Fabulous Las Vegas – Machine Gun Experience AAR

The Missus and I just returned from 5 days of fun in Fabulous Las Vegas, Nevada. We planed a last-minute vacation with another couple; stayed on the strip, saw the Grand Canyon, went to Hoover Dam, lost some money, all that good stuff. The part I want to share with my readers is “The Vegas Machine Gun Experience” from Discount Firearms and Ammo.

The famous welcome sign

Getting There

Discount Firearms and Ammo is located at 3084 South Highland Drive, which is pretty well behind Circus Circus. We stayed at The Tropicana. Fortunately getting to Discount Firearms and Ammo is really really easy. The Vegas Machine Gun Experience has a Mercedes Sprinter passenger van that will pick you up and drop you off. Our ride was at The Tropicana about 20 minutes after we called. Our driver was a great guy with some rocking metal tunes, who brought us to the range and left us with our range officer to get started. The van is also a rolling advertisement for the Vegas Machine Gun Experience and has a pretty badass wrap featuring the AK47. Of course I forgot to take any kind of photos.

Staff and Safety

Our “pilot”, seriously his name tag said pilot, left us at the counter with John to get started. All the Staff had military name tapes on their shirts with their name and position. John is one of the range officer at Discount Firearms and Ammo. Filled out the waivers and then we got to pick what we’re there to shoot. The Missus would tell you how I had a hard time picking despite thinking about the options for days, or maybe weeks, ahead of time. My buddy suggested we shoot some handguns, but I’d much rather shot firearms that are prohibited in Canada, like machine guns! I settled on the East Meets West package, the M3A1 Grease Gun, and the Thompson Gun. My buddy decided shoot the same East Meets West package, and his boss spouse opted for Shoot for the Cure package; a Smith and Wesson M&P 22 pistol, and M&P 15-22 rifle both in pink. John filled our paper work and prepped the range and firearms while we browsed the store. Discount Firearms and Ammo sells the full line of 5.11 products, Galco holsters, some 7.62 Designs and other graphic tees, and oh yeah fire arms and ammo. I had a good look around and drooled over some of the firearms available for sale. With everything ready to go John found our group, introduced himself and some of his background. Our Range Officer, John is one of four Johns that works at Discount Firearms and Ammo. John goes by Big Sexy and is former US Military. He gave us our safety briefing; don’t point the guns at anything other the the targets, including one another, range equipment, and especially not at Big Sexy. John also warned us about getting excited and looking at the muzzle end of the guns to see where all the noise comes from, apparently this is a common problem. Big Sexy had us pick out some targets and gave us our eye and ear protection, then it was off to the range.

Range Time

The East Meets West Package was $150, and included 25 rounds each the AK47, RPK, M16, and 1919. The Grease Gun and Thompson Gun were 50 shots each, for $50 per firearm.

The Thompson gun really wanted to pull to the right. The Grease gun was a blast I ran most of a mag through it in one burst and it punched a ragged hole in the target. For something that cost the US government less than $10 to manufacture its quite a gun. Big Sexy let me run two mags through the AK47 instead of using one for the RPK. The M16 was actually an M4, or M4 clone. Both the M4 and the AK47 were fitted with red dot sights. The M4 behaved just like any of the other full auto M4s or C8s I’ve shot. The M4 punched a nice vertical string in my target. The AK on the other hand punched two groups into the target. The 1919 was fantastic, according to John it had be built in 1923. I could have run belts of 308 all day on the 1919, but I’d be more broke then after playing the tables.

This is the second time I’ve had the opportunity to shoot machine guns in Vegas and my first time I’ve visited Discount Firearms and Ammo. It was a great experience. The price is on par with other rental range. But the free transport and the staff make a huge difference. If you go to Las Vegas and want to shoot some rental guns I highly recommend visiting Big Sexy at Discount.