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American Trip


armouredfarmer

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I'm off on a road trip across America next month, someone suggested I should try booking in to a shooting range to enjoy a bit of gun time, anyone any idea how feasible this is?

 

PT

 

Remarkably simple, though it is true that firearms regulations vary a lot by state. So your experience in New York might not be as interesting as say Arizona. Nevada for instance is known for it's ranges where you can use fully-automatic weapons, suppressed weapons, tank cannons, and the like.

Just do a web search for firing range in the areas you want to visit and see which ones rent guns and sell ammunition.

Most or all ranges require you buy ammo from them if renting their guns.

The supervision ranges from pretty much nothing, which can get a little scary depending on who's there, to the range safety officer watching your *every* move, also tiresome.

You will need to purchase or rent (depending on the range) eye and ear protection. If you are going to go to a couple ranges it might be worth buying something that isn't junk. A few ranges require over-ear protection rather than just ear plugs.

 

Finally, since many of the ranges that rent firearms are indoor ranges, you might consider using *both* ear muffs(defenders) and ear plugs. Just in case the bloke (or lady, we've been making a lot of progress of late) in the next lane shows up with a ported 44-magnum!

 

Also, it's a social activity... if you admire someone's firearm or ask about it and they are a regular shooter, there is about a 60% chance you will be offered a chance to shoot it. It polite to offer to buy your own ammo for usual calibers or offer reimbursement for others if you use more than 6-10 rounds.

An extreme example is shooting a M2 heavy machinegun can run $2400/minute in ammunition alone, .455 Webley ammunition is $2-3/round right now. On the other side of the scale, reloaders might have about $0.20/round cost and .22LR can get down to $0.07/round.

 

Coming out to California?

There are a few ranges that make you sign a loyalty oath or join the NRA (I do wish I were kidding) but most are simple for-profit business with a few municipal ranges thrown in. One range near me has a public outreach day for novice shooters, they provide the shooting lane, firearms, instruction, targets, and ammunition... all on a donation basis.

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