Full-auto firearms do make a satisfying lot of sound and smoke but if I'm turning money into noise and holes in a piece of paper, I'd rather use something that lets me shoot one round at a time. Even shooting someone else's ammunition.
...I'm not a bad shot and the emotional reward of punching paper pretty close to the X and knowing which shot did it is more fun for me than having the gun go brrrrrap! and keeping the whole burst on the paper.
If I was designing a pure-fun shooting range, it'd look like a cross between an old-time carnival gallery and miniature golf. I wonder if you could use a lightshow-type laser system for the target-occluding windmill blades?
Having worked at a shooting gallery during Summer break before college, and enjoyed minature golf much more than ever trying the adult size waste of good jogging country - that would be a great idea, put it right there along side the REAL KD ranges and shoot houses. I would invest in such healthy joy, yeah!
ReplyDeleteMost of us would be far better off with the "one-shot-at-at-time" mode anyway.
ReplyDeleteMake each one count!
I was at a private range once where they had spotlights that illuminated targets randomly, and you had a number of seconds to hit the target and make the light go out. I thought it was the coolest thing in the world.
ReplyDelete"...a cross between an old-time carnival gallery and miniature golf.
ReplyDeleteIf you build it, I would come.
Little America (scroll down) at 62nd/Keystone had miniature golf AND a shooting gallery.
Dunno why the link didn't take.
ReplyDeleteLet's try again:
Little America
TW: "snetlys"
S-N-E-T-L-Y-S
Snetlys puts hair on your chest!
Yanno you CAN shoot one round at a time from a full auto weapon.
ReplyDeleteHint: Release the trigger.
@RobertaX
ReplyDeleteNo. You are not the only one. I sometimes shoot very fast but it is important that all bullets hit the target.
I've often wanted to test a machine gun versus bolt gun at Boomershoot. Who could get the most boomers at 700 yards in five minutes? The machine gunner or an expert marksman with good equipment and spotter?
@Earl
I prefer:
"A golf course is the willful and deliberate misuse of a perfectly good rifle range."
Bill O'Connor
From Jeff Cooper's Commentaries
Vol. 3, No. 6
25 April 1995
I understand your point, but trust me when I tell you that running a full belt through a Ma Deuce on a range will put a smile on your face for a week. There is indeed nothing like it.
ReplyDeleteI agree with your comments and wish to subscribe to your newsletter.
ReplyDeleteBut but but...
ReplyDeleteThe budda budda budda.
The braaaap braaaaap.
MOTHER DUECE LOVES YOU! LOVE HER BACK!
I wouldn't sneeze at the chance to feed 100 bucks worth through an M134 if I had it...
ReplyDeleteSo pretty much flick-burp-whine-jingle-jingle-jingle-that was fun!
That said on a two-way firing range I think I'd worry the most about the guy taking aimed shots at me.
Jim
Oh, I wouldn't sneeze at it, and a machine gun on some kind of mount would probably be fun.... But for me, in the end, it's just turning money into noise instead of building a skill. There's nothing wrong with it but I might as well be lighting firecrackers.
ReplyDeleteSpeaking as one who has wasted more than his own fair share of ammo&money on and with full-auto toys, my biggest complaint with 'em is they are both the ultimate luxury items (you really can't do anything practical with them. you can't hunt or even defend your abode) and the examples in the NFA 'pool' available for civilian ownership are all old and obsolete.
ReplyDeleteThe 1986 law guaranteed the latter and while old stuff can be fun and interesting for awhile, I like to play with 'new' things upon occasion and that's why I got totally out of 'em and moved into thermal imagining and night vision equipment.
It's stuff I can DO SOMETHING WITH and IT'S NEW...
All The Best,
Frank W. James
They're kinda like sex - try the kinky once or twice, then get over it. In most cases. Sort of.
ReplyDeletedamn WV is trying to auto-fill! Help!
Given the litigous nature of our society and the idiot nature of some gun owners (you know who they are), anything beyond "There's a well-lit, non-moving, non-reacting, non-frangible target at a fixed distance directly in front of the small booth where you are standing, with a very solid backstop beyond that" is asking for trouble.
ReplyDeleteBut I agree: a shooting gallery, Hogan's Alley, etc. would be (pardon the pun) a total blast.
You're not the only one, but I would dearly love to own suppressors in this state. Shooting with my kids and being able to converse easily over the sounds of bullets hitting targets and slides smacking back and forth spoiled me.
ReplyDeleteI don't have any interest in full-auto either.
ReplyDeleteCap and ball revolvers are where it's at!
Roberta, thanks for the inspiration. I started to respond (with wookie suit and everything) but it's really a post of its own.
ReplyDeleteI'll give a preview: We *should* be able to build MG skills - as per the 2A - and it's one of the most unconstitutional things the .gov has done WRT 2A issues denying us the ability to equip on the level of the fedgov...