...so off to the firing range we went. We went to the same place as last time although this time the intention was to fire some rifles instead of handguns. That didn't work out as well as planned, because there wasn't space on the rifle range at the time. Therefore, we started out with the Smith and Wesson Magnum 50 calibre model 500, which is still an insanely heavy and over powered handgun. I was more accurate than last time though, which I suspect is because I knew more about what to expect from it. In case you've forgotten, here's a picture of that gun:
Next was what I am going to call "the James Bond gun", a SIG Sauer 380 p232, which doesn't have a Wikipedia page. It's interesting to me that most of these gun companies have interesting histories. For example, SIG (Schweizerische Industrie Gesellschaft) is among other things a railway company, packaging and firearms company. Because of Swiss law, they weren't allowed to export guns, so they had to come to an arrangement with Sauer to make that happen. Hence the name. So, you can see how Bondy this one is:
That was a nice gun, although not very accurate. Hardly any recoil. Next was the Glock Model 30 45 Calibre and it's friend the Glock Model 30 45 Calibre with compensation. I much preferred without compensation to be honest:
Then the rifle range became available. Here I warmed up on what one gun manufacturer I found yesterday described as "the persuader" -- a Remington Model 870 pump action 12 gauge shot gun, the specific model I was using is the reinforced slug capable model. The slugs are pretty scary -- thing tennis ball sized hole in the target. Buck and game shot is less scary, but would certainly get some attention. The most interesting bit of this gun is it really looks like it should be in a terminator movie:
And then finally, there were two versions of the civilian edition of the M-16, the AR-15. The first is the standard issue AR-15:
To be specific, this is a Bushmaster AR-15, with forward assist. The other version was a carbine:
The only real difference to note here is the collapse-able stock. This rifle is very complicated compared with the AK-47, which I didn't fire as they didn't have any ammunition at the time we were there. Then again, it's very accurate over much longer distances than any of the other guns I have fired so far.
So, to finish up I've spent a little time with rifles now. I wouldn't consider myself an expert, and I still have no desire to actually own a gun, although Boing Boing does recommend it as a way of keeping your expensive stuff safe when you fly in the US. I think the bit I find really interesting here is the technical complexity (or sometimes brutal simplicity like in the case of the Springfield 1911) of these machines. I would agree with those who expressed an opinion last time that guns are designed to hurt people and are therefore bad, but I still think knowledge is a valid goal.
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posted at: 08:54 | path: /guns | permanent link to this entry