A change of career in his sights: An insight into sharpshooting

Instructor Lowell Anora gives The National’s Hareth Al Bustani targeting tips as he takes aim during the sniper competition at Al Forsan International Sports Resort. Delores Johnson / The National

What does it take to become a sharpshooter? Intrepid reporter Hareth Al Bustani sees if he has what it takes to handle a rifle in the Al Forsan International Sports Resort sniper contest

You look down the scope, moving further away until the target is in sight. Then point the gun ever so slightly to the right and left, up and down, until you’ve locked on. You inhale, exhale, and stop somewhere in between the two.

Next, make sure your cheek is pressed against the rifle stock, pushing it firmly to the shoulder, left hand squeezing tighter beneath under the front, right index finger steady on the trigger. Nothing else exists in your world. It’s just you, the gun, the target – and your anticipation.

Between you and the mark is an invisible line. You must become the shot.

There is an ironic Zen in shooting a weapon of destruction. Gradually squeezing the trigger, it becomes more important to embrace mindfulness, willing yourself to remain still, accepting all things as they are, not as they will be. Flinch, and you’ll miss.

Slowly you squeeze, heart pumping faster and faster. It is the ability to control adrenaline and not be paralysed by it that separates the hunter from the hunted.

“There’s no ammunition in it now – so, I just want you to feel the trigger,” says Neil Seady, shooting manager at Al Forsan International Sports Resort. “Put the crosshair in the middle,” he says. “Can you see the target? Do you see the target clearly?”

Affirmative.

“OK, then you can just squeeze the trigger.”

Except this sniper has never fired a gun before and is terribly afraid of noise and recoil.

Mr Seady dismisses such whimpering. “There’s no bullet in there, don’t worry. Don’t hold it too hard – just so that the rifle stays in the rest. Believe me, it doesn’t hurt,” he says.

His confidence is reassuring. You get back to the scope, repeating the motions. This time it’s serious – Mr Seady fetches a shorter stool. He uses his hand to measure the distance between head and the scope – making sure it’s a hand, or four inches, away. The tension builds, until the final catharsis arrives – a quiet click. It isn’t loaded after all.

“It’s a heavy rifle, so the recoil is not going to hurt you. The problem is, don’t let it hit you in the eye.”

Mr Seady, a South African, is a man of much experience but does not look his age of 60.

“I shot many competitions – rifle and pistol competitions, and then I ended up with clay pigeon shooting, where I ended up with my national colours for South Africa, and I shot two world shoots in America in ’96 and ’99,” he says.

Growing up working for his family business, which included gun sales, he also ran his own gunsmith for 20 years. Still an avid hunter, he shot his first competition in 1966 at the age of 11 with a .308 rifle, much like the one being used today. Back then, competitors would shoot larger targets up to 1,000 metres away but without a telescopic sight.

“You’d be using an old peep sight, with an adjustment, and you’d have to shoot outside and you’ve got to read the conditions, because that’s what a sniper has to do as well – he’s got to read the wind; the mirage, whether it’s a bright, hot sunny day or whether it’s a colder day, whether the wind’s blowing this way or that way, angling wind – all of these,” says Mr Seady.

He also served in the military for a while, which is mandatory in South Africa, though since 1989 he has focused on clay pigeons – mostly trap shooting. “There is trap skeet and sporting – three disciplines. We’ve got to pick one, because you can’t afford to shoot all of them and it’s not conducive to good shooting, because there are different techniques in each one.”

Returning to today’s challenge, he explains Al Forsan’s 300-metre sniper competition which runs this month.

“The shooting range has three distances – 100, 200 and 300 metres. You’re going to be shooting 300 metres. You have a choice of either lying down, or sitting with a bench.” Most people, he says, take the seated position.

“You have a targeting system, which works on Wi-Fi, and you can control the targets from here,” he says, pointing to the small computer.

