Our First Firing Range Experience

Have you ever wondered how to get into the sport of shooting, or just learn how to shoot a gun for self-defense purposes?

I’ve never tried the top shooting ranges in Manila, namely Armscor in the Basement of Makati Cinema Square, Jetro in Frisco, Del Monte, and PB Dionisio in Roosevelt, Quezon City. I had the impression that all indoor firing ranges are smoky, hot and only for gun club members.

But the Stronghand Shooting Range in E. Rodriquez, Quezon City elevated the indoor shooting range by providing a toxic-free, airconditioned indoor range environment that is friendly for newbies.

I’ve always been curious about it, so I decided to conquer my fears and try out shooting for the first time in my life. We accepted a free Shooting Range lesson, and here is our experience…

Stronghand Shooting Range has bays 1-12 for the experienced shooters (with a distance of 20 meters). Bays 13-18, on the other hand, are for beginners (with a maximum distance of 15 meters).

Stronghand Shooting Range prides itself on having the first toxic-free, smoke-free, airconditioned indoor shooting range in the country. 🙂

Their ammunitions are exclusively made with Vihtavouri Smokeless Powder and Russo Non-Toxic Primer. You don’t have that smoky smell after shooting.

It also means you have to buy bullets from them.

9MM – P10/bullet (guest), P9/bullet (member)
38 SPL – P10/bullet (guest), P9/bullet (member)
40 SW – P11.50/bullet (guest), P10.35/bullet (member)
45 ACP – P11.50/bullet (guest), P10.35/bullet (member)

Also, the lead bullet is fully copper-coated so that you aren’t at risk of inhaling airborne lead.

The shooting range is promoting Hravatski Samokres HS2000 Guns made from a Polymer frame (instead of pure metal), which are made in Croatia.

You can bring your own gun or rent at P500/gun (guest), P300/gun (member).

You can also buy your own HS2000 HS-9mm semi-automatic pistol from the Stronghand store for P42,000 with 16+1 rounds with 2 magazines plus the permit to own license, which costs P5,500.

Beginner’s TIP: Try the 9mm caliber first before trying the .45 caliber pistol.

Also, you need to buy a nice target board (P15 each) with Alpha, Charlie, Delta regions and a bullseye orange target.

Edgardo “Eddie” Laserna is the friendly range officer who also teaches the newbies. Eddie is a lifetime member of the Philippine Practical Shooting Association (PPSA) and a member of the National Range Officer Institute (NROI), the organization that officiates the sanctioned shooting matches.

He started by teaching us the shooting range terminologies: the Down Range is the area behind the striped yellow line (where you do the actual shooting) and the Up Range is everything in front of Eddie and the yellow line.

He demonstrated to us the Four Rules of Gun Safety:
1. Consider every Gun as loaded (all the time!)
2. Keep your finger off the trigger unless you are ready to fire. (see photo above)
3. Never let the muzzle of a gun point at anything that you do not intend to shoot.
4. Be sure of your target and what lies beyond and around it before you shoot.

We learned the basics on how to properly load the magazine with bullets, the best practice on how to hold and put the magazine, and the right technique to cock the gun.

We also learned how to properly and safely hold the gun,  just like holding a golf club.

You also have to grasp it tightly and press the trigger softly. It is like shooting a digital camera in a low-light environment, where you have to keep it steady and press the shutter softly on your exhale.

Proper stance is also important to have a stable foundation for shooting.

We got the chance to simulate a dry shoot (gun with no bullets) just to get a feel of the weight of the gun and how much pressure to use to trigger it.

We learned the basics of sight picture, which is the relationship between the rear sight and the front sight to the target with respect to the eye.  Here are the common sight alignment errors.

Finally, we learned to find out what is our dominant eye with the technique shown above.  The dominant eye is what you use for accurate sighting. Rache and I are both left-eye dominant.

We first tried shooting 10 rounds each with the 9mm HS pistol at a distance of 5 meters.

It felt good to finally conquer our fear of shooting.

We also tried shooting 10 rounds each with the .45 Armscor pistol at a distance of 7 meters.

The .45 pistol is a bit scary because it is heavier, louder and more difficult to shoot accurately. I would suggest that you try shooting .45 after the 9mm pistol.

Which one do you think is the target board of Rache and my target board? 🙂

Overall, it was an awesome first shooting range experience for us! We love the smoke-free environment,  airconditioned with Hepa filters, and the range officer who was very helpful. 🙂 It is just a bit more expensive than other ranges, but the toxic-free environment is worth it.

NOTE: The minimum age to shoot is 16 years old, accompanied by the parents. Kids below 16 can stay in the cafe and watch the shooting from the 180-degree view of the clear windows.

They have a small cafe called Kiss Kiss Bang Bang where you can  have a light snack after your shooting range experience. We did not try it because we found the Kiss Kiss Bang Bang menu not that enticing. 🙁

Stronghand Shooting Range
The first and only TOXIC-FREE indoor shooting range in the Philippines.
No Airborne Lead. No Sulphur Dioxide. No Barium Oxide. No Antimony Oxide.
Check out Shooting Hand Shooting Range Fees and Range Rules. 
Basement La Defense Bldg, 1660 E. Rodriguez Sr. Ave., QC (near corner of New York Ave.)
Telephone: +632 721-7174, 411-7171
Email: shootingrange@stronghandinc.com
Facebook: Stronghand Shooting Range
Operation hours: Monday to Saturday: 10am to 7pm. Sunday: 10am to 5pm.

TIP: The peak times start at 3pm onwards, and peak days are from Friday to Sunday. The best time to go would be weekdays at 10 in the morning.  Eddie Laserna’s day-off is every Tuesday.

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Full Disclosure: We accepted a free shootout beginner’s lesson worth P2,250 all-inclusive of shooting range fee, gun rental fee, 20 rounds of bullets and instructor’s certification.

P.S. Awesome.PH is running an awesome deal for those who want to try it:
45% off on Summer Shootout Lesson by Stronghand Shooting Range – From P2,250 to P1,250