, it was necessary to fold or break it, as they say! to open it in the middle, when an internal spring would get compressed and locked. When the gun was folded back and snapped fit in normal position, it would be armed and when the trigger was pulled, the spring would be released, making the hammer hit the copper dot to explode the ammunition inside the bullet.
My father had acquired this gun for some obvious reasons. In the first
place, our house was somewhat lonely in those years, located on a roughly 2-acre
plot, much outside the town. In those days, incidences of dacoity were not all
that rare and it was felt that a gun is a must for personal and family safety. The other reason was that sudden appearances
of snakes or cobras were not very uncommon in our plot of land, as a water
canal flowed on one side adjacent to our plot. These creepers crossed our
compound many times to take refuge in a cooler hiding place to avoid summer
heat or while searching for prey. . Those
days there was no ‘Friends of snakes’ (सर्पमित्र) movement and everyone believed
that if we encounter a snake or a cobra anywhere, anytime, it must be
immediately eliminated. I have personally seen several snakes and cobras killed
by my father with our 12-bore gun. In
fact, that was the only living creature that I had seen being killed by our
gun. So powerful was the impact of our gun that a long snake would be literally
cut into three or four pieces.
Prof. D.G Dhavale, was a friend of my father. By profession, he was a
professor, who taught Physics to degree students at Fergusson College Pune. However,
he was a great multifaceted person. He
was obviously not very rich, yet had so many interests. His interests included
guns, hunting, automobile engineering, flora of Pune and many other
things. He was the person who taught me
how to drive a car. My father sometimes
went with him to have some firing practice with our 12-bore gun. They had found
a perfect place for the firing practice, that was very near and safe.
Most of the readers, who are from Pune, must have seen the hilly area west
of Senapati Bapat Road that lies to west of the present Meridien Hotel. Just
near the foot of this hilly area, there used to be a Sheep Breeding Farm in
those years (1950s). I have no idea whether this breeding farm exists now or
not. Near this farm, a narrow mud track went up the hill, all the way up to the
‘Wetal Peak’. A small climb on this
track would take the climber to a small pond, that used to have water for at least
8 to 10 months in a year. This pond was surrounded by steep rock faces 30 to 40
feet high on all sides except North. During monsoon months, a regular waterfall
could be seen here on the south face of the cliff. My father and Prof. Dhavale, would stick a
newspaper on this dry waterfall face as
a target and would do firing practice with their guns from the north side of
the pool. I used to accompany them sometimes, and found this firing practice
very interesting.
Obviously, I was not allowed to fire this gun till I crossed into twenties. However, I had my experiences with a real gun and firing practice a few years earlier. The first real gun I handled and fired was something very simple. Many may not even call it a gun. It was called an air gun. My childhood friend, Late Madhav Gadgil, who later became a famous environmental and ecological expert, had an air gun in his house. He sometimes would allow us to take a shot or two. The air gun shots were made from lead and were shaped like a sand clock. There were no explosives, and these guns were considered quite safe and did not need any license. They could be used to get rid of small animals and birds. Many people had these guns in past. Much later in my life, I had an opportunity to shoot a more advanced type of air gun, where compressed gas was used to impart more kinetic energy to the bullet. More about these guns and their firing range later in this article.
During school years, my father insisted that I join a scheme of military
training run by central Government. This was known as Auxiliary Cadet Corps or
ACC. This scheme was different from National Cadet Corps or NCC. Some schools in
Pune had opted for NCC, Jr. Div. However, our school had opted for ACC. We were
mostly taught military drills and allied subjects and were supposed to do some
social work. There was, however, no arms training included. One of the highlights
of this scheme, however, was the yearly training camp held at some suitable
place during Diwali holidays. For those few days participants could taste the
hard life of a soldier. We used to live in a tent. Sleep on cotton durries with
a blanket to protect us and use a haversack as a pillow. Take bath in open, under
a tap. Eat and drink from enameled plates and mugs. And relieve ourselves, in primitive trench
latrines. Still those camp days were
such a great fun, that we were never even slightly bothered with the hard life involved.
I got my first chance to fire a real gun in summer of 1959, during summer holidays after I had completed my Secondary
School Certificate Examination. I was sent by my parents to Nashik city to
attend the summer course in military training run by ‘Bhonsala Military School’,
Nashik, for a duration of 5 weeks. In this course, we were taught drills, map
reading, horse riding and other military skills. We also handled real rifles,
though having a smaller bore of 0.22 inches. Every week a new platoon commander was
appointed by our teacher from the boys. I also had a chance to experience this
responsibility for one week.
The main difference between a rifle and a shot gun is in the finish of the
barrel bore. Shotguns have a smooth bore
in the barrel. A rifle has helical grooves called rifling, cut or formed on the
inside of the barrel. This groove gives the bullet a spin, as it travels
through the barrel. This spin is supposed to stabilize the bullet by what is called
gyroscopic motion. A rifle therefore is more accurate and gives a greater range
than a bullet fired from a smooth bore shotgun.