“So now, I select the 300-metre option. The 10 mark over there is three inches, that’s your bull. For this competition, we’re not shooting for the middle. If you aim for the middle you might shoot over here,” he says, pointing right of the bull’s-eye on the computer monitor. “You just keep on aiming here, so you shoot all your shots together. It’s a grouping competition, not a scoring competition. What we call your zero on your rifle scope will be different to mine and different to his, so you’ll have 10 guys come and shoot with a rifle and they may shoot in 10 different places.”

Aim depends on a variety of factors, he explains, ranging from posture to height, even though the range is specialised with targeting systems, rifles, scopes and ammunition.

“If you’ve got a rifle and ammunition and a target, it doesn’t mean that you are going to shoot accurately,” says Mr Seady.

He demonstrates extensive knowledge about the weapons at the range such as the Sako rifle, made by a Finnish company that is now owned by Beretta, the oldest gun manufacturer in the world at almost 500 years old.

“You wouldn’t want to start with this,” he says.

“You’re jumping in at the deep end – you’d want to work your way up with a .22 rifle, just to get the feel of shooting.”

However, there is nothing to fear he says, because the .308 is manageable. “It’s not like it kicks you off the seat or hurts you. If you hold it nicely there’s no problem.”

The idea is to take five practise shots, which the system will analyse with a scanning device. Then, a printout will show the shooter their results – mapping them onto an X and Y axis, showing where they hit. The system will reveal the total dispersion – the size of the five shots, measured from the two outer shots. After the five practise shots, shooters will then complete five real shots, within five minutes.

“It’s plenty of time, believe me,” says Mr Seady, before handing over to pistol and rifle instructor Lowell Anora.

It is time for the five practise shots. Returning to the bench, with ear defenders, pulling the trigger slowly, the dread returns. While last time, this ended with an anticlimactic click, this time it results in an explosion – a reverse propulsion.

For a millisecond, the room splits in two, and suddenly your entire mind is consumed by adrenaline, shock, confusion, until clarity returns as you watch a small computer screen, waiting to see if you’ve succeeded or failed.

As the barrel smokes, relief slowly settles in. However, the power and satisfaction of having fired a top-notch Finnish rifle only barely cushions what seems like an eternity waiting for the Wi-Fi to transmit your results.

Luckily, this is just one of five practise shots. Mr Anora, a former police officer of six years in the Philippines, says he mostly worked with the M16 rifle, or pistols, before joining Al Forsan six years ago.

“We always emphasise safety and certain techniques. For example, the way you shoot, I can see what the problem is, what’s going on. When you understand what your problem is, and I show you the correct technique, if you listen and apply it, you will see improvements.”

Having taken five increasingly mediocre practise shots, and trying to flinch less, squeezing the trigger slower each time, it is time for the competitive shots.

The first two hit the bull’s-eye, the third just outside – it’s looking good. The fourth strikes just a bit further out, and the fifth unfortunately doesn’t hit the target at all. It’s over. It seems that video games aren’t great training after all.

Mr Anora offers some words of comfort. “You were expecting the loud sound and the recoil, it’s hard to control, I saw that. It’s normal for a first time though, so you did well.

“Whatever gun you want to shoot, if it’s accuracy shooting, it’s the same technique – just keep the gun steady and aligned, and let the gun fire. Just press the trigger, because if you try to hold the recoil, if you want to stop it, you actually normally push it down.”

Walking over to some of the other leaderboards, Mr Anora points to a set of five – four of the five results are the same two people trying to top each other’s scores, leaving provocative messages, such as “You mad bro?”, before the final victor, with a score of 100, writes “Long live the king”.

In the sniper contest, anyone with a low dispersion has a good chance of reaching the finals. The top 10 shooters will be called back for a final shoot-off, and the top three will reign supreme.

“But in that moment, when the crowd is watching you, maybe that changes everything. Today, you’re alone, so you can focus, you can relax, but when there’s so many people watching, it’s different.”

• The Al Forsan Sniper Competition runs until the end of October. Entry is Dh250 and the top prize is Dh5,000 plus a trophy. Call 02 556 8555, or visit www.alforsan.com for more details.