TR: I went to a gun range! Now I feel MACHO!!! (pics)

[Howard Beale]

So my 22 y.o. nephew was visiting me and my mom and the only things we know how to do is go to the mall or to dinner and movies. I did take him to Casino Arizona where he played the highest limit poker of his life (3-6). Mom had staked him $200 and I told him the deal was that if he won he had to give back the buy-in and half his win. He won $95 and mom wouldn't take back ANYTHING! So I mentioned this in the LHE forum and I was told to leave it alone, pretty much.

Anyway, with all of those exciting things to do you'd think that we wouldn't be bored but you'd think wrong. Then I remembered someone saying that there were gun ranges in the area (Metro-Phoenix) and people could just walk in, rent guns, and shoot at targets. I'm formerly from the NYC area and 'nobody' is allowed to have a pistol. Well, you CAN get a permit but you have to jump thru some serious hoops so I'd never even thought of getting one. We checked the phone book and went over to one of the local places ( I won't mention which one because some of you ppl are insane). The first thing they do is show you a sort of training/safety/warning video. It tells you the basics of gun safety and after watching it (and literally signing away my life on the lengthy release form) I was ready to chicken out but my nephew was gung-ho so I had to follow thru.

The next step is to pick the pistol you want. I figured that a revolver would be easiest so I picked one and was told that it was a .357 magnum which I know from the movies is a ridiculously powerful gun to be banging away with but they said it would fire .38 rounds so I went with that. My nephew insisted on getting the fanciest semi-auto they had so he ended up w/ some competition 9mm. We each bought a box of bullets to go w/ our guns and rented a shooting lane for an hour. The cost of all of this was just under $80.

Here is some stock photo of a shooting range (the place we went to is MUCH fancier):



So, loaded up with our guns and ammo, the gun range guy brings us thru 3 doors that won't open until each is closed and brings us to our lane. After he watches that we're loading our guns up (my revolver held 7 rounds, the auto 12) properly, showing us how to move the targets we'd bought, and waiting while we popped off a couple of rounds each we were on our own. First thing I'll tell you is that it is [censored] LOUD in the gun range. LOUD! We're wearing those ear things and plastic glasses they give you and it's still [censored] LOUD! Most of the other people shooting were being 'reasonable' about their target distance but my nephew wanted to be Dirty Harry about it and sent the target all the way to the back and I had to argue with him and we sent it back and forth between 25 and 50 feet. We spent about 45 minutes banging away with each other's guns at the various targets and then had a competition with the last of them. He won but not by much. Here is a pic of my final target. 7 rounds fired at 25 feet and 7 at 50 feet. I'm particularly proud of the head shot. That's exactly where I was aiming and got it on my third shot:



Another nephew is coming this Saturday. He's only 20 so no poker for him but it'll be back to the gun range for him and me! It's appalling in a way but a lot of fun!

[4_2_it]

Howard,

No massage parlor trip? What kind of uncle are you?

[Blarg]

Cool, glad you had fun. I've taken people to ranges who have never shot or even held a gun before, and even the real gun phobic ones absolutely loved it. Some things are just plain old fun, and no amount of politics can change that. But the initial fear people can have can be pretty high.

One good thing about some of the more scared ones, though, is they tend to be better at safety. Since they look at the gun as if it were a grenade with a missing pin, they tend not to be sloppy douchebags much.

[Howard Beale]

[ QUOTE ]
Howard,

No massage parlor trip? What kind of uncle are you?

[/ QUOTE ]

That was last week. I didn't think anybody would be interested even though it's post worthy. Plus they won't let me take any pics........

btw: I'm posting from a brand new 24" iMac (brag!) and 'they' messed up iPhoto somehow and I had to call support to find out how to get the pics into photobucket. It's a pain but at least I can do it now. I hope they fix whatever it is that they 'fixed'.

btw some more: I offered to take him to the strip club but he's the bookworm type and didn't want to go. Good thing too because I'm a sick [censored] in the strip club and don't want witnesses.

[AJW]

I find it sick and hilarious that you can be too young too drink or gamble but old enough to be rented a loaded gun.

[oddjob]

[ QUOTE ]
Cool, glad you had fun. I've taken people to ranges who have never shot or even held a gun before, and even the real gun phobic ones absolutely loved it. Some things are just plain old fun, and no amount of politics can change that. But the initial fear people can have can be pretty high.

One good thing about some of the more scared ones, though, is they tend to be better at safety. Since they look at the gun as if it were a grenade with a missing pin, they tend not to be sloppy douchebags much.

[/ QUOTE ]

this was me up till about 3 years ago. i hated the idea of guns, and they scared the [censored] out of me.

my friends took me to a range, and i loved it.

it's strangely fascinating. i have no desire to shoot anyone or any living thing, but i just like shooting stuff.

in colorado there's BLM land where you can just go an shoot. my friends and i go to a canyon which is a popular shooting spot. we brought a mannequin and shot the hell out of it.

now i want a gun of my own, but i can't decide on a pistol, or a bolt action rifle.

i kinda like the idea of getting one of these:

web page

[BennettBrauer]

A lot of times when in Houston on bizness, my co-workers and I would pull off the highway to one of the 12,345 gun ranges and do some pistol shooting rather than sit in traffic for an hour.

[Ray Zee]

good going howard. everyone should do this a few times to learn what a gun is all about. plus its fun. cant beat that.
now that you have gottten the banging out of the way use a .22 next time and practice accuracy. then go back and try it with the .38 in the light loads.
after a few times check out a fully automatic/ machine gun. costs plenty but why not be al copone for a few minutes.

[wet work]

If you've never shot sporting clays I'd highly recommend it. One of my friends calls it golf with guns. Trap and skeet are a little boring(repetitive) but still fun, there's just nothing really comparable to sporting clays for me. It is amazing how great you feel after a day of shooting.

[poorolrich]

If you really want a rush go out to the wilderness and HUNT each other. This will really get you blood flowing.