Yesterday we went to a pistol firing range for the first time. Today we upped the ante, and went to a machine gun firing range called Lock and Load! We started out with nearly an hour of explanation of what the various gun choices were, and then training on how to stand and fire.
These were five of the machine guns we chose to fire
We each chose four guns to fire. Both of us chose:
- HK UMP, 40 caliber from Germany
- FN Herstal SAW, 5.56 X 45 caliber NATO, from USA
Evelyn also fired:
- HK MP7A1, caliber 4.6 X 30 NATO, from Germany (used by Delta Force)
- HK 416, caliber 5.56 X 45 NATO from Germany (“the gun that killed Osama”)
Burt chose:
- Thompson (“Tommy”) Gun, 45 caliber from USA
- FN Herstal F2000, 5.56 X 45 caliber NATO from Belgium (“Bull Pup”)
Brian gave us training and help during the firing session
Evelyn proved a natural with the big guns. When doing a double-tap, she consistently hit the orange bulls eye on the first bullet, and a bit up to the right (but still well in chest range) on the second shot. Burt tended to hit dead-center bulls eye, but then subsequent shots ran up and the right, hitting any poor bystander a mile behind the target.
Interestingly, the Tommy Gun was the oldest gun of the group, and was the least sophisticated mechanism. Yet, it was the gun that Burt found the most accurate. He consistently kept those shots in the orange center. The other guns had elaborate modern internal tricks to keep the gun “easy to shoot,” yet those were the ones that Burt most often hit the unfortunate bystander with. Seems he really was a “man after his time…” ☺