By Mikkel K. Hovgaard, Member until 2024
Was Lucky Luke Jokokan? I will subsequently try to answer and describe that question and a description of participation in Project Old Modern Warrior III.
After completing POMW I, softgun shooting, and POMW II, traditional range shooting with 9MM and cal. 0.22 pistol, my expectations for the POMW III were very high. POMW I + II had given me a good introduction to pistol shooting on the range and had given me some a-ha experiences with target target shooting.
The first shooting was scheduled for September 1. Prior to this, one week of dry training had passed, primarily lifting a weight with an outstretched arm and practicing aiming with a softgun - it is quite hard to hold a 9 MM pistol in an outstretched arm and keep it still and it is quite difficult to keep both eyes open when aiming - when you have learned something else for 10 years. A total of three days of shooting were set aside for POMW III and all took place in September in excellent shooting weather.
All shooting took place at Hanebjerg Shooting Center, more specifically in the "hole", this unflattering term for a shooting range, covered an old gravel pit, which most of all resembled a backdrop for an old cowboy movie.
We started each shoot with a rehearsal of the weapon operation on a 9MM pistol and when everyone felt comfortable with it, Kimu Sensei went through the upcoming shoots. Common to the shootings we carried out was that we were no longer positioned on a traditional shooting range with a nice and proper distance between the shooters, perhaps a small wall between us, and on a neat and tidy concrete floor, but now we were on a shooting range without other than natural shields with a gravel base and with the risk of getting your partner's empty casings in the head. Cool.
Despite the fact that we were outside a traditional shooting range, safety was of course top notch, and there was expert guidance from both range commanders and shooting supervisors along the way.
For all shootings, we had prepared between 2-4 magazines, and there was therefore ample opportunity to train recoil control (getting used to the gun's recoil and how to find your correct aim again as quickly as possible after the previous shot), "reset" (next shot is fired immediately after the previous one without releasing the trigger), weapon operation and for getting used to foreign commands (you use that now that you are off-road in the shooting world).
It was clear that everyone, over the course of the three shoots, became more and more familiar with the weapons and markedly better shooters as the days progressed. Purely statistically, 90% of the participants were at the Danish division shooting level (4 shooters in the Danish 1st division) and the rest just below. Personally, my shooting also developed over the three days. Since I've never had problems with either firearms or loud bangs, it wasn't getting used to this that I had challenges with in the beginning in the first days. My challenge was that it was necessary for me to keep a constant focus on POMW shooting technique - to forget what was previously learned about shooting with a pistol. It wasn't until on the last day that I relaxed one hundred percent with the shooting and focused one hundred percent on POMW shooting technique that I shot the best rounds I have ever shot with a gun. So from going from an a-ha experience at the end of POMW II I went through, and from, POMW III with an "out of body" experience. I felt like I had really moved from being an OK, to being a GOOD shooter (in just three days of wet training with some aiming and weight training in between) – crazy.
Combined in the three days, I shot over 1000 shots with a gun, which is more than I have shot with a gun in total during my time in the defense. It should also be noted that this time it was 1000 rounds using POMW shooting technique, which if I had known about at the time would probably have given me something more than my silver mark in pistol shooting.
I am already looking forward to having to maintain my shooting over the winter under the auspices of SDK Skyt, with indoor training and cal. 0.22 shooting - but personally my favorite shooting will be outdoor shooting with 9 MM and I'm already looking forward to getting in the "hole" again.
Back to whether or not Lucky Luke was a Jokokan - maybe I didn't learn much about it and probably can't give a clear answer (but isn't it the same?), but one thing is certain - he could probably learned something from us Jokokans... if, like the rest of us who participated in the course, he was able to put the ego on the shelf a little, engage 100%, let go and be receptive and open to criticism and learning.