Where do you do your gun training?

ircoha

http://www.rte.ie/news/2008/0106/firearms.html reports on this leisure activity.

I am just back from Eastern Europe where I had a half days training on some of the coolest guns.

Anyone else been at this?

Kintarō Hattori

I'm going over to Poland in June/July and our friends there will be taking us to the gun range. The area was pretty active in WW2 so I'm looking forward to getting my hands on a few old guns and a few new ones.

Dunno if its the same as gun training but I'm looking forward to it BIG TIME.

Manic Moran

No, I do it locally, in three main manners.

1) The Army pays me to go to the range and shoot things. Sometimes they give me live bullets and tell me to shoot at targets in a restrictive environment, sometimes they give me blanks and lasers, which is a lot more fun as it's far less restrictive and a bit of a challenge as the targets also have blanks and lasers and are trying to shoot me.

2) I pay to go to the range and shoot things. More often than not, paper targets from a stationary position. However, sometimes I go to a tactical pistol or tactical rifle course run by a local policeman, which is always fun. Far less regimented than the Army's ranges. (The Army barely trusts you with live ammunition)

3) I just go to a field and shoot things. The advantage is the utter lack of regulation, you can do what you want, free of any range rules. Unfortunately, this usually entails a bit of a drive as local policies don't encourage random shooting in the city. Some 'known sites' also have targets which people bring out to shoot at, old cars, refrigerators, monitors, and so on and so forth.

I usually bring visitors to my neck of the woods out shooting. Never had anyone complain yet.

Mr Mitchell said it is unacceptable that criminals with, as he put it, 'murder on their mind' are able to hone their shooting skills in other EU member states

And it's unacceptable that he wishes to restrict our abilities to enjoy ourselves in the second-most-popular recreational sport in the world. (The first is fishing, apparently)

NTM

eoin5

If fishing is the most popular and shooting is the second then I think this has potential:

Manic Moran

eoin5 wrote: »

If fishing is the most popular and shooting is the second then I think this has potential:

True, there is a fish-hunting season in two US States. (Vermont and South Carolina, I think)

NTM

AckwelFoley

For me, i just sir on top of a hill in the country (ive a real cool spot) and lay in the grass, and pick off anything that are down in the fireld at the bottom.. crows, rabbits, travellers, foxes etc

Overheal

I thought masturbating was the mose enjoyed recreational sport - and im pretty sure im winning.

Go to the gun range every time im down in florida. nothing major, just pistols. the Desert Eagle was fun but has way too much kick to be anything but a scare tactic.

you saying theres firing ranges here in Ireland? awesome........ tell me more?

It wasn't me!

Plenty of places for a day's clay shooting, and there are plenty of clubs for target shooting. Lots in north wicklow, for example.

Karoma

So,um,how many of you actually read the linked article before posting?

Kintarō Hattori

Karoma wrote: »

So,um,how many of you actually read the linked article before posting?

I did and it was a load of poop by a politician so I ignored what he had to say. I really just wanted to mentioned that I'm hyper-excited (is that a real word?) about this summer and can't wait to go fire a gun or two, or three with some polish dudes!

Wertz

....and it's not as if it was a long article.

How exactly does Mr Mitchell want other countries to go about this? We're the ones with the over restrictive policy on handgun ownership. We have open borders with these countries, we're quite willing to benefit from the good that they provide...but we must also live with the bad.
As an aside, many of the male Baltic and EE immigrants arriving here have done some sort of national service that I'm sure has included training in firearms....we don't know if any of them have criminal records and we're not doing much to find out. How can we be sure of their intentions? There are more things to worry about than our own breed of shootist (I DON'T want to make this an immigrant bash thread, just making a point)

I got taken to a range in the US when I was over there by a member. Got to do 10-15 minutes of shooting with his wife's gun, little mother-of-pearl handled thing, think it was a 9mm. Was fun as hell. The only thing I'd ever shot prior to that was a .22 rifle out in a field when I was a youngster.
I didn't leave with the urge to shoot anyone. I certainly wouldn't have minded honing my shooting skills at a range again though...

