05/19/2026
Weapon is a mandatory course you must take and pass. If you don’t pass this course, you’d be recoursed (made to repeat) and if your failure becomes repetitive after several attempts, you’d be deem unfit for the armed forces.
For me, weapon handling was the weapon fashioned against me, literally😱😢😭 and was one of the many sheges my eyes saw.
I failed my weapon handling exam on the first, second attempts.
Everything about the weapon felt like magic to me at first. I was handing a weapon for the first time. I didn’t understand it mechanism. The thing also felt so heavy for my fragile body. My muscles couldn’t carry this weight. How am I supposed to handle this thing with one hand?
For context. The weapon is like carrying the weight of an almost 4kg baby on one hand, and being able to sustain that weight for a long period of time as well as perform all drills without lazing or losing control of the weapon.
Before weapon classes, there’s usually a lesson about identifying your dominant eye. The general rule is that your dominant hand follows your dominant eye. So if you’re right-handed, your dominant eye is usually your right eye. If you’re left-handed, your dominant eye is usually your left eye.
But in some cases, it’s the opposite. You can be right-handed with a left dominant eye or left-handed with a right dominant eye. That’s called being a cross shooter.
The purpose of knowing your dominant eye is to determine the best eye to use for aiming and shooting.
This was where my own wahala started.
I’m right-handed for almost everything, but when I did the test, my dominant eye turned out to be my left eye. So I tried to maintain things by naturally using my right hand to handle the weapon, but it still felt so unnatural. I felt that since I do almost everything with it (except driving), weapon wouldn’t be an exception. I failed badly. I thought my right hand would be stronger.
I couldn’t properly lift the 8-pound rifle with my right hand. It was such a struggle, and if you can’t lift the rifle properly, you won’t be able to perform the other drills effectively. You’ll also be considered an extremely dangerous person and not fit for the armed forces.
I kept trying and trying, but it just didn’t make sense to me that my right hand isn’t strong. You know the hand I use for almost everything was failing me. Ha. I didn't even think that my left hand could be an option.
Everyone tried to help me. My colleagues tried to teach me how to stand, how to position my body but nothing was working.
Then somebody casually mentioned that I try lifting the weapon with my left hand afterall the right was failing me.
That felt like magic.
The rifle suddenly felt lighter. Easier. More natural. Weapon handling drills on the left hand are even simpler than that on the right hand.
That was when it clicked. I am actually a left-handed shooter. No wonder my left eye was dominant. For many people, the dominant eye usually follows the dominant shooting hand. I wasn't an option.
But even after solving that problem, I still struggled with understanding the drills. Everything felt like Greek. It was just to complicated. What to do when you've an obstruction and how to solve this problem.
Weapon drills have to become second nature. We call it muscle memory because you’re handling a live weapon, not a toy rifle. Everything still felt strange to me. The marksmanship principles didn’t make sense in my head, and I just couldn’t fully grasp them. I just crammed a lot of stuff. The stoppage drill was the most complicated. I'd start to have panic attacks when I've an bullet obstruction. I just couldn't comprehend the whole thing.
Then exam day came.
I failed.
A big fat zero with plenty of red comments.
I was given a second chance. I failed again.
The instructors could already tell I was still struggling. They recommended that I start all over again because:
1. I hadn’t built enough muscle strength to handle the weapon properly.
2. I still hadn’t mastered the weapon drills.
What?!
Automatic recourse.
I was pulled out of platoon and made to start from the very beginning again. Everyone who passed had moved on and even graduated, but I was still stuck.
But you know what I did after I was pulled out?
I started learning my weapon drills obsessively.
I memorized every safety drill, unload drill, stoppage drills, load drill, and function test drill. It became a part of me. I could literally wake up from sleep and recite every step of the weapon handling process. I also focused on physical exercises that built muscle strength on my arms. I did all of this religiously. When you see my mouth moving, you just know that's what I'm memorizing.
I wanted to return better.
I didn’t want to be recoursed again for the same weapon handling exam.
And when I went back and got to that section of the course again?
I smashed my weapon handling test on the very first trial. The thing that felt like magic now felt so easy, so free. My rifle became my baby, and my partner. I could handle her, and perform all drills on her with my eyes closed.
I started helping other colleagues work through their own struggles. This was me who couldn’t handle the rifle now became a master of it.
The lesson. Many times, failure is not the end. Sometimes it’s simply the process that prepares you to return better than before.
