My first gun experience

With with some friends to a gun range in Vegas. Fired a Glock and a Thompson submachine gun. Had a lot of fun, and would like to do it again soon. Others in our group fired other pistols, a shotgun, a sniper rifle, an MP5, an M4 and a SAW.

A guy in another group fired a belt-fed 30 caliber machine gun. Might have been the loudest thing I've ever heard in my life.

awesome! Sounds like you guys had fun firing a lot of different weapons.

Next time fire the Ma Deuce, let me know how long it takes to recover your hearing.

Kinda wish I could fire a Chicago Typewriter.

It's hard to handle. Mine pulled up and to the right, so I overcompensated by gripping it too tightly. Still managed to shoot a target of the Terminator in the head a few times.

What did you do for safety training before you started? I love teaching people to shoot, but safety training always happens well before I let them touch a gun!

I've been meaning to have my first gun experience soon. My friend keeps trying to get me to the shooting range, but we are always at a loss to find the time.

We had an instructor who walked us through the proper stance for each gun, told us not to point it at anything and keep our fingers off the trigger.

She was pretty hot, too.

Of course she was. She's a gun nut.

It would have been really cool if you said to her "you can put your finger on the trigger of my...love gunnnnnnnnnnnnn" anytime!

Unless she was fifty she probably wouldn't get the reference though.

Many years ago my first gun experience wasn't as much fun as I had hoped.
I couldn't see too well from behind that grassy knoll!

It was pretty expensive, but so is everything in Vegas, or at least everything that doesn't leave you with a disease. It was $120-ish for firing two clips from the glock and one clip from the Thompson. Some of the other packages were 160-200, but you got to fire two or three more weapons.

No real recoil from either weapon, though the Thompson pulled a lot. It was incredibly loud, especially anything semi or fully automatic.

And I wasn't really aiming at anything specific other than the target, but I always hit it. Popped the jihadist target right in the face a few times.

I fired a .22 rifle and some variety of revolver a couple of years back while in California. The regulation is obviously much more lax in Nevada if they allow machine guns.

It does make you appreciate the skill required to fire accurately.

Muzzle climb is one of the reasons firing on full auto isn't usually very accurate.

I did a similar thing a few years back.

Thought about doing that when I was there for Spring Break. Not enough time in 5 days, though, especially for a hoot-owl like me.

We wanted to go to the Gun Store, but there was a two hour wait. Went to Machine Gun Vegas instead, and we got in right away. It was cheaper, too.

I'm not really a full-auto fan either.

I think shooting an old-school muzzle-loader would be fun. Maybe some day I'll get off my ass and make it happen.

Anyone else go to the Mob Museum or the Atomic Testing Museum?

See? It's fun!

Dixie Gunworks has a Harpers Ferry 1805 pistol kit that I really want, but it is over $400. For that kind of money I should get a modern gun--that doesn't require assembly.

Anyone can buy a cookie-cutter modern gun. Dare to be different!

It's why I shoot a longbow - because ninety-five percent of bow hunters use a modern compound.

Muzzle-loader fun: Here's my friend Joe interrupting my friend Tony's peaceful target shooting by laying down a smokescreen:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ved1tRhpfqI

You got ripped off.

Of course. They do that at places where they let people who've never touched a gun shoot submachine guns. If he enjoyed it and thought it was worth it, he didn't get ripped off. That said, for around $150 you could probably pick up a used Ruger Mk II and a brick of .22 and shoot for an entire afternoon--and have a gun to show for it at the end of the day.

This is why I didn't partake last time I was in Vegas though some in my group wanted to do so. I'd have to do much better at the card tables to spend so much checking out a few guns. I have actually fired a number of rifles, even earned the riflery merit badge as a boy scout. And while I could see owning a hunting rifle if I lived in the kind of place where people hunt, I couldn't see owning the guns Mike fired. If I wanted to try them, the price would have to be much lower.

Gul, there's actually a pretty cheap place for that kind of stuff just down the road from you.

To me, the people that came up with this idea are geniuses!

Sure, most people lose money in Vega$, but there are enough that win. Hell, you win some decent cash in Vegas, it's time to splurge! That money is gonna burn a hole in their pockets! Some guys will spend it on hookers and blow, but for many others that's not a viable option. But shooting machine guns is a rare thing for the average Joe, and he can even bring his wife/GF. Who cares if it's really expensive compared to the real world...the casino is paying for it!!!

I would've done it last time I was in Vegas, but I didn't win at the tables during my stay there.