Episode 2 - The Gun Range | Bucket List Vlog

in #bucket-list7 years ago (edited)

The Shooting Range

Bucket List Vlog

Me and my girlfriend @azria recently got back from the US after a 14 day road trip from New York to Kentucky and back.

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We initially went for our great friends, John and Lauren's wedding. So I saw a good opportunity to add a few items to the bucket list whilst we were there.

The first one is;

Visit a shooting range
The place we visited was called "The Machine Gun Nest" in Maryland.
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Now to those of you reading in the U.S, this post wont seem so special as you have these shooting ranges all over the place. But for an Englishman, where the closest we can get is doing clay pigeon shooting, it is pretty fun. Handguns and rifles are very illegal in the UK and really not something you ever see, let alone get the chance to have a go at.

We met Micheal at the range who was a really nice guy and very knowledgable. He taught us the differences between some guns, the magazine size, single action and double action, safety, and how to check the chamber etc.

Single action is where each time you pull the trigger a round is fired. Double action is where, 1 full trigger pull fires a round, then on the second trigger pull, the trigger requires a smaller pull as the hammer is left cocked from the first fire. (I may have phrased that slightly wrong but the gist is right). We both preferred single action as its the same every time.

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One thing I was blown away by was the selection. I felt like I had just walked into an Ammu-nation store from GTA

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I mean, check out this insane wall of guns. You could rent or buy all of these!

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and finally, if those are just not big enough, you can always rent a belt fed Browning Machine Gun for only $175.00

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They were really cool about letting us take some photos of us messing about..

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So we chose a load of guns to try.. I got carried away and got;

1 Glock 17 Single Action 9mm Handgun
1 H&K P30 Double Action 9mm Handgun
1 Desert Eagle .50 cal
1 AR15 .223 Semi-Auto Rifle 9mm

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AR15 .223 Semi-Auto Rifle 9mm ...with a Red Dot Sight

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The experience wouldn't have been complete without some COD Zombies style Zombie targets
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We then hit the range!

You get a control dial on the wall to set how far away you want the target to be.

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Then you use bulldog clips to attach the target to a cardboard holder.

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Check out the muzzle flash from the .50 cal Desert Eagle. (Its the largest caliber handgun you can buy) The guy in the next booth actually popped his head round the corner and said, what the hell was THAT? when he heard the shot. Micheal told us it was their policy that someone stand behind me incase it knocked me backwards! haha

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Although our zombie was defiantly dead, our hostage didn't do so well..

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Im pretty gutted the GoPro didn't save the footage of me shooting it. But here's a pic of Misha shooting the AR15.

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The handguns themselves are actually extremely cheap to hire. The Handguns were only $5/$10, the Rifle was $20, and the Desert Eagle was $35.

Once you add on the range time, ammo, targets etc however it got a bit more expensive. I think If you are going to do it regularly it probably makes sense to rent handguns and own the Rifle or Desert Eagle and just pay the range time.

All in it cost me $145.38 / £111.23. See all the costs involved here:

(

Anyway, I hoped you enjoyed reading my Bucket List post.

My Bucket List to Date

Done

  1. Get Motorbike License
  2. Ride a Stand Up Jet Ski
  3. Ride a Supercharged Jet Ski
  4. Dune-bashing in the Desert
  5. Enter a Motocross Race
  6. Enter an Enduro Race
  7. Get Hench
  8. Deadlift 190kg
  9. Stay in the Costa Rica Plane Hotel (Top 100 Hotels in world)
  10. Learn to Surf
  11. Start a Company
  12. Go be a Digital Nomad in Chaing Mai
  13. Travel to 10 countries
  14. Try LSD
  15. Scuba Dive with a Shark
  16. Have first flying lesson
  17. Do an American Road Trip
  18. Go to a shooting range and shoot a Semi Auto rifle and 50cal hand gun