‘Bhonsala Military School’ at Nashik had their own firing range for rifle
shooting practice. Around that time (1959}, the public confidence in products
made in India used to be quite low. This was natural after centuries of British
dominance. ‘Bhonsala school’, therefore, not only had British rifles, but even
the ammunition they used was made in England. The
school firing range must have been about 60 feet wide and fair length, located on
plot of flat barren land with yellowish natural soil. There were tall
trees all along the perimeter except for one side, where a tall stone wall
stood solidly as protection against any stray bullet fired. Towards one end of
the plot a brick platform, about 3 feet high, was built. It was completely
covered with tapering soil. Around 8 or 10 blue-coloured durries would be
spread on this platform at equidistance in such a way that any person lying on these
durries in prone position, would directly see the stone wall. Towards the stone
wall end of the durries, sandbags would be kept as a resting place for hand. During shooting practice, at one time, 8 to 10
schoolboys would be lying in a prone position on durries. They would have their
left legs kept straight and right legs folded inwards. They would be holding
their 0.22 sports rifles aimed at the target boards erected at 100 meters from
the platforms. The stock of the rifles would be pressed firmly against
shoulders. The left hand would support the rifle from below and right hand on
trigger. The target boards would have several
concentric circles and a bull’s eye marked at center, on them. All the boys
would wear school uniform with shoes. Each
of the boys would be given 5 bullets and scores recorded later.
This prone position is believed to be most stable position
for firing a rifle, though sitting and standing postures are also used. All
guns always give a solid recoil shock, though for a 0.22 rifle it is somewhat
less. For a 12 bore shotgun, this recoil
is quite high as I found later. It is
therefore very important to keep the rifle butt or stock at correct location on
the shoulder, so that any mishap can be avoided. The regular infantry rifle
gives a very heavy recoil shock, and we were told by our army instructor that
even a regular army soldier may feel fatigued after firing a larger number of
bullets from these rifles.
0.22 rifle bullets are much smaller and shorter. They
consist of a brass enclosure closed at one end, where a small copper spot would
be brazed in center. Just like a shot gun, the rifle bolt pin hits this very
spot generating heat that causes the ammunition to explode and gives kinetic
energy to the steel bullet in front.
During my college days, I joined NCC or National Cadet Corps
for a couple of years. This programme was more advanced version of the school
ACC programme but more rigorous and advanced. Besides
military training, we were taught to handle more advanced arms used by Infantry
division of Indian army and had a chance to actually fire these arms on an army
firing range. I believe that NCC have their own firing range now in Pune. In my
college days, there was no such facility, and we were taken in army trucks to one
of the garrisons in Pune. A thoroughly enjoyable
experience for me.
As I mentioned earlier, much later in my life, I had an
occasion to shoot a new type of gun on a firing range couple of times. One of
my elderly relatives had then taken a fancy to shooting a gas charged air
rifle. This was essentially an air gun, which meant that there were no
explosives of any kind in the bullet. The gun was armed by breaking the barrel
in middle, which compressed a spring provided in the gun. When the trigger was
pulled, the spring was released, which then would hit the pellet. Gas-charged
air rifles, including nitro piston (gas ram) and pre-charged pneumatic (PCP)
types, utilize compressed nitrogen or air rather than a metal spring to
propel pellets. They offer improved accuracy, reduced recoil, quieter
operation, and the ability to remain cocked for longer periods. The
compressed gas was stored in a bottle kept in the butt of the gun.
During those days, Walchand Industries group had built an
Air rifle firing range in their factory on old Mumbai- Pune highway, which
could be rented on hourly basis. My relative used to rent this range occasionally.
I had an occasion to accompany him couple of times and could try my hand on
firing. This firing range had a range of 25 or 100 meters and for air rifles
with .22 pellets, this was good enough. The target bords were movable as they
were fixed on a steel rope-pully arrangement. After the shooter had fired the
shots, he could pull the target board towards himself and count his score.
To end this narrative, I must mention that despite varied
exposure to rifle shooting over the
years, I was at the most could be called a poor shot. My best attempts never
exceeded the outermost circle on the target board. Rifle shooting needs a very steady hand, which
I lacked. It also needs very powerful forearms and an ability to deeply
concentrate. In Mahabharata, there is a popular story that Guru of Pandawas and
their cousins Kauravas had placed a dummy parrot figure on a tree to give
archery practice to his disciples. The archers were supposed to shoot the eye
of the dummy parrot. To each of his
students, Guru Dronacharya asked to concentrate on the target and then asked them,
what did they see? Almost all of them had replied that they could see many
things such as the tree, the parrot etc. It was only the great archer Arjuna,
who had replied that all he saw was the eye of the parrot.
This story tells us that besides physical strength, the most
important requirement for a shooter is the uncanny ability to concentrate on
the target. Today we do not shoot arrows with a bow but even for a modern gun,
the basic principle remains same.
I consider myself somewhat luckier to get exposure to real
guns and firing ranges during formative years. Today’s young are so protected
from reality that they can only see a gun in a video game. Only if they have a
military career, will they get a chance to handle guns. A person can never tell when he might face a situation
where he must defend himself or someone else in real life. It cannot be denied
that exposure and opportunity to have military training and handling real guns
builds up certain amount of confidence within oneself. Many of present
generation unfortunately miss this experience.
(Note- All information given in this blog is from
personal experiences with equipment and organizations from public domain. All
images are imaginary and generated by AI or from public domain sources.)
15 February 2026
No comments:
Post a Comment