[edit] The ironic thing was that the guy who took me thought I'd be au fait with weapons and shooting, being from a border area and all the IRA crap...it was an eye opener for him about how much guns were restricted here.

WhiteWashMan

I do my training on the shooting forum...

Chunks

Manic Moran wrote: »

(The Army barely trusts you with live ammunition)

American military + live ammunition.... barely trust... You don't say!

Sparks

Oh hooray. Another thread saying that target shooting is the province of terrorists and criminals and we're all dodgy characters. Thanks, all of you, for this wonderful gift. In fact, it's so wonderful, I'm going to wrap it back up and put it away to enjoy at a later date.

Sparks

Hmmm. Apparently this thread started off in AfterHours (I thought it started in Shooting), so I'm kicking it back to AH and I'll rescind the infraction for the OP.

Jesus Wept

Post Office.

qwertz

Anybody have some links to clubs/ranges?

WhiteWashMan

try the shooting forum.

Donny5

Chunks wrote: »

American military + live ammunition.... barely trust... You don't say!

It's the same in Ireland, and I hear the UK, and probably everywhere else. All armies keep strict control of live on base and during training. There's many reasons, I'm sure, but I reckon No.1 is so people don't mix blank with live on ex's.

At the gym.

Bang bang.

Steyr

Donny5 wrote: »

but I reckon No.1 is so people don't mix blank with live on ex's.

Its impossible to mix live with Blank to be honest.

Live Examples:

Blank Examples:

Wertz

Ah okay this is back open. Thanks to sparks; wasn't looking to start an argument with feedback thread, just thought closing it was a bit off, but didn't realise it had been moved to his forum when it was locked. It was all WWM's fault

On topic: this thread has reignited my interest in a bit of shooting, so I might look around and see what sort of money is involved in using Irish firing ranges (which I didn't realise existed for anything other than defence forces or members of the GS).
Don't know if I'd stretch to heading off to EE to do it...unless prices here warrant that. I know it was cheap enough in the 'states but most places were members only.

John Mason

Finglas;)

Wertz

[obligatory AH reply] Yore Ma's bedroom !!11![/obligatory AH reply]

Sparks

Wertz wrote: »

Ah okay this is back open. Thanks to sparks; wasn't looking to start an argument with feedback thread, just thought closing it was a bit off, but didn't realise it had been moved to his forum when it was locked. It was all WWM's fault

That's cool Wertz, I never even saw the feedback thread
/me heads off to flame Wertz in Feedback...

baztard

I've been to a couple of shooting ranges in Poland and USA. The one in Poland was way better, higher caliber and better range of weapons and so much cheaper! Its all down to the shooting range itself I guess though.

Creature

de_dust2

Wertz

Sparks wrote: »

/me heads off to flame Wertz in Feedback...

Bring it.

*brandishes water pistol in Sparks' direction*

My sister interviewed the guy who is the producer of the Daily Show recently. During it he told them about one segment they filmed in Mexico. For some reason the local police started shooting into the air near them. Their translator told them that the police were using live rounds because blanks were far too expensive.

Wertz

I've always wondered about live rounds fired in the air...I mean they're nowhere near escape velocity nor have enough momentum, so must return to the ground, probably doing a fair clip on the way back down. Would suck a lot to be injured or killed by someone celebrating up the road, even though it's against the odds...

Sparks

Wertz wrote: »

I've always wondered about live rounds fired in the air...I mean they're nowhere near escape velocity nor have enough momentum, so must return to the ground, probably doing a fair clip on the way back down. Would suck a lot to be injured or killed by someone celebrating up the road, even though it's against the odds...

It's not against the odds, it's impossible (And has been tested in practise as well as explained in theory).
Thing is, you fire vertically upwards in completely still air; the bullet goes straight up, slows, eventually stops, then falls back. It reaches terminal velocity the same way any falling object in a medium does and does not accelerate past that speed, which for a bullet in air, turns out not give enough kinetic energy to do harm. It's like the whole "penny dropped from the empire state building" urban legend.