Friday 2nd April 2010

[07:06]

Before I start, go back and check out my little video back on the 31st that I've only just uploaded!

A slightly earlier start this morning as we're heading out for this Shooting through History thing. Meet up place is the 'Resort M' which is about 10 miles south of Las Vegas. Guy's name is Tom and he will be carrying lots of weapons... that's about all I know at the moment!

Oh - and he drives a brown Dodge pick-up ;)

We will stop for breakfast first along the way.

[20:04 PDT]

Back in the hotel now. Linda has all the cases out on the sofas in the hotel room and is systematically clearing out each cupboard one by one. It looks very technical. Best leave her to it ;)

We did indeed go over to the IHOP just south of the Mandalay Bay. However, it was absolutely packed, people were almost queuing out the door so we estimated a 15-20 minute wait just to get seated. As we didn't have the time to spare, we moved on and found a much quieter Starbucks and had a small breakfast there. We then continued South to the new hotel Resort M which is about 5 miles outside Las Vegas proper. Here we parked under the main sign, as we'd been instructed and waited for Tom, our guide, to arrive. A short while later he turned up in a massive Dodge Ram pick-up with a wooden structure on the back in which his firearms were placed. He'd also bought one of his Pointer dogs with him also, he was sitting in a cage in the back also.

We followed Tom a little further South then we branched off West out into what was officially the middle of nowhere (I'm pretty sure I saw a sign to that extent along the way!) Eventually, the road disappeared and we were left driving along a dirt track for another mile or so. We passed a small RV, parked along the side of the road, three heads poked out from behind the back door at the sound of our approach. The three guys watched us until we'd gone out of sight over the crest of another hill. Finally, we bumped the cars over a small earth ridge (as our car is not a 4x4 with a foot clearance underneath it, I had to do this at an angle) and down a short 100 yards earth track until we came to a small area with lots of shell casings on the floor, some bottle glass, oddly a couple of internal doors (with bullet holes in them) and a burnt out pick-up which was also riddled with bullets.Here we stopped and Tom first let the dog run off for a while as he unloaded his truck, placing a big folding picnic table onto the ground and proceeded to place carry boxes of various colours out onto the table. You have to realise, we were out on a plain with just the odd cactus for company. Nearby were some low foothills and behind us, a way down towards the road, there was the odd cattle roaming about on the parched grass. In the distance, you could hear the odd crack of gunfire from our three neighbours over the next hill.Tom is an ex deputy Sheriff, originally from Washington, who has many years experience with firearms and it showed as he proceeded to talk about each weapon in turn, explaining loading, cocking, discharging, muzzle velocities, powder weights and other technical stuff that left me amazed that there was so much to know about what appears to be a simple device. He had set up a couple of targets about 50 feet away and we proceeded to work our way through the handguns he'd brought with him. This started off with a black powder revolver and continued through handguns that were used in the wild west (Colt 45 and 1860 Colt Revolver), then into the last century with a WW1 semi-automatic (M1911), the .375 Magnum, 44 Magnum (Dirty Harry) and right up to the current police issue Beretta M-9 9mm (which was by far the easiest and most accurate to fire).

We then drove the cars away from the targets by another 100ft or so and swapped over to the rifles. First up was a replica of a civil war flintlock. We moved on through a percussion cap rifles and onto my favourite the Winchester rifle (again a replica). Finally, we moved into more modern rifles, namely the 1903 rifle (WW1 & 2) and the M1 Garand Rifle (WW2).We then moved the cars back again to finish off the rifles with a Sniper rifle with scope and a modern M-4 which came with a cool red holographic-ish scope. Tom then brought out another handgun, the Smith and Wesson 460 which can only be described as a hand cannon. This thing was twice as heavy as any of the other handguns. The thing isn't historic as such but as Tom said "it's a laugh".. indeed. This gun made such a bang as I aimed at some water filled containers that my ears are still ringing slightly even now - and we were all wearing ear protectors too!The final part of the experience was a quick go at some flying clay targets with a Remington 870 pump action shotgun. I surprised even myself by actually hitting all three targets whilst they were still in the air.During most of this time, Linda has been sitting nearby, taking some photos and video. So to end the day, Tom brought out a small .22 rifle and Linda has a couple of goes trying (and achieving) to hit some tin cans placed nearby. From there it was time to pack up and leave. We'd been at it since 11:30am and it was now 2:15pm I got back into the car, hot (it was a glorious sunny day), happy and covered in gun oil ;)We were both hungry by then so we drove back onto the road, leaving Tom to tidy up the last few cartridges left on the floor. Our three neighbours has long since moved on.

Following lunch, we drove over to one of the malls just north of the Strip. This shopping experience was much better than the last one as we actually bought some stuff!

Once back at the hotel is was gone 7pm, so we decided to wander down to the Bellagio Fountains. This took longer than expected, however, mainly due to us becoming 'trapped' in the Bellagio as they seemed to block off all the access to the front of the hotel, forcing us to walk right through it to the Aria before returning back to the Strip.One last go on the slots and yet another crash-and-burn for me. Linda did manage to reach $200 at one point, but it all went back into the machine in the end.We've already checked in for our flight back home. Oddly, the Virgin site isn't allowing me to print my boarding passes - most frustrating bearing in mind I actually have access to a printer. Even more oddly - our seats have moved from downstairs in PE to upstairs. I've no idea who did that, but I'm certainly not complaining!!Our last night in Vegas is complete. It's now 1:30am, time I was in bed!