Last Sunday (10 th June 18) I became the proud owner of a Hammerli Free Pistol Model 150. Since then, I have become younger by 25 years! Since Sunday, I have been totally and completely immersed in getting the pistol fitted to my satisfaction. Since then, I have been walking with a new spring in my step.
Yes. There are better free pistols in the market (debatable), so why you may wonder should I get worked up over a pistol which came into existence almost forty years ago!
Because thirty years ago, free pistols were scarce, very few shooters owned one or could afford to buy one. Those days, shooters like me, would cajole clubs or owners of these pistols to lend it to us for practice and to take part in competitions.
We would readily agree to comply with strict norms for their use and dire consequences if the pistol were not returned in proper condition, sometimes even veiled threats of being banned for life from shooting!
Heck! At that point of time I could barter with the Devil, so long as I could get my mittens over the Pistol, consequences be damned!
Having got hold of the Free Pistol, I couldn’t wait to get myself to the shooting range, prop up a target, set up the scope (usually borrowed) and then spend the next few hours in pure bliss!
Those days we could not blast away ammo, not only were they expensive but imports made availability of ammo restricted to a fixed quota per shooter. So, it was a lot of dry, dry, and even more dry shooting, till you just couldn’t resist the urge to let fly the shots and cost and quota be damned!
When your target is 50 metres away, you unlimber with the best technique you can muster at your command and let fly a shot and if it hits a ‘10’. Brother you are on top of the world!
That’s what shooting the Free Pistol can do to you. Makes you feel like a king!
That feeling, lifts the spirit, till it soars briefly into the high heavens and makes you forget all your trials and tribulations in your otherwise humdrum life.
Not for nothing do they call the Free Pistol event as the ‘Prince’ amongst all Pistol Events.
So now you have an inkling to what I feel in possessing my very own Hammerli Free Pistol.
Yes. There are better free pistols in the market (debatable), so why you may wonder should I get worked up over a pistol which came into existence almost forty years ago!
Because thirty years ago, free pistols were scarce, very few shooters owned one or could afford to buy one. Those days, shooters like me, would cajole clubs or owners of these pistols to lend it to us for practice and to take part in competitions.
We would readily agree to comply with strict norms for their use and dire consequences if the pistol were not returned in proper condition, sometimes even veiled threats of being banned for life from shooting!
Heck! At that point of time I could barter with the Devil, so long as I could get my mittens over the Pistol, consequences be damned!
Having got hold of the Free Pistol, I couldn’t wait to get myself to the shooting range, prop up a target, set up the scope (usually borrowed) and then spend the next few hours in pure bliss!
Those days we could not blast away ammo, not only were they expensive but imports made availability of ammo restricted to a fixed quota per shooter. So, it was a lot of dry, dry, and even more dry shooting, till you just couldn’t resist the urge to let fly the shots and cost and quota be damned!
When your target is 50 metres away, you unlimber with the best technique you can muster at your command and let fly a shot and if it hits a ‘10’. Brother you are on top of the world!
That’s what shooting the Free Pistol can do to you. Makes you feel like a king!
That feeling, lifts the spirit, till it soars briefly into the high heavens and makes you forget all your trials and tribulations in your otherwise humdrum life.
Not for nothing do they call the Free Pistol event as the ‘Prince’ amongst all Pistol Events.
So now you have an inkling to what I feel in possessing my very own Hammerli Free Pistol.