To Do

  1. Drive an F1 car
  2. Skydive
  3. Wingsuit
  4. Basejump
  5. Do Route 66 on a Harley or Muscle Car
  6. Learn to Backflip a Standup Jet Ski
  7. See a Sumo Wrestling Match in Japan
  8. Forge my own sword
  9. Get a pilots license (light aircraft)
  10. Fly a stunt plane
  11. Eat at the Fat Duck
  12. Do the Gumball Rally in my own car
  13. Go Rally Driving
  14. Learn to backflip to flat
  15. Freestanding Handstand Pressup
  16. Squat 180kg
  17. Have a professional photo done of me whilst hench
  18. Do a full horizontal whip on a motocross bike
  19. Do a controlled 5 second wheelie on a motorcycle
  20. Go wild camping (i.e Canada)
  21. Climb to Everest Base Camp
  22. Snowmobile, build an Igloo and see northern lights
  23. Own a company that pays me a £10k a month salery
  24. Own a company that pays me a £1m a year salery
  25. Sell a company for £20m+
  26. Be able to retire at 30
  27. Have an audience of 50k on a social media platform
  28. Have an audience of 500k on a social media platform
  29. Own a £500k home
  30. Own a £1m home
  31. Own a £3m home
  32. Give £1000 to charity
  33. Give £5000 to charity
  34. Give £20,000 to charity
  35. Pay for my mums retirement
  36. Give Lizzy at least a 10x return on investment
  37. Travel to 20 Countries
  38. Travel to 30 Countries
  39. Travel to Space
  40. Go see Cirque Du Solail
  41. Go to Berghain in Berlin

Don't forget to follow me to see more @ashleypeat

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Wow. Thanks Everyone for the Upvotes! Im blown away by how much this post made. Its the most any of my posts have ever made.

Your support makes it totally worthwhile putting the time and energy into these posts, so I really appreciate it :)

Being a Brit too I am interested to know if they ask to see any sort of ID to use the shooting range? I guess they are not US citizens only?

Impressive bucket list - I've not managed many of them, although I have forged a sword.

Growing bananas in Wales is on my bucket list.

@pennsif They did ask for a copy of a driving license or passport and you have to fill out some other basic details. But overall it was pretty straight forward, not like the 3 and a half hour safety talks we are used to over here 😂

Wow, you forged your own sword!? Id love to see a post on that. Where did you do it, do you have any pictures?

Growing Bananas in Wales sounds great, I'd love to have a fully self sufficient food garden at my home. @starkerz was telling me about these things called "earth Ships" (I know it sounds really hippy but it actually looks like a smart idea) It is a totally self powered eco-system for food and water.

Id love to see a post on growing bananas! Ive never grown anything before!

Very cool post! It sounds like you had such a fun trip, @ashleypeat!

As an American, I appreciate you also taking the time to have some fun and shoot some guns ;) Because they are really fun, and I think the American media does a fantastic job of distorting our gun culture for the rest of the world. It's actually obscene the kind of willful ignorance on display by some of our reporters around this issue. So thank you for writing about your experience, because I think that goes a lot further for an international audience than an American like myself explaining it.

Also, the conversation around gun politics in the U.S. is so toxic that in the wake of the Las Vegas Strip massacre, I've had to shut out a lot of my friends because not only do a lot of them have no idea what they're talking about if they're anti-gun, but also because I was extremely angry that people were quick to jump to partisan talking points rather than recognize the fact that an unprecedented tragedy had just occurred and people closely affected by it needed at least a moment to grieve. And so I wrote about this in a recent post: https://steemit.com/blog/@joshpeterson/why-i-don-t-want-to-talk-gun-politics-after-las-vegas-with-you-right-now

I like that you're actively blogging about completing your bucket list. What a fun project :)

Thanks @joshpeterson

I was wondering if people would find it "the wrong time" for a post on the topic of guns. But as I like to get content out as soon as its done (I don't want a back-log as it will start to become a chore to get through) I just did it anyway and thought its probably a good thing for people too see guns being enjoyed safely.

I think whenever there is a big item in the news, all of a sudden everyone has a strong opinion, when they may never have even considered the issue the whole rest of the year.

What happened in Vegas is very sad and truly horrific and my heartfelt sympathies go out to the families.

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amazing blog @ashleypeat !! truly is ammu-nation aha!

Glad to see you had a good time hopefully catch up soon!!

ps check out latest Crypto Nights, you get a mention.

Alex

Thanks @alexmavor Ive already up-voted and commented on it :)

Yeah lets catch up some time soon!

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