When we started to revive this hobby at our free time at the plant, we have no knowledge that there were groups out there enjoying airgunning for a long time.
Romi brought his first JBC airgun, now owned by Oliver and with his Amrscor too, I brought my old Armscor and Amado joined us with his Armscor too and he introduced us to the Philippine Airgunning group in Yahoo.
We learned a lot from the yahoo group(thanks to Brod Gino Castandiello a.k.a. "Heightaddict" from Bacolod City) and from the net where we found a lot of airgunners all over th
e world too.
I was assigned for a while in Cebu and I learned that there's a co-employee of ours whose into airgunning also. I approached Loloy Zamoras and he brought me to know the Cebu Air Rifle Association(CARA). I had my baptism to the airgun competition world not in Luzon but in Cebu. I was brought by Loloy to a competition in Minglanilla where CARA has a range. I met a lot of CARA members there like Mang Boy Alcoseba, Rogey Sy, Rod Nacorda and the kind old guy Mang Domeng Francisco. I saw a lot of CO2 airguns made in Cebu at the range and was even convinced to order one without considering how will I bring it home to Luzon. I ordered a Tugaon competition design sidelever CO2 airgun. The first shot in Minglanilla was followed by a shoot in Mandaue where I won a trophy in the 10 meter paper category, 3rd place on the beginner level..he-he..not bad for a newbie.
Back in Luzon, I had my first taste of airgun competition shooting at the First Armscor Airgun Metallic Silhouete competiton. I met a lot of airgunning groups there. There were groups from Laguna known as the Laguna Air Gun Shooters Association(LAGSA) then led by Mang Jun Bona now Papa Art Valentin. The JBC Team was also there from Bulacan also known as the Bulacan Shooters Association(BSA) led by Mang Jun Lacanlale, the owner of JBC airguns of Valenzuela. Noli de Leon of Filarms was there also, just starting Filarms then and Joel Gatchalian who used to work with Noli in designing the first Filarms air rifles was there also. The group of Mang Mario Muli(maker of the Muli Nimrod Airguns) from Pasig was also there, and some members from the Wild Wings of Arayat, Pampanga. Richard Fernandez was there of Las Pinas with the old but trusty Mang Kit Ello. There were lots of registrants and when the rain fell, some airgunners were not able to shoot as it's late already...Met the family of Mang Boni Borces there, the whole family is shooting airguns except for the wife who's aslo there as moral support to the team, they belong to the LAGSA group. There were also some guys from Nueva Ecija I met there.
The next shoot, I was able to convince Romi and Oliver to come along. It was held in Baliwag, Bulacan sponsored by the BSA group of Mang Jun Lacanlale. Mang Gilbert was there, Mang Mario Muli of PAsig whose airgun leaked during the competition..he-he.. better luck next time Mang Mario. Romi won his first trophy there in BR65, the first bench rest shoot done that we joined. He's still holding hi record of 38/40 points in that category.
Our addiction to airgunning was followed by acquisition of new airguns and by joining these competitions. There were lots of airgun competitions that we joined, some in Pampanga, in San Fernando, in Angeles and at the Clark Airbase. Lots of airgnners were there mostly from within Luzon area only.
In the Visayas, they were holding their competitions there almost every month. In Cebu with the CARA and in Dumaguete, Ilo-ilo and in Bacolod. The yahoo group has been our meeting place although at the net, we can exchange experiences there and share our knowledge with each other. Although there are some bullies in any group, the Philippine Airgunning Society has increased in numbers and became alive again. This was shown with the recently concluded PNSA shoot last May 10, 2009.(I won in Benchrest 25 there, he-he 3rd place nga lang). There was a small group from Bicol there during the PNSA competition.
I'm not sure if I missed some groups but everyone is free to add to this blog. Have a nice day folks, nothing to do due to heavy rains, just tuned my JBC bolt for the upcoming Bulacan shoot, hope it will materialize this coming sunday, June 14.
As Heightaddict always say " Airgunning Rocks!"
Shoot safe.
