Chapter 30 Shooting Practice
After leaving the Blackthorn Security Company, Angel followed Klein Moretti, who was familiar with the place, to No. 3 Zouteland Street, a low building with a plaque of "Zotland Shooting Club" hanging on the mottled wall.
The shooting range belonging to the Tingen City Police Department is located underground and is two times larger than the ground building. It is not only used for daily police practice, but also open to the general public for shooting practice, and an entrance fee is charged to subsidize public use.
Angel took out the police badge he had just received from Old Neil and identified himself to the receptionist at the front desk.
The two were led by a waiter to a spacious basement. Opposite the staircase was a lounge, luxuriously decorated with multiple gas lamps and offering free tea. A passage at the other end led to a shooting range, divided into several small rooms. Some of them were already marked "in use," and loud gunshots could be heard from them from time to time.
They chose the empty room at the back. The waiter helped set up the target and left. The two of them each placed the bullet box on the table next to the shooting position.
"Ladies first?"
Klein loaded the bullets one by one and swung the revolver, but he did not start shooting. Instead, he looked at Angel on the side.
"You go first. I need to get familiar with my new gun."
Angel declined politely. She had just received her new revolver and wanted to get familiar with the weight and feel of the gun first, rather than wasting bullets right away.
Klein nodded, holding the gun with both hands, legs slightly apart, slightly bent over, arms straight, and aiming the gun at the target 15 meters away.
It's a very conventional aiming posture, very rigid, but lacking in spirit, Angel thought to himself.
"Bang--"
The gunshot rang out, and Angel looked at the target. The Beyonder's enhanced vision allowed her to easily see the bullet hole on the target, 8 rings.
After hitting the target with the first shot, Klein did not fire the second shot immediately. Instead, he put the gun back into the holster, stood there for a few seconds, suddenly reached out from under his armpit to pull out the pistol, aimed with one hand, and fired quickly.
After the gunshot, Angel looked carefully and saw that it was still 8 rings.
Wait... this is where the last shot landed...
Did it miss the target?
Klein also felt a little embarrassed. He glanced at Angel, adjusted his posture to aim with both hands, and continued to shoot until all the bullets in the gun were used up.
The remaining bullets did not miss the target, but maintained a score of 7-8 rings. This seemed to be the gun-holding posture he usually practiced. The movements were standard, but seemed a bit stiff.
Angel also took out the new revolver she had received from Old Neil. She first held the gun in both hands, posing in various postures to feel the weight of the new gun, fired a round from the empty chamber to test the trigger force and travel, and then began to load the bullet.
After Klein fired two rounds and sat aside to massage his arm muscles, she came to the shooting position with her gun, stood sideways, held the gun with both hands, and began to aim and shoot.
Unlike Klein's previous gun-holding method of facing the target with his legs apart and arms stretched out to maximize stability and hit rate, Angel used a gun-holding posture designed for close-range combat.
She bent her right elbow, held the gun at an angle at chest height, raised her left elbow and pressed it forward, clasped her right hand with her palm, and fixed the gun near the center axis of her body with both hands. She did not use the three-point aiming method, but instead roughly pointed at the target based on the feel of the gun and then fired.
Bang, bang, bang—
After firing five shots in succession, Angel slightly adjusted the angle of his gun grip according to where the bullets landed, and emptied all the bullets in one breath.
She swung the revolver, pressed the ejector lever, ejected the still smoking shell, and then looked at the target in front of her to assess her results.
Among the five bullets, only the last one hit the 10th ring, and the rest were distributed around the center point around the 8th ring. For a new gun that I just got and I am not familiar with, this is a very good result.
After reloading five bullets, she held the gun with her right hand at waist height and continuously pulled the trigger at the target without aiming at all.
The recoil of the large-caliber bullets caused the revolver held in one hand to swing back and forth. Even with Angel's physical fitness strengthened by the potion, he could not keep it stable, so his shooting accuracy was much worse than before. After all the bullets were fired, the bullet holes were randomly distributed in various positions of the target. Compared with the results of the previous round, it can only be said that he barely hit the target, and the number of rings was dismal.
Klein, who was sitting and resting nearby, noticed her strange shooting posture and came over curiously. When he saw the bullet hole on the target, he raised his eyebrows in surprise.
"Miss Granger, was your shooting stance just now some special technique? I thought pistol shooting required..." He took aim with his pistol, "...aim from three points in a straight line like this."
"That's how you aim for normal shooting."
Angel nodded, reloaded the bullet, and followed Klein's previous posture, facing the target with her legs apart, holding the gun in front of her with both hands, so that her right eye, the rear sight, and the target were in a straight line. She took slight aim and pulled the trigger.
A gunshot rang out, and another 10-ring bullet hole appeared on the target.
Klein didn't respond, knowing there would be a "but" later.
"However, I believe that a pistol is essentially a close-combat weapon. In close combat, this kind of wide-open aiming is both time-consuming and highly impractical, as it allows the enemy to exploit weaknesses. In close combat, aiming isn't necessary; all you need to do is land the bullet first."
