Liberty is an inherently offensive lifestyle. Living in a free society guarantees that each one of us will see our most cherished principles and beliefs questioned and in some cases mocked. That psychic discomfort is the price we pay for basic civic peace. It's worth it. It's a pragmatic principle. Defend everyone else's rights, because if you don't there is no one to defend yours. -- MaxedOutMama

I don't just want gun rights... I want individual liberty, a culture of self-reliance....I want the whole bloody thing. -- Kim du Toit

The most glaring example of the cognitive dissonance on the left is the concept that human beings are inherently good, yet at the same time cannot be trusted with any kind of weapon, unless the magic fairy dust of government authority gets sprinkled upon them.-- Moshe Ben-David

The cult of the left believes that it is engaged in a great apocalyptic battle with corporations and industrialists for the ownership of the unthinking masses. Its acolytes see themselves as the individuals who have been "liberated" to think for themselves. They make choices. You however are just a member of the unthinking masses. You are not really a person, but only respond to the agendas of your corporate overlords. If you eat too much, it's because corporations make you eat. If you kill, it's because corporations encourage you to buy guns. You are not an individual. You are a social problem. -- Sultan Knish

All politics in this country now is just dress rehearsal for civil war. -- Billy Beck

Monday, October 19, 2009

Big Sandy Machine Gun Shoot, 2009

Big Sandy Machine Gun Shoot, 2009

So, as I said, I went to the 5th annual Big Sandy Machine Gun Shoot last Saturday. Here's just a little of what I saw there. To begin with, here's the backstop with a pan over to the firing line:


On this end of the firing line was one of the baddest setups I have ever seen: a trailer set up for hosing down the countryside - Texan, of course! (Click the thumbnails for the huge images.)




I should have taken video of that 1919 - smoke was rolling off the barrel. It's true: Happiness is a warm belt-fed! And yes, Virginia, the one in the middle is a mini-gun. I didn't get any footage of it being fired, but trust me, it really does sound like God tearing a gigantic phone book!

The firing line was at least 100 yards wide, and there seemed to be at least one crew-served or belt-fed weapon at each position. Here are some examples:




And there was some old-school:


Yep, that's .45-70 brass. And here's a very short clip of the owner emptying a stick magazine:


His loader could have done his job a little better, but the gun worked fine!

Here's some more old-school:


I didn't see the cannon fire, and yes, that's a Henry Yellow Boy in the second shot. I told the shooter that if that went full-auto, I would be running in the opposite direction!

And then there was the more modern artillery:


The first two are 20mm, the third is a 30mm, and the last is a 37mm. (That big mortar fires bowling balls. There were at least two and maybe three of those.) Personally, I think everyone ought to own a field piece or two! Here's that first 20mm cannon being fired:



And here are a couple of twin anti-aircraft mounts, with one guy taking shots at a model airplane being flown back and forth down the firing line:


The pilot lost a couple of aircraft, but generally they made it through unscathed. If you look close, you can see one in this clip:


There was also (I think) a Solothurn and a Lahti, but I didn't get photos of those.

I had a good time, but I was only there a couple of hours. If you're not pulling a trigger, there's a limit to how much fun you can have.

The next shoot, I think, is in April. I may run back up to that one just to see if anyone brought anything new.

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