I imagine that not everyone will approve of this post, but this site is about me and my travels, so you'll just have to get over that. For some time, David has been promising that next time I come to Phoenix he'd take me out shooting at a local firing range. This was my idea, although David seemed more than happy to facilitate my wild desire to hold a gun for the first time, let alone fire it. After some shopping around, we settled on the rather quaintly named Shooters' World. It's about a 20 minute drive from the office, but when you're in a city where a cool day is over 35 degrees Celsius, having an air conditioned range seemed like a good idea.
After some fast talking, Chris (an ex-Marine) and yet another Michael (we have a large supply of those at work -- this one is from Santa Monica) agreed to come. I'm personally really glad of that, because I found it quite reassuring to have someone who fired guns for a living doing the training.
Off we went to the firing range. The first gun I got to fire (I'm resisting using the word play, it seems like much to serious a topic to be light about), was the Springfield 1911 45 calibre. At the time that Chris was in the Marines this was apparently the standard issue Marine side arm, and it's a nice feeling weapon. It's got a clever safety too, you need to be squeezing the handle before you can fire. Here's a picture of the 1911 for the curious:
The Springfield armoury has an interesting history by the way, and I should add it to the list of places I should visit, if I ever happen to be in Springfield, Massachusetts. The 1911 has an interesting history too, the basic design for this automatic pistol goes back to late 1890s. I must admit at this point that I was using a newer remake of the gun, not the exact gun from over 100 years ago.
Next there was the Fabrique Nationale 57 USG, which at the time I thought was a bit pathetic because it fires very small rounds. It is disastrously accurate though, even for someone with no experience like me. When I get a chance I'll scan one of the targets I used and you'll see what I mean. When we all went back to the office and David did some Googling, it's interesting to note that this gun is by far the most controversial, as it's currently the target of a proposed ban. I guess that's not surprising, as it turns out the reason for the very thin rounds is because they pierce light body armour. To quote from the Wikipedia page:
Conventional pistols usually use 9 x 19 mm, .45 ACP and similar cartridges that are effective for stopping a hostile individual in ordinary circumstances. However, FN argues that if that individual is wearing a light Kevlar vest, these bullets will be stopped without causing lethal damage. Such body armour is currently in use with over 50% of the world's armed forces. Law enforcement officers also need the ability to pierce body armour, as it is worn by an increasing number of criminals. FN claims that thanks to the use of their newly designed 5.7 x 28 mm cartridge, the Five-seveN is capable of piercing the older U.S. Army PASGT vest at 300 meters range, and a U.S. Army PASGT helmet at a range of 240 meters. However, these penetration statistics are for the military SS190 cartridge. Other available cartridge variants may not be armour-piercing, according to the BATFE.
So, that's a pretty scary gun given it was by far the most accurate of all of those I fired, had the biggest clip, and isn't stopped by traditional armour. Oh, and did I mention that the gun is all plastic except for the barrel? Holy crap. The only real catch was that the barrel tended to over heat leaving the gun jammed after rapid firing. I imagine this could be annoying if you're feeling the need to use a gun for real. Chris suspects that it might just be because the range gun needed some love though.
Next on the tour was the HK 45 calibre USP. This gun was terribly inaccurate (again, I'll put the scanned target online soon-ish), but seemed to do the job. It certainly looks the part as well:
Finally, Chris had some strange out of body experience, and went back outside to pick up this thing:
It came in a case labelled "the law giver", which should give some indication of how serious it is. This thing was crazy, it's heavy. Really heavy. That might have something to do with the fact that it's about a foot long. It's balance is weird, and it wants to point at the ground naturally. It's got a hair trigger, which makes it easy to fire accidentally if you've hand cocked the weapon. Oh, and it fires 50 calibre shells, which are mainly lead. The bullets were $1.50 US each if you bought a box, or $4 US each. Oh, and it's a Smith and Wesson Magnum 50 calibre model 500 for reference.
The Magnum 50 calibre was totally terrifying to fire, let alone be the target of. First off, the recoil is huge, and my wrist hurt for about 30 minutes afterwards. Secondly, Chris isn't a small guy, and he was being pushed back a step each time he fired. Oh, and checkout the fireball it created when fired. Have I said holy crap already in this post? Oh, and the Magnum was almost instantly nicknamed "Mr Blasty", although Chris seemed to prefer just calling it a canon.
So, does this make me a gun nut? The firing range was fun, and I will certainly go back sometime. I have no particular urge to have a gun at home (unless I get into sport shooting, when it would be cheaper, and nicer, but at that point I think I would store it at the firing range). Then again, apparently around 50% of Arizonian cars have a gun in them, presumably loaded. There were also two serial killers on the prowl while I was there, although they have now caught one of them.
Oh, and a final point? I'm really surprised by the excellent gun coverage at Wikipedia. Wikipedia seems to always have more content that I could possibly need.
Oh, and one other final point. I flew back with five 50 calibre shell casings in my hand luggage. I was impressed when the x-ray guy correctly identified the casings from the x-ray image, although he thought they came from the Israeli manufacturer Desert Eagle, which is also a 50 calibre pistol. It's strangely reassuring that the airport security folk can find things like this, although they seemed completely unconcerned (the Phoenix airport informational video suggests that if you're travelling with guns to put them under the plane, so this sort of thing must be fairly common).
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posted at: 13:45 | path: /guns | permanent link to this entry
#1 Oscar T. Grouch
Hehehe!!! That looks like fun. Only in the USA could you do that!! Thanks for the quick pics. Trust you to go to the most extreme revolver being made now! It only holds 5 rounds!! Wanna hope you're a good shot.
Apart from the obvious moral qualms you're having I looking forward to your next installment - but what to try next? Tech 9mm, Styer, ooh, ooh, what's the gun with the built in grenade launcher? Do that one :)
O.T.Grouch
#10 Patrick
Congrats on the shooting experience! You seem to have a very open mind when it comes to this controversial topic.
I'm glad you enjoy your first experience with firearms, and may you some day return the favor to a fellow first-timer.
Pat