"This is my personal opinion, it may not be correct."
Angel added.
Seeing Klein's face full of confusion and bewilderment, she thought for a moment and decided to test her theory with some actual combat training.
"Now imagine we're enemies, standing face to face three meters apart. If you draw your gun and aim at me, you win, and I need to stop you."
She instructed Crane to face her and back away to the table against the wall.
This small shooting range was only about five meters wide, and with the tables on both sides, the width for people to stand was only about three meters. The two men were standing almost facing each other with their backs against the tables.
Klein stood up with his legs slightly apart, flexed his right hand, and stared at Angel, who was standing still in front of him, with a serious expression.
Swish——
While the other party was not paying attention, he tore open his shirt with his left hand, quickly reached for the holster under his left armpit with his right hand, grasped the gun handle and drew out the pistol. This was exactly the shooting action he had just practiced, but failed to hit the target.
Of course, there was no need to pull the trigger this time. After all, the other party was his colleague. He only needed to aim the gun -
The moment Klein drew his gun, Angel also turned from stillness and rushed forward.
The three-meter distance was almost within reach for the "assassin" in a flash. Before Klein could straighten his right hand holding the gun, he felt a force pressing his hand back to his chest. He exerted force with his elbow and even pressed his left hand on his right wrist in an attempt to resist, while his body retreated backward. But before he could continue, his abdomen tightened and a pistol was pressed against his coat.
Angel's body, which was considered tall among her peers, was pressed against Klein. She held down his wrist holding the gun with her left hand, and at the same time, she pulled out a pistol from her waist with her right hand and pressed it against his lower abdomen. With just a slight pull of the trigger, a large-caliber bullet could be sent into Klein's body.
In less than two seconds, the outcome was decided.
"Ahem - Miss Granger, please move aside. There's no room to stand back there."
Klein, who was suppressed, flushed red in the face and tried to dodge backwards, but the narrow shooting range left him with nowhere to retreat. His waist was pressed against the table, his upper body leaning back, and he had no choice but to warn.
Even though Angel was not aware of her status as a woman, she now noticed that their posture was a bit strange. She quickly let go of her left hand and took a few steps back.
"Feel sorry."
She turned her face away to avoid the awkward eye contact and started to change the subject.
"That's right. In close combat, you don't have time to aim your gun. If the gun is too far away from your body, there's a risk of it being taken away. If it's a life-or-death fight, I don't even need to rush to you. I can fire three shots before you even point the gun at me."
Klein nodded in agreement. Although he felt that if the distance between them was another four or five meters, he would have a chance to aim and fire, in such a small room, taking the gun from the holster under his arm and raising it to aim was indeed too slow.
"Let's switch roles. Considering you're not an 'assassin', we should just stay two meters apart."
The two adjusted the distance between them and stood face to face again. The shortened distance was so short that they could almost reach each other with their hands outstretched.
As soon as he stood still, Klein rushed forward. He knew that the "Fortune Teller" potion did not strengthen the body. Facing the "Assassin", if he wanted to win this limited close combat competition, he could only attack him by surprise.
He didn't draw his gun during the sprint. From his previous failure, Klein realized that he couldn't draw his gun from his armpit holster as quickly as the other party. Only by getting close and pinning down the other party's hand, like Angel did, would he have a chance—
Seeing Klein trying to grab the gun, Angel calmly took a half step back with his right foot, pulled out the pistol from the holster on his waist, and blocked Klein's attack route with his left elbow. He raised his right hand slightly to his chest, pointing the muzzle of the gun at Klein who was rushing forward.
Only then did Klein's outstretched right hand reach Angel, but he had no chance to go around her elbow and touch her gun.
"You see, if I hold the gun like this, you have no chance of hitting my weapon. Instead, you actively close the distance, allowing me to shoot without aiming."
Angel shook the gun and explained.
Seeing that he was being aimed at by a gun, Klein raised his hands and admitted defeat.
"It seems your way of drawing the gun is indeed more practical, but can you guarantee accuracy if you fire without aiming?" Klein asked. He pulled out his own pistol again, holding it like Angel, and fired a shot at a target 15 meters away. As expected, the shot missed the target.
"This is a 15-meter target, which is medium distance for pistol shooting. It's normal to miss the target."
As Angel explained, he walked over to Klein, holding the gun at waist level with one hand and firing three bullets in succession. Three bullet holes appeared on the target at varying distances from the center.
"But with a little practice, most people can do it, and it's enough for close combat at three to five meters."
"With a little practice..."
Angel seemed to hear Klein muttering something.
"Um?"
She tilted her head in question.
"Nothing. I mean... what if the target is dozens of meters away? For example, there's an enemy 50 meters away with a high-pressure steam rifle?"
"Of course, run as far as you can. Do you want to shoot him with a pistol?"
Angel looked at Klein puzzledly, as if he had asked an incredible question.
"……you're right."
After a long silence, Klein agreed.
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