Shooting Range – Try Something Different In Florida

There are many attractions in Florida, there are of course the main stream parks of Disney and Seaworld and the such, then there are smaller things around and some that people would often not think of. One such thing is to have a try at a shooting range. In the words of some rapper “Guns dont kill people, people kill people” and shooting can been seen as an art like anything else as there is skill involved in shooting a gun accurately. I like many people of my era grew up with the start of decent shooting games on the pc (at least we thought they were) and so have always wanted to try shooting a gun or 2. At this point I will say that I have no interest in shooting at anything other than paper targets an hunting is not my thing although many do it, even in the UK.

On my first trip to Florida I kept seeing a sign on the Interstate speaking of a gun range, and after a bit of talking with the brother I managed into talking him into coming with me to this range to see what it was all about. The place itself was like so many other shops that were showing their products it just happens to be that they are all weapons, and as well as being able to buy a gun you can also take some of the guns and try them in the range.

Having seen the movies I wanted to try a semi automatic hand gun and so we both had a go with a Glock. When you want to try a gun you have to hand the shop your passport as proof of ID, there is then a charge per gun to hire it for the duration of the shoot and then you have to pay for the bullets that you will be using up. The rental was in the region of $30 with another $15 for a box of bullets, we then selected the paper target we wanted to shoot at, there was the classic body shape, or a bug grizzly holding a teddy bear hostage and then off you went to the range with one of the staff. This then turned into a movie style experience where you became Eddie Murphy style character and you get into your little unit and in front of you, you clip your chosen target to a clip near the ceiling and press a button that takes the target your chosen distance away from you down the range. Then for your first shot the staff member loads just one round in the clip, so that when you fire the weapon if you drop it when it goes off it is empty, this is a gun after all!!! It would be embarrasing to get shot because you dropped the gun!

It is surprising the noise (even with ear protectors on) and the thump you feel in your arm when you fire the gun, but after a few more shots you start to get ready for it and might if you are lucky actually start hitting the target! Probably not the centre but at least something that you can take home with you!!!

So, having finished my shots with this Glock and feeling smug we emerged and started looking for the BIG guns, the ones I had seat in Red Heat with “Arnie”. The staff seeing that I was ready for a challenge pointed out there most powerful handgun a Russian hand gun that was enormous,  cannot remember the name. That is the one that I want then I insisted and off we went. I must admit I got slighty concerned firstly when I saw the bullets which were clearly twice the size of the previous ones, and again they loaded just the one round and this time actually stood behind me with their hand on my shoulder! My God, how powerful was this gun?? As I pulled the trigger it made me more and more scared and then BANG. Whilst I am confident I wouldn’t have dropped the gun it did have a hell of a kick on it and was slightly glad that the guy was behind me although I think I look secure enough that I was going to get pinned to the back wall!!

There was on the other side of the shop a section where you were also able to try automatic weapons, where there were a lot of bullet holes in the rook where people had let rip, but the power of the gun lifted it straight up. We thought though that we would leave that for another day!!

Now I think it is safe to say that a lot of people probably would not have thought to have gone to a gun shop and tried firing off some of the weapons but I think this is something that is quite enjoyable and should not be dismissed. It is an experience that is quite enjoyable and should be tried, of course I will agree that it is not one for the kids but it should still be tried for those adults out there that would like to try something a but different in a safe environment!!